Assessing Corporate Culture Essay

1. Scheins approach to assessing organizational culture a. Strengths of scheins approach to assessing organizational culture Schein defines and describes culture as any one of many elements of organizational culture. The culture of an organization can be viewed and treated like other structures within an organization. Certain organizations such as by-laws, committees, and chain of command flow charts, may serve to answer basic questions such as â€Å"how do we interact with the external environment?† and â€Å"how do we order ourselves internally?† As an organization responds to these questions, the responses become core assumptions. These core assumptions become the frames through which the organization interprets the world round it. In place of questionnaire or instrument that utilizes typologies, Schein prefers clinical research model of assessing organizational culture. In this model of organizational culture investigation, the researcher gets much more directly involved within the organization by acting as participant o bserver or ethnographer. He suggests that members of the organization will more openly respond to the researcher and the investigation because the members of the organization think they have something to gain by collaborating with the researcher. Schein believes that valid data on the culture of the organization will only be collected when the researcher is perceived as the consultant who is seeking to help the organization and has the best interest of the organization in mind. Schein admits that the clinical model of evaluating organizational culture assumes that the researcher intervenes in the culture of the organization. If the organization perceives that the researcher is helping to make changes that will benefit the organization, then the research will accurately yield the cultural dynamics of the organization. b. Weaknesses of Schein approach to assessing organizational culture The results gained from qualitative result are limited to specific cases under investigation. Direct comparison cannot be made between the results from other studies unless the research is specifically designed in that manner. Furthermore, results cannot be generalized to other settings and links to organization’s performance are rarely explored. One significant weakness to Schein’s approach (qualitative method) is the time needed for data collection and analysis which makes the research more costly and time consuming 2. Cameron and Quinn approach a. Strengths of Cameron and Quinn approach to assessing organizational culture Cameron and Quinn provide an evaluation tool called the organizational culture assessment inventory (OCAL). The OCAI is a survey instrument established on a theoretical model called the competing value framework. This framework is valuable for organizing and interpreting various phenomena within an organization. The competing values framework refers to whether an organization strives for flexibility and individuality or stability and control, whether or not an organization is focused externally or internally. The purpose of the OCAI is to discern the relative strengths of these culture types within a given organization. Used over time, the OCAI can measure culture changes within the organization. Cameron and Quinn observe many cases in the business world where culture change is the key to increasing organizational effectiveness. The four major culture types proposed by Cameron and Quinn embody these competing values: clan-internal/control; adhocracy-external/flexible; market-external/control; hierarchy-internal/control. In fact pure control (hierarchy), compete (market), collaborate (clan), or create (adhocracy) are extremely rare. Most of the company cultures that have been diagnosed using Cameron and Quinn’s organization culture instrument indeed have a strong secondary component. Cameron and Quinn identify the cultural and organizational competencies that give rise to value creation. It explains how cultural and leadership competencies can be profiled which, in turn, can lead to a diagnosis of culture gaps, cultural congruency and cultural strength. 3. London first united church Cameron and Quinn’s model is appropriate for this church. This approach is built around clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy. These four maps themes were also used in the analysis of how organizational culture of London first united Methodist church chances with structural inventions. The church is both an organization and an organism. As such, the church has a lifecycle development built into it: birth, growth, reproduction, decline, and death. The church itself historically has through several changes. Change as renewal is a major aspect of the Methodist movement. Much of the rise and fall of the Methodism can be traced to how the church was willing, or not, to change. Oftentimes, organizations experience growth and/or renewal because of structural changes within the organization. The four maps themes therefore fit this church.

