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Has globalization eroded firms’ responsibility for their employees? A sociological analysis of transnational firms’ corporate social responsibility policies concerning their employees in the Netherlands, 1980–2010

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sander Quak ,
Johan Heilbron  and
Romke van der Veen
Johan Heilbron
Affiliation:
Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique de la Sorbonne (CESSP-CNRS0EHESS), Paris, France; and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Romke van der Veen
Affiliation:
Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Abstract

Since the 1970s many firms expanded their operations across national borders and were restructured to fit the changing economic conditions during these times of economic globalization. Using a sociological approach to transnational firms, in this article the authors research the consequences of these developments for the responsibility of two transnational firms towards their employees in the Netherlands. These firms experienced a shift in their dual embeddedness in national and transnational economic fields, with the latter gaining importance. In response, they adjusted their corporate policies and structure to fit the competitive conditions of these fields, causing a centralization of their corporate labor policy on the transnational level, the polarization of this policy and the instrumentalization of labor and labor policy. This also meant that their responsibility for their employees was restructured and reduced.

Type
Corporate Responsibility, Multinational Corporations, and Nation States
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 14 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Corporate Responsibility, Multinational Corporations, and Nation States , October 2012 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2012 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

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