Stakeholder Management Report: Analysis of Indian Textile Industry

This report analyzes stakeholder management within the context of the Indian textile industry, drawing on the article by Maemura (2013) which focuses on conflict resolution within the garment sector. The report examines the macroeconomic conditions, the diverse stakeholders involved (including firms, employees, trade unions, and NGOs), and the conflicts that arise. It discusses the Garment Sector Round Table as a conflict resolution mechanism. The report critically reflects on the article's strengths, such as its detailed overview of the industry's stakeholders and the impact of macroeconomic factors, while also pointing out its limitations, including the omission of key stakeholders like customers and the government, and the lack of focus on technological advancements. The report further critiques the article's failure to propose effective solutions to the stakeholder conflicts, its limited scope, and its deviation from the core theme. It highlights the importance of efficient stakeholder management, emphasizing the need to protect the interests of all stakeholder groups to ensure sustainability and achieve desired outcomes. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of stakeholder management in fostering trust, collaboration, and overall organizational performance.

Running head: STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
Stakeholder Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Answer 1:
The article by Maemura (2013) titled, ‘Changing Stereotypes in India's Garment
Sector through Dialogue’ deals with the garment sector of India and its stakeholder
management. The following are the core points of the article:
The macroeconomic conditions of the Indian garments sector:
The first aspect which the authors visited in the article is the macroeconomic aspects of
the Indian textile industry. The Indian garment sector employs more than 3.5 million workers
and several players or stakeholders. The textile sector of the country is experiencing economic
development and today the sector has become extremely profitable. The Indian economy is a free
economy today exposed to the global competitions. The textile sector of the country has firms
operating in it both of foreign origin and Indian origin. These firms compete for customer bases,
supply chains and resources. This results in conflicts of the different stakeholder groups of the
textile sector like employees, trade unions, governments and textile firms. The outcome of these
conflicts has been violent at times resulting the stalling of productivity in the industry and
subsequent losses.
The stakeholders of the Indian textile industry:
The Indian textile sector, being one of the largest employer industries in the country
attracts large groups of stakeholders. The stakeholders in the industry include customers, the
firms operating in the sector, the trade unions, the employees, many of whom are subjected to
exploitation and NGOs fighting for the rights of the employees exploited. The outcomes of the

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conflicts between the stakeholders have resulted in closing down of several factories,
unemployment of workers and violent protests.
The Garment Sector Round Table:
The immense amount of losses suffered by the Indian textile industry owing to conflicts
between the different stakeholder groups necessitated formation of conflict resolution round
system called the Garment Sector Round Table. The aim of the round table was to find a solution
to the conflicts and the losses caused owing to them. The initial conference was attended by
representatives of stakeholders including manufacturers of textile, clothing brand, a trade union,
a labour union and an NGO. The aim of the round table conference was to include
representatives of several stakeholder groups. The process consisted of gaining feedbacks from a
large numbers of participants. However, the article does not mention the outcome of the
resolution process in detail. However, the group was one of first conflict resolution groups to
resolve conflicts as far as the Indian textile sector is concerned.
Answer 2:
A review of the article authored Maemura (2013) named, ‘Changing Stereotypes in
India's Garment Sector through Dialogue’ reveals that its central purpose is to emphasise on
the importance of stakeholder management in industries with the Indian textile as the example.
The Indian textile has experienced remarkable growth and is worth millions of dollars. The
industry owing to the profitability has attracted a large numbers of stakeholders right from firms
manufacturing textiles, textile branding firms, trade unions, labour unions and even NGOs
fighting for the rights of the workers. The Indian textile industry today has participants resident
to India as well as to foreign countries. This presence of large numbers of stakeholders and lack

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of proper stakeholder management mechanism has led to conflicts of the interests of the different
stakeholder groups. The situation has led to conflict in which interests of one group of
stakeholders is often protected at the expenses of the interests of other groups of stakeholders.
However, the outcome of this protection of one group of stakeholders at the expenses of the
other has led to breach of interests of several groups of stakeholders. For example, the article
clearly mentions that the textile industry of India employs a whopping 3.5 million workers, a
large number of whom are exploited by the textile firms and factory owners. Thus, the textile
firms, a group of stakeholders protect their interests of higher profits by exploiting the workers,
another group of stakeholders. The outcome of this exploitation of workers is the intervention of
the labour unions, which often leads to violent conflicts between the firms, the workers and the
labour union representatives. The conflict then attracted intervention of NGOs fighting against
exploitation of workers. The outcome of this conflict of the stakeholders is several firms closing
down leading to unemployment of a large number of workers. The article then goes on to point
out that the importance of efficient stakeholder management using conflict resolution methods.
The conflict resolution method called the Garment Sector Round Table involved participation
from different stakeholder groups including textile firms, textile branding companies, trade
unions, labour unions and the NGOs fighting from the rights of the employees of the textile
industry. The third aspect which the article highlights is the tremendous impact macroeconomic
factors have on the Indian textile industry. For example, the article clearly mentions that the
industry has already attracted foreign textile companies which in turn has made the competition
in the industry even steeper. The article also mentions that the competition from foreign
countries have necessitated the Indian textile firms to restructure their organizational structure
and modes of operations. Thus, the article clearly mentions that need of the Indian textile