Merger between EnviroTech an InterClean Essay

First of all, I would like to take the time to say â€Å"thank you† to each one of you for your outstanding efforts, it has been very enjoyable to work alongside with each of you in contributing to the success of InterClean. You are all well aware of the strategic movement as announced by David Spencer is very near on the horizon. As this merger between InterClean and EnviroTech begins to unfurl I foresee that each of you will have a key role to play in making the transition as smooth as possible. As managers it is our duty to show our fellow co-workers and new team members why we have been successful. It is important to welcome the employees joining us from EnviroTech. The incoming employees from EnviroTech bring vast experience and proven track record that will help to move us in the direction we want to go. Combining two companies together is no easy task and this new endeavor will be challenging. Each individual will need to present his or herself in a positive manner. The main objective is to be positive about the changes that will take place. Also everyone shall commit to learning the new concept of â€Å"full-service solutions packages† (University of Phoenix, Week One Supplement, 2010). I urge each of you to be open to share your ideas as well as receive ideas from all of your team members, old and new. Keep in mind that this new concept will not be immediately rock-solid it will take, several tries an adjusting to create the best package to suit each of our clients. I am sure that some of you are not feeling comfortable with the upcoming transition and that is understandable. However, I again urge you to see the potential this acquisition can bring. The growth potential globally is enormous and you can each have a part to make it happen. Each of you will have an impact on your workers, and how each of you decide to carry yourself can either promote or bring down morale. I  inspire each of you to press forward and lead your teams. You are all more than capable to produce results, so mentor your teams to produce even better results. I would also like to go over a few other important matters. These involve human resource issues because of the diverse work force we will gain by this merger. Obviously each of you will have several if not numerous new members joining your teams. It is very important and I cannot stress it enough just how important it is that you treat every employee the same. You cannot favor or give preference to the current InterClean employees over the incoming EnviroTech employees. Please exercise good judgment when addressing each newly acquired employee. Also when making selections for your teams an initially assigning tasks I suggest you seek input from myself, Carol our internal consultant, and the HR department. If you have any concerns please bring it to my attention immediately as well as to Carol and human resources. Be certain that the issue or concern is cleared up before moving forward. It is in the best interest of the company and for each of you to create an atmosphere that is warm, thriving yet peaceful, non-hostile, and safe. We all need t o value diversity and as Cascio put it â€Å"to manage diversity, there is no room for inflexibility and intolerance-displace them with adaptability and acceptance† (Cascio 2006, p. 125). Furthermore we will all be attending a full-day seminar on reengineering at Leeward Community College, please mark your calendars for Wednesday, December 1. I will send out a reminder along with the pertinent seminar information. If you are unable to make it on Wednesday, you will need to attend the Tuesday session, so let me know as soon as possible so I can make the change for you. I know you are all thinking, â€Å"What is reengineering?† â€Å"Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, and speed† (Cascio 2006, p. 18). I also strongly recommend that each of you sign up for the management training sessions that HR is setting up. Immediately share and talk with your workers about attending the new product and sales training sessions. Go ahead and schedule your teams with HR to ensure everyone can be properly accommodated as quickly as possible. You should also encourage participation in the ongoing HR seminars that cover topics such as developing skill in conflict resolution and effective communication. As always you are free to come and discuss any issue or  concern that you may have with me. I am more than willing to sit down with each of you and listen to what you have to say. So please do not hesitate I am here for each of you and want to continue working alongside with each you and your teams. I am hopeful that going forward we will all embrace the upcoming changes and challenges facing us. Together we can achieve the desired results to move InterClean closer to our strategic direction of global expansion. References Cascio, W. F. (2006). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, quality of work life, profits. Retrieved from the University of Phoenix eBook Collection database University of Phoenix (2010) Week One Supplement: InterClean-EnviroTech Merger Scenario Retrieved from University of Phoenix HRM/531-Course Website

Ethics of Engineering Essay

Risk can be defined in many different versions basing on the specified use and situational context. It can simply means the future negative circumstances that can be prevented or mitigated, rather than day to day that calls for immediate attention. When it comes to risk management, the word hazard can be used to define a situation that would lead to harm while the word risk would mean a probability of anything occurring. This concept was applied at planning of delta works in the nineteenth century, which is a flood preventing project in western country. The type of risk analysis is now common in sites like chemical industry and nuclear power. Determining engineering risk is somewhere hard especially in industries where there is production of toxic materials. The way forward to measure individual life cost caused by the loss differs basing on the aim or purpose. Most measures entail what individuals are able to give to insure against death (National Academy of Engineering & National Academies Press (US), 2004). Categories of risk -financial risk; is mostly termed as the unplanned variability of returns which covers bad-than-unplanned as well as good-than-desired returns. Basing on statistics risk is always placed to the probability of a number of outcomes that are mostly undesirable (Morse & Babcock, 2009). Often the probability of the event and various assessment of its perceived harm need to be joined into a believable outcome, which joins a group of risk, regret and pay probabilities in a desired value for that same outcome. Risk is therefore assessed as a task of three variables namely – the probability that there might be a negative warning, the presence of vulnerability and finally potential improvement in business. The first two probabilities are joined together and sometimes called likelihood, if any of the named variables above almost results to zero, the whole risk results to zero. Risk can further be defined as a state of lacking complete certainty where a number of possibilities entail a loss or various unexpected outcome. Measurement of risk; a group of possibilities with which each has a quantified probability and quantified losses From the text above it is vital for one to have uncertainty with no risk but not have risk without uncertainty. People can be uncertain concerning who will be the winner in a contest but unless they hold individuals stake in it, they hold no risk (Martin & Schinzinger, 2005). If people bet some finances on the results of the contest, then it is true they have a risk. In this similar occurrences there are different outcome. The value of uncertainty only defines the probabilities kept for outcomes, as the calculation of risk calls for the two outcomes that is probability and quantified (National Academy of Engineering & National Academies Press (US), 2004). Insurance and heath risk – insurance is a type of risk lowering investment whereby the customer gives some agreed amount to be safer incase a negative issue arises. In this way, the customer will be so sure a loss has not occurred. Buying a lottery ticket is a high-risk investment with a possibility of minimal reward but with a high chance of getting a loss (Moriarty, 2008). Banking some funds at a specific rate of interest is also taking a risk although the return is less but guaranteed. Some risks like in individual’s health could be minimized through primary prevention habits that lowers early occurrence of diseases or by secondary avoidance habits once an individual has been exposed to early symptoms and signs that could be a risk factor. Tertiary avoidance lowers the negative outcome of a disease that is already established by minimizing illness- associated complication and restoring the functions. Every medical professional needs clear discussions about risk factors with an individual client to acquire informed consent concerning tertiary and secondary avoidance efforts however the entire medical health efforts in primary avoidance needs education of the public group at risk (Martin & Schinzinger, 2005). In each circumstance, excellent communication concerning any risk factors, predicted results and certainty should differentiate between causal circumstances that need to be reduced and associated circumstances which might be consequences rather than causes (Baura, 2006). Safety It can be defined as a situation of being secure, out of danger injury or risk or in other terms, it means events that call to lower or do away with hazardous situations that can lead to injury of the body. Categories of safety †¢ Occupational safety – it is mainly based with risks in locations where individuals work that is in building and construction, business industries and organizations. †¢ public safety – it deals with hazards in premises, journeys, touring and recreation, and in other various circumstances which is not within the category of occupational safety †¢ Marketing safety – this entails security in purchasing of goods and even in producing. One must be sure the services offered will not lead to a negative outcome (Baura, 2006). On the other hand, the producers themselves should not risk in making a loss for this can cause the closure of a business. †¢ Insurance risk – this avoids a great loss in business or in individuals investment incase an accident or an injury arises, that means the owner is secured. In case of an accident, it is always advisable to analyze the employees’ status of safety measures, which could be affected by outward working environment, attitudes directed to security and accident avoidance work and also leaders’ commitment in security promotion. Such kind of factors could be linked to work stress and risk behavior (Moriarty, 2008). The perceived risk behavior affects negative outcomes like accidents and near misses, while the possibility that discourages improvement in transforming a person’s risk perception towards embracing safety is still not yet clear (Martin & Schinzinger, 2005). Competent verses incompetent A competent engineer is one whose work is recommendable and excellent; he evaluates, assesses and organizes the employees to work with an aim of meeting the company’s goals and objectives. He works under minimal supervision from the seniors, seeks for advice in times of difficulty and consults other professionals to add skills and knowledge (Harris et al 2008). Unlike incompetent engineer who might have no knowledge of his work and his end results after working are disgusting. Maintaining a competent engineer could be challenging unlike the incompetent one. A good engineer has most of the qualification required in his area of assignment; works well to produce excellent results while a good person is generally pleasing and manifests good characters but may be lacking qualifications in his work (National Academy of Engineering & National Academies Press (US), 2004). A person may be competent but lacks good morals this can be evidenced by most of the employers who employ workers on condition to get ‘something’ in return. This is mostly happening in the modern world where most competent individuals have no integrity or character. In conclusion, it is better to risk taking an action despite of the unknown results rather than being safe in a condition whose guaranteed results are negative for example banking money to gain small interest instead of keeping it with you. Reference Baura, G. (2006). Engineering ethics: an industrial perspective. New York: Academic Press. Harris, C. , Pritchard, M. & Rabins, M. (2008). Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases, 4th Ed. New York: Cengage Learning. Martin, M. & Schinzinger, R. (2005). Ethics in engineering, 4th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishers. Moriarty, G. (2008). The engineering project: its nature, ethics, and promise. New York: Penn State Press. Morse, L. & Babcock, D. (2009). Managing Engineering and Technology: An Introduction to Management for Engineers, 5th Ed. New York: Prentice Hall Publishers. National Academy of Engineering & National Academies Press (US). (2004). Emerging technologies and ethical issues in engineering: papers from a workshop, October 14-15, 2003. New York: National Academies Press.