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industry to protect the interests of its different groups of stakeholders to the feasible extent in
order to sustain.
Answer 3:
I can critically reflect upon the article to point out certain positive aspects as well as
certain flaws in the article. The article first of all gives a great detail of the Indian textile industry
in terms of the stakeholders. The author mentions that stakeholders like the textile firms, the
branding firms, the trade unions, the labour unions and the employees. However, the article does
not mention the key stakeholders of the textile industry like the customers and the government.
The article made it appear as if the entire textile industry is dominated and driven by the first
group of stakeholders like the firms, employees and the trade unions. The article totally
overlooks the key role which the customers play by creating demand for the textile and
purchasing the finished products, thereby generating revenue. The role of the government in
forming laws and issuing permits is totally unaddressed. Several leading firms in the textile
industry are listed companies. Thus, the stock exchanges and the share market deserve mention
in the article which is not considered. The second good aspect of the article is that it very
succinctly mentions the impacts of the macroeconomic factors like liberalization of the Indian
economy which is worth praise. However, the article remains silent about the changes in the
different fields like technology and preferences of customers, which are also significant drivers
of changes in the Indian textile sector. The article remains silent about technological
advancements like big data analytics, ecommerce, financial technology and social media. Thus,
on the whole in my opinion the presentation the topics in the article is extremely average. The
article views stakeholder management as a mere challenge which could addressed through the
resolution process. The article could have explored the different benefits like profit maximization

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which the players of the Indian textile industry could reap by protecting interests of the
stakeholders. In fact, the article could have mentioned about the aspect of corporate governance,
which revolves around the concept of protection of stakeholders’ interests.
Answer 4.
The article Maemura (2013) titled,, ‘Changing Stereotypes in India's Garment Sector
through Dialogue’ did not achieve what it aimed to which is outlining the resolution to the
stakeholder conflict which is extremely prevalent in the Indian textile industry. The article has
failed to provide any solution to a certain feasible level because it deviated from its main theme
which is stakeholder conflict in the Indian textile industry. The author starts his discussion by
throwing light on the size of the Indian textile industry by mentioning that the industry generates
immense employment opportunities in the country. He then goes on to introduce the different
stakeholders of the industry, both internal and external stakeholders. The stakeholders of the
Indian textile industry involve the firms making textile, their employees, the trade unions, the
labour union and the NGOs fighting the rights of the labours who face exploitation in the hands
of the management bodies and owners of the firms. The involvement of the branding firms
reveals that the textile industry in India has become extremely competitive which is requiring the
textile firms to brand their products in order to differentiate them from their competitors. The
author even goes on to mention that the structural changes taking place in the international textile
market is affecting the Indian textile market as well. Several textile firms have been forced to
restructure their operations. However, the restructuring has forced several firms which were
unable to adapt to the market changes to close down their operations, rendering several
employees redundant. The author also mentions the presence of foreign firms in the Indian
textile industry which once again sheds light on the size of the Indian textile industry as well the

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complexity of the stakeholder conflict. Then he shifts towards the Garment Sector Round Table,
the resolution process which was formed to find solution to the ongoing stakeholder conflict in
the Indian textile industry. Then the author shifts towards giving an account of the process of
conflict resolution in general. The author defines conflict resolution as Conflict Research
Consortium of the University of Colorado and then discusses views of different authors. This is
where the article entirely sways from the main theme which is conflict resolution in the Indian
textile industry. The discussion turned its focus towards the opinions of different authors
regarding conflict resolution rather than emphasizing on the Indian textile industry. The author
has made several flaws which have prevented him from achieving the ultimate aim of the article.
First of all, while mentioning the stakeholders of the Indian textile industry, the author restricts
his explanation to textile firms, branding firms, the employees of these firms, the foreign textile
firms, the trade unions, the labour unions and the NGOs fighting from the rights of the workers.
The author totally remains silent about the important groups of stakeholders namely, the
customers, the government, the suppliers of the textile raw materials, the banks and the stock
exchanges since the leading textile firms are generally listed firms. The explanation remains
restricted to the previous groups of stakeholders making it appear that they are capable of finding
acceptable solution to the conflict without the intervention of the government which itself is
unrealistic. Secondly, the author stresses too much on the process of the conflict resolution rather
than laying stress on the importance of the process. He goes on to introduce the process of
conflict resolution and the round table, then shifting to describing the process of resolution rather
than continuing to elaborately describe the actions of the round table committee. The next phase
stresses on the steps of conflict resolution like gathering of feedback. The article by this stage
has totally deviated from the actual theme. Thirdly, the article remains totally silent about

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consumers. This is a major flow because the consumers are the primary stakeholders who create
demand for textiles. They purchase textiles which generates revenue. Thus, without the mention
of the customers, the description of the stakeholders is rendered incomplete. Fourthly, the article
does not mention about the role of the government in forming laws and policies as per which the
textile industry functions. One can also point out that the round table to resolve stakeholder
conflicts which the article mentions cannot take place with support from the legal system, which
once again points out to the importance of the government in the operations of the industry.
Fifthly, the article remains silent about a group of stakeholders without whose support the
leading textile firms, most of which are public limited companies, would cease to function-the
investors. The investors invest in the capital of the listed companies which also include most of
the major textile firms. The shareholders are the actual owners of the firms they invest in and
have major say in the operational issues, which include conflict of the firms concerned with other
groups of stakeholders. The article does not mention about the shareholders, their interests in the
textile industry and the role they can play in resolving stakeholder conflicts. Thus, one can point
out that the in the absence of these elements and over emphasis on the process of conflict
resolution, the article fails to achieve its theme.

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References:
Maemura, Y., 2013. Changing Stereotypes in India's Garment Sector through Dialogue. Conflict
Resolution Quarterly, 31(2), pp.159-187.