The Role of Tourism in Mexico Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

The Role of Tourism in Mexico - Term Paper Example In a candid statement, Ruiz states that the industry can additionally add a point to its current standing a factor likely to place it as the second biggest revenue contributor in Mexico. In the last year, the industry minted 12.7 billion dollars in foreign exchange. This is according to JP Morgan and Company report. As things stand now, the industry trails the oil and manufacturing industry. The Latin’s America second best performing economy registered a record of twenty four million visits in the past year (Mente 23-25). This statistic is 2.6 percent increase in comparison to the number of visits registered in the past one year. Reports from the World Tourism Organization indicate that the worldwide visits of tourists have just clocked the 1 billion mark. An increase of 4.1% has been registered in what is commonly referred to as international visits abroad. Similarly, arrivals to the advanced economies rose by 3.6% as the World Tourism report indicate. The role of tourism in the Mexican economy reaches far and wide. It boosts investment levels, creates jobs, and increases potential earnings. Reports additionally indicate that it creates one employment opportunity out of every eleven. The benefits of the industry are far reaching to the Mexican economy because it not only provides employment opportunities but also spurs the development of the surrounding region. The industry in the same line disseminates vital information relating to the nation’s natural and cultural attraction. The advantage emanates from the various options that the country offers to its visitors. The most notable include the pre Columbian civilization heritage and the inclusion of archeological sites as vital symbols of the countries identity. On top of these, the country is endowed with various beaches and an integration of millenary traditions within its major cities. Historical elements

Censorship, The First Amendment, and Free Speech Essay - 1

Censorship, The First Amendment, and Free Speech - Essay Example Victims of hate speech suffered from emotional, as well as psychological pains, and as a result, various institutions took up action by way of creating hate speech campus codes. These codes were meant to limit speech that was both hateful as well as harmful to people (Garrett 1). However, the courts systematically began striking down the policies in speech, stating how they were unconstitutional. From a student’s perspective, hate speech is unfair harassment or treatment either verbally or non-verbally directed towards an individual, or group of persons based on their color, race, nationality, religious beliefs, age, and sex, with the sole purpose of creating offensiveness and intimidation for the persons involved. Although there has been a significant increment in the number of hate speech codes within colleges, as well as universities, the increase in hate speech occurrences across the U.S is unbearable. Although hate speech codes endeavor to create a safer environment that is politically correct within college campuses by instituting principles as well as guidelines for students to adhere to, they are somewhat ineffective because they are merely trying to cover up hate speech (Gould 73). Various campuses enforce repressive as well as biased speech codec, and under these codes, all groups of persons of integrity risk persecution from school staff. These speech codes make it punishable for students to talk about or even distribute resources concerning issues that are contrary to dominant beliefs within the campus, of which could be mostly secular as well as politically correct in nature. Nevertheless, there has never been any known case whereby a college’s speech has remained unchanged after a courtroom challenge. The present generation of speech codes tends to come by way of students conduct and email policies that ban invasive communication, statements of diversity that have provisions for

Eng Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Eng - Research Paper Example It is difficult to say exactly where soccer originated as there have been several games from different countries that have the same foundations as the soccer game that we know today. There is a record in China, wherein soccer was called Cuju which literally means â€Å"kick ball†. There was a claim that Cuju was invented by the Yellow Emperor as fitness training for military men and cavaliers. These Cuju matches were held at the Imperial Palace and was said to be played by scholars and intellectuals of Ancient China. There is also once record of Mesoamericans playing a game similar to soccer but instead of using the traditional soccer ball, they used rubber balls which made it a little more difficult to play with. The said game is said to be a combination of soccer, volleyball and basketball. It is said that the object of the game is to kick the rubber ball up the basket in order to score a point. Among the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the game that is similar to soccer is calle d Pheninda. It is said that Pheninda is a combination of soccer and rugby. In this game, there are no rules thus making it quite a dangerous game and a lot of players were injured. The Middle Ages saw the birth of a soccer game called Mob Soccer in Europe. In this game, the ball that they have to kick is made of pig’s bladders and sometimes, stuffed leather skin. ... The object of this game is to strike the ball into the other team’s goal by whatever ways they have. This meant that one can use a club, a stick or any other means in order to score. One can only imagine the injuries the players have sustained in an effort to hit the ball but hit another instead. This same game was played in England, but due to the nature of the sport, this was banned by Nicholas de Farndone in 1314 of London. But this ban did not stop soccer from growing in Medieval England. Soccer has become a fitness sport for English boys in boarding schools. It was a sport enjoyed by Aristocrats and Upper-class Englishmen but even though it started that way, it later evolved into a sport for the commoners as well since it is very inexpensive and easy to learn. Soccer then started really growing among public schools, so then the concept of a tournament was born in the 19th century. Since different schools have then, different rules, Cobb Morley formed a semi-professional s occer club in Barnes and called it Barnes Club. He suggested a central body for rules and regulations be put into place. This idea then was put to practice on October 26, 1863 when a few soccer clubs set the base for the future organization, eventually called Football Association, met at the Freemasons’ Tavern in the English Capital. Cobb Morley came up with the rules of the game which set the official rules which would be put in place in every soccer game. He is now considered the father of soccer for his monumental contributions and his idea of the official rules which were put into place. In three decade after Cobb Morley set the official rules, soccer became a widespread sport around Europe, America and even Australia. In the early 20th century, the national teams were being

Neoliberalism is a fundamental new approach in International Relations PowerPoint Presentation

Neoliberalism is a fundamental new approach in International Relations theory. Discuss - PowerPoint Presentation Example Neo-liberalism works to move a part of the economy’s control to the private sector from the public sector. That is to say that neo-liberalism is an economic conception that values the ideals of free and unregulated market and globalization. Therefore, neo-liberalism occupies a fundamental position in the theory of International Relations. Neo-liberalism is a concept of political and economic practices that put forwards that human welfare can best be developed by liberating personal industrial freedoms and expertise inside an institutional framework typified by sound private property rights, unregulated and free markets along with free trade (Harvey, 2007). In the period after 1945, the liberals resorted to international institutions to perform several functions that the state could not carry out. This was the mechanism behind the integration theory in Europe and pluralism theory in the United States of America. Near the beginning of the 1970s, pluralism had built up a considerable challenge to realism and showed the way to neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism stands for a more refined theoretical challenge to existing realism. They give explanation to the durability of institutions in spite of significant changes in circumstances. As said by neo-liberals, institutions exercise a causal influence on international relations, determining state preferences and fastening them in to two-way co-operative arrangements. It concentrates on new players like transnational corporations, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and new types of relations like interdependence and integration (Galbreath, n.d.). Basically neo-liberalism states that free trade and unregulated market along with unobstructed supply of capital will lead to the production of the most efficient products that are most economically, socially and politically viable. It emphasizes on the significance of sound institutions like property rights, freedom of agreement, open markets, rules of legal responsibility,

Xerox Corporation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Xerox Corporation - Assignment Example   Local Area Network (LAN) is a computer network typically for an office or building. It is important in sharing information and data storage. This network can be built with low-priced hardware such as hubs, network adapters and Ethernet cables. It can depend on the wired connection for security, speed and for wireless connections. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) entails network of an entire city. It is larger than a LAN. It is used to connect several LANs to create a bigger network. Since it is mainly used on the campus, it is also referred to as a Campus Area Network. Wide Area Network (WAN) is a geographically dispersed telecommunications network over long distances. It entails several LANs and WANs. They are built using leased lines despite them being expensive. But for a lesser cost, one can use packet and circuit switching methods.The network may enable individuals to chat via email and transfer data over the network. It is different from other systems because it can be contr olled by an individual. Moreover, LAN has limited distance to move, few transmissions errors, a high-speed interface, high reliability and ability to handle data traffic. Additionally, the maintenance cost is reasonable and it uses technologies such as Ethernet and token ring. A good example is a network in an office building can be a LAN. The network can be used to share information and communication purposes. The network is significant in that it covers a larger geographical area and transfers data at a medium speed depending on the cables.

Review article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 17

Review - Article Example regulated at the transcriptional level but also in the post-transcriptional level, post-translational mechanisms, chromatin remodeling, clock proteins availability, and intracellular localizations (Cermakian & Sassone-Corsi, 61). The work aims to describe and illustrate in detail the general concepts that built the foundation of animal circadian clocks. It has been conceptualized by previous studies that several clock functions and characteristics have been conserved during evolution at transcriptional level but some detailed functions of the loop may somewhat differ from organism to organism. For instance, the feedback loop functions differ among the Drosophila fly, mammals, fungi and bacteria. Thus, these differences among organisms have led the authors of the article to study other levels of regulation of circadian clocks among organisms. Cermakian & Sassone-Corsi found out that contrary to the only role of the input gene products to oscillation, there are some important input and output genes to achieve effective pacemaker function. The work of the researchers also revealed that despite the similarities of the fly and mammalian circadian systems, there are also differences in the negative limb of the loop (Cermakian & Sassone-Corsi, 60). In addition, the work of the researchers also found out existence of inter-genic and intragenic loops and that rhythms are not only generated at transcriptional level but to multiple

The Second Vatican Council Essay Example for Free

The Second Vatican Council Essay The Second Vatican Council began in 1962 and ended in 1965. For the first year Pope John XXIII opened the council, he unfortunately died in 1963. Pope Paul VI then took over and closed the council in 1965. â€Å"A combined total of 2,865 bishops and prelates attended the council, which issued sixteen formal documents† (John and Hardon, 2000). The second Vatican promulgated some of the most important documents present in the Catholic religion. They also changed the way the Laity were involved in the church. A Lay apostle is someone who has committed to God (through baptism and confirmation) and strives to deliver the divine message of salvation to others throughout the world. â€Å"The need for the apostolate is shown by the manifest action of the Holy Spirit moving laymen today to a deeper and deeper awareness of their responsibility and urging them on everywhere to the service of Christ and the Church. † (Jackson, 2010). Therefore the statement suggests that the Holy Spirit is the one to give us a deeper understanding of what we as Catholics must do to become a good lay apostle, and that our responsibilities are within the church and our beliefs in Christ. Nazzaro (2010) states â€Å"A Lay apostle walks closely with Jesus throughout each day†¦ We serve Jesus through service to others. † In order to become a good lay apostle we must be close to the Lord daily whether saying prayers or attending church, and in order to serve him we must spread the word of God to everyone that would be interested in following Christ. The Second Vatican Council made the dogmatic constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). This was a set of rules in which Catholic must abide by. The constitution of the church states that everyone is part of the church and therefore everyone has a responsibility for its growth and the spread of the kingdom of God throughout the world. Due to this responsibility the council recognised the need for the role of the laity to cease from being passive and instead become active. The role is stated by Paul VI (1964) â€Å"they may make Christ known to others† The Vatican II council was one of the most significant events to have happened in the Catholic Church. This was because the council made many changes, its purpose was to bring the church up to date by opening it to dialogue with the modern world in terms of other Christian traditions, other faiths, the cultural, the political and the technical milieu in which we all live. (Doyle, 2006. Bishop Butler, 1967). The church felt that they were ‘behind times’ therefore their goal was to modernise themselves so that they kept up with its people. This meant that the church allowed the freedom of speech to all catholic people. The council wanted a wider input from the community therefore they allowed the laity to have an active role in the church. Other changes included allowing women on the sanctuary, before the second Vatican only males could be alter servers. Churches were not encouraged to study the bible, but rather the catechism, however nowadays churches can study both. Catholics had little to do with Protestants and they weren’t allowed to enter protestant churches, this has also been changed. For most Catholics, the biggest changes the Council made was â€Å"the priest and altar turned toward the people and the Liturgy of the Word and the Canon of the Mass in the vernacular† (McInerny, 2001). This implies that the mass is now read in a language the people understood. Before the Vatican II, mass was read in Latin, which the Laity saw unsuitable as they did not follow or understand the ceremonies attended. The Laity played little part within the church before the second Vatican council was formed. The laity attended mass to listen to the word of God, which was delivered and preached by the clergy. However the insight of Vatican II now means that, â€Å"the laity have a full and active role to play both in the church and in the world. † (Kinast, 1979:384). This implies that the people of the church not only have to take part within the church but they must do their own duty outside of the church. This means getting involved within church events such as fundraising or helping out with the offerings within the sermons. The council felt there was many reasons for changing the role of the laity. One important reason was to enable the Church to adapt with current changes of the modern world. A quote from Pope John XXIII as on his deathbed (24 May 1963) (cited in Bishop Butler, 1967) was â€Å"Those who have lived as long as I have were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead. He recognised that the Church was at an important stage and that in order to seize opportunities and bring others into the faith, there needed to be a role for the laity. Bishop Butler (1967) supported this in stating; â€Å"Catholics were not meant to be museum keepers, but rather gardeners whose responsibility it was to prepare a beautiful harvest for a glorious future†. In other words, the laity are there to serve the Lord in as many ways possible, it would be an opportunity wasted if God’s children (the laity) were not sent out to spread the message. Lay Christians are dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit as aforementioned. They are called to be heralds of faith and through them the Church can become the salt of the earth. This is why the council felt it was important to change the role of the laity as they realised the Holy Spirit acted through them. There have been many developments within the church since the Vatican II. This includes the involvement of other helpers within the church. The Lay people due to the changes were able to do a lot more within the church services. These include readings and Eucharistic ministers. They also have female alter servers, which before the Vatican II would never have been allowed. Some felt that the Vatican II did little for the Church today; â€Å"Although the Second Vatican Council had enormous impact, it cannot be isolated from prior and parallel liturgical, theological, biblical, and social developments† (Mcbrien, 1997), however I disagree. Without the Vatican II’s introduction of the Constitution on the Church, the role of the Laity would not have been transformed to the state that we know today. Because of the Vatican II, the church today has many different roles for people. These include Church Church cleaners, flower arrangers, prayer groups, liturgy groups, pilgrimage groups (including taking the sick to Lourdes), bereavement care centres, parish teams, school chaplains and many more. In creating these jobs not only decreases the work load for the Clergy but it allows the community to get involved within the church and spreads the word of God. There are many developments that may happen in the future. Some have already been discussed but still have yet to be decided. One thing that may develop in the future is the decision on birth control. Although the Catholic Church has still banned contraception there may be good reason for the introduction of it for example the discussion of the prevention of HIV. Another development that could be changed is the marriage of priests. There will always be a place in the church for a celibate priesthood, but there should also be a place for a married priesthood in the church, stated by Daly (2011) (cited in McDonald, 2011). The statement provides challenges to the Catholic religion and that one-day the ban may be shifted. Another issue is that Homosexual marriage may occur in the future. Many religions including Christianity are still against this decision however, todays society is beginning to accept it and thus the Church may also come to the same agreement. A final development for the future would be female ministers. Although there has been much dispute about this topic, the church may alter its decision and adapt to the ever-changing society. Now that there is the Laity, the church must do its duty and continue to listen to the requests and suggestions made by the Laity. The church and the Laity can be said to be a family or a community and without the Laity or the Clergy present, the Catholic religion may not survive. Therefore the second Vatican’s decision on apostolate of Laity was very important as they help the survival of the religion and the message to be spread throughout the world.

Uk Supermarket Price Competition And Non Price Competition Economics Essay

Uk Supermarket Price Competition And Non Price Competition Economics Essay The British supermarket is dominated by four main suppliers, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison which formed a large retail market chain in the UK for several years. This is called oligopoly market [Oligopoly Watch, 2003]. According to 123helpme.com (2009), an oligopoly is a market controlled by a few number of bulky firms which are interdependent. First of all, four main groceries in the UK have high degree of concentration. For example, in 2003, four supermarkets together have approximately three fourths market share in the retailers market which can be seen in the diagram. [Oligopoly Watch, 2003]. Moreover, based on the huge economics of scale and enable lower the price to consumers, the barriers to entry for other suppliers in the market are high. It is believed by Climate Change Crop (2006), consumer research told them that price, quality and convenience were the key criteria for the mass of shoppers. Therefore, the UK leading firms in supermarket chain begin the high competiti ons in price rivalry and non-price strategies. This essay will concentrate on analyzing both price competition and non-price competition among Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison, and then evaluates the advantages and disadvantages for the customers. Grocery market share Tesco  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   27.1% Asda  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   16.9% Sainsbury  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   16.1% Morrison/Safeway  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12.4% Sept 2003 rankings, Source: The Guardian Consumers have benefits for saving money because of immense high competition and low-price strategy among the main retailers in the UK. Those oligopoly firms such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison are interdependence. It can be easy to lead to price rigidity among major UK supermarkets which assumes that oligopoly market have cooperation in setting stable price in similar products. In addition, if one firm increases its price while other companies stay constantly, the firm who increase the price will lose market share because consumers do not want to purchase high price if they can also buy in original price in other groceries. This is called kinked demand curve theory. [Revision Guru, 2010]. As can be seen in the following diagram, P equals to price. Q equals to quantity. MC equals to marginal cost and MR is for marginal revenue. Demand curve is more elastic for a price rise than for a price fall. MC1 then a rise in costs to MC2 would result in stable price. Kinked demand curve theory [Revision Guru, 2010] Furthermore, it is reported by 123helpme.com (2009) that an action of one firm contributes to the change of other competitors. For example, rivals will be compelled to prevent to loss market share if a retailer lower its price. In UK supermarket chain, apart from Sainsbury which focus on produce quality and outstanding value to meet consumers need, other three retailers include Asda, Tesco and Morrisons are mostly low-priced based. To be more specific, Asda offers the cheapest price of the three companies [Thinking Made Essay, 2009]. Consequently, an ardent competition happens as a result of lowering price of those three rivals. Consumers are in favour of choosing the cheapest one to buy because they can save money. However, when competitors stay their products in high price, customers should have a positive aspect in charging more money. Both branded and qualitative products can satisfy consumers needs but should be paid in higher price than unbranded products. Owing to the effectiveness of the advertising and marketing which made by large firms, customers are willing to pay more money to buy branded products to satisfy their psychological needs. The Leading firms in the UK supermarket tend to produce branded products to attract more attentions from consumers and then increase sales. Morrisons, for instance, has eight different categories for food selling which consist of The Best a premium range; Eat Smart, a healthy range; Bettabuy, economy products; Organic and the free-range Free From collection [Whitwell, 2006]. These strategies are also barriers to those companies which want to come into the market. As a result, more consumers make their first choice to the branded products. If the companies want to obtain more market share among those competitors, they must also produce products which are in good quality. Ther efore, the fixed and variable cost cause the mark-up of the qualitative and branded products higher than other plain products. Even though consumers spend more money to buy these products, they also obtained the quality guarantee of the production [Tutor 2u, 2010] Other price competition such as discount by these UK groceries results in more money cost by consumers. In oligopolistic market, because major firms want to maximise their profit, they would get together and make a same agreement on product quantity or price which means collusion [S-cool.co.uk (2010)]. According to Oligopoly Watch (2003), Asda, Tesco and Morrisons built their reputations as discount chains to gain market share quickly, this lead to the decline of Sainsbury which has been the biggest retailers since 1995. However, those three large supermarket chains hope their discount can stimulate their consumers spend more money on other profitable products. This price strategy leads to the revenue of the chain increase sharply. The whole things cost costumers much more money than they spend as usual because of the discount on cheap products. Though the price strategies help a lot on increasing consumers expenditure and reputation, non- price competitions which concentrate on other strategies for rising market occupancy are also an essential part of attracting more purchasers. Consumers have power to change the shopping place if they do not think the service and quality of the original retailers satisfy them [Biz/ed, 2005]. Non-price competitions comprise numerous strategies such as mass media advertising and marketing, home delivery systems, innovative use of technology and internet shopping for consumers [Tutor 2u, 2010]. According to Thinking Made Essay (2009), the proportion that make consumers switch to other brands are correspondingly low. The leading UK supermarkets use non-price competitions to hope customers finish shopping and continue to purchase in the next time. Therefore, each of them focus on good service to shopping people because consumers may alter their choice to other grocery if they consider the one t hey buy usually do not content them. In summary, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison use different price strategies such as price stability and discount and non-price competition such as service. Consumers in the UK retailer chain have both positive and negative aspects. Owing to the interdependence of oligopoly, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison use price rigidity to control the market. Consumers have benefits for low-price strategy. Furthermore, the retailers use loss leader strategy; concentrate on good value but high price to consumers who may spend more money on those qualitative products. Whats more, customers can choose the best service supermarket because every groceries use non-price strategies to attract consumers attention. Nevertheless, price competition such as discount may cost more money in other profitable things. References Section: Biz/ed.co.uk (2005) Supermarkets and Oligopolies http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/news/2449.htm Climate Change Crop (2006) UK supermarkets Waking up to sustainability marketing http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4503 Oligopoly Watch (2003) British grocery  oligopoly http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2003/10/13.html Revision Guru.co.uk (2010) Oligopoly http://www.revisionguru.co.uk/economics/oligopoly.htm S-cool.co.uk (2010) Other features of oligopoly http://www.s-cool.co.uk/alevel/economics/market-structure-2/the-kinked-demand-curve-model.html Thinking Made Essay, 2009 Strategic Analysis of Morrison, Asda and Tesco http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/07/strategic-analysis-of-morrison-asda-and-tesco.html Tutor 2u.net (2009) Oligopoly http://tutor2u.net/economics/content/topics/monopoly/oligopoly_notes.htm Whitwell Stuart, 2006 Stretch potential: the supermarket brands http://www.intangiblebusiness.com/Brand-services/Marketing-services/News/Stretch-potential-the-supermarket-brands~390.html 123helpme.com (2009) First 1500 characters of UK supermarkets Oligopolistic competition http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=97935]

Social Institutions Essay -- essays research papers

The Military Social Institution is one of the three Primary Social Institutions. The military was initially established to help protect, as well as unify a country, but since it’s development, it’s done so plus more. The Military as a social institution has led to domination and conquering of sorts, while trying to balance morals and justifications. Since the military is run by the government, it can be assumed that not only does this institution try to control and rationalize, but also continue to boil over into much of the other institutions. The Economic Social Institution is another one of the three Primary Institutions. The hold that the economy plays on a societies life is overwhelming to say the least. With the Economy being one of the biggest influences on social interaction in today’s society, it is understandable why we have used it as a foreground in which we continue to build on. With wealth and development growing due to an economies strong hold on society, we seem to always use that as one of our bases for happiness. Without the Economic Social Institution, the socialistic structure would always lean to domination and political stature, rather then the wealth or development in which we (as a society) would grow. The Political Social Institution is one of the three Primary Institutions. With society being ran by a higher authority, and not by the â€Å"norms†, it is considered only natural to follow the authorities orders. The Political Structure that takes place in a society is often construed as being chosen by the followers, much like a democracy, when in fact it is hardly ever the case. With society focused on its own growth and maturity, sometimes we neglect the power of the individuals in charge, and only see a false image of our government. With that being said, it is that very reason that the Political Institution is considered a primary one. We (society) would like to think of the government and the political structure as being cooperative and convenient at its disposal, but the truth of the matter is that often the imperfections of our society are much related to the government that we â€Å"chose†. The Family Social Institution is a Secondary Institution. Because of â€Å"Family Life† being much a part of â€Å"today’s society† and also a way of living, it can be said that this type of lifestyle is undoubtedly a reason for planning right. Socie... ...he/she has as compared to themselves. As for societies who do not have the benefits of recent medicine, they are looked at as the outcasts and UN-stabilized. The Mass Media Social Institution is a Secondary Social Institution. The power of media, any sort, or any kind; is undeniable. Within a culture, or society, everyone has at one time or another been faced with some time of advertisement, or propaganda. Even if you never purchased the item, you were still faced with the issue of â€Å"should I try it, or not?† It’s stunning at how much we fall into a trap when dealing with the media’s influence on a society’s particular way of thinking. The Media can turn a murder trial, into a televised event, which can generate revenue, that shows how media can help out the economy, as well as openly test the law. Media has been around for centuries, and has always created a buzz in one way or another throughout a society, but the cunningness of it all is how society relies so greatly on media as our entertainment and pleasure. Society is constantly bombarded with ads and ideas that were generated to bring in revenue, whil e the society constantly succumbs to the pressure of the outside nature.

Marsupial Reproduction :: Marsupials Reproduction Mammals Biolgoy Essays

Marsupial Reproduction Knowledge can be obtained and conveyed in a variety of ways. One can spend hours upon hours hidden away in the corner of a library, reading the thoughts and discoveries of other researchers and writers. Or, one can allow himself to make his own discoveries through experiments and observations that he makes himself. Both methods are necessary in order to come to a complete understanding of a topic. An experimenter cannot fully appreciate the things that she observes without having a background in that area. In the same way, a man does not truly use the knowledge he has gained from book research without applying it to the real world in some way. Knowledge of marsupial reproduction is this way. There is much to be learned from the writings of scientists of the past, while at the same time there are many new discoveries to be made as researchers of the present apply this knowledge to answering new questions. The purpose of this paper is to compile knowledge that has already been written on marsupial reproduction, including the topics of: marsupial characteristics, reproductive anatomy, sexual behavior, development of young, hormonal control, and ecological implications of reproductive patterns, so that it can be used as a basis for new insights and discoveries. What is a marsupial? Many biologists of the past and present have been intrigued by a group of animals known as marsupials. Marsupials are a subdivision of mammals with several defining characteristics. First, marsupials generally have more incisor teeth than eutherian (placental) mammals. In most marsupials, as in most primates, the first toe of the hind foot is opposable to the other four, and it always lacks a claw. Interestingly, most terrestrial marsupials have lost this toe altogether. Marsupials also tend to have a smaller brain than eutherians of equivalent size and their body temperature and rate of metabolism are slightly lower than eutherians. (Gould, 52) Other important characteristics of marsupials come from their unique reproductive patterns and reproductive system. Externally, differences include à ¬such interesting anatomical features as a prepenal scrotum and biparte penes and vaginae in most groups and typically, but not always, a pouch over the teats.à ® (Bronson, 187) The major difference is the dramatically abbreviated period of gestation marsupials have adopted and the function of this phenomenon. Few marsupials have a gestation period longer than their oestrous cycle. This means that all marsupials give birth to highly altrical

Discussion in terms of Fayol’s Managerial Functions Essay -- Business

Discussion in terms of Fayol’s Managerial Functions Henri Fayol proposed that all managers perform five management functions. 1- Planning, 2- Organizing, 3- Commanding, 4- Coordinating, 5- Controlling. Most management books still continue to be organized around the management functions, Although they have been condensed down to basic and very important functions. 1- Planning The planning functions involves the process of defining goals, establishing strategies for achieving these goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Our instructor also defines or goals which is standard education and successfulness in the exams, according to this concern he establish the ways and strategies that how can we perform well in our exams. 2- Organizing Managers are also responsible for arranging work to accomplish the organization’s goals. This function is called Organizing. It involves the process of determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whome, and where decisions are to be made. 3- Leading When managers motivate subordinates, influence individuals or teams as they work, select the most effective communication channel, or deal in any way with employee behavior issues, the are leading.. Our instructor leading us by motivating through his moral support, he use best channels to teach us, he polish our attitude by using his good behavioral skills. 4- Controlling Management function that involves monitoring actual performance, comparing actual to standard, and taking action, if necessary. Our instructor controlling his class by monitoring the students, he maintain discipline, even threats students if necessary. Discussion in terms of Mintizberg’s Managerial roles Henry Mintzberg, a prominent management researcher says that what managers do can best be described by looking at the roles the play at works. Mintzberg Developed a categorization scheme for defining what managers do. He concluded that managers perform ten (10) different but highly interrelated roles. The managerial Roles. 1- Interpersonal 1- Figurehead 2- Leader 3- Liaison Provide information 2- Informational 1. Monitor 2. Disseminator 3. spokesperson Process information 3- Decisional 1. Entrepreneur 2. Disturbance handler 3. Resource... ... they seldom actually say it, and they never write it down. And the main employment of numbties world-wide is in creating project specifications. You must know this - and protect your team accordingly. 9. Becoming a Great Manager. The first steps to becoming a really great manager are simply common sense; but common sense is not very common. This article suggests some common-sense ideas on the subject of great management. Skills changes according to Management Level The extent to which managers perform the functions of management - planning, organizing, directing, and controlling - varies by level in the management hierarchy. A manager is someone skilled in knowing how to analyze and improve the ability of an organization to survive and grow in a complex and changing world. This means that managers have a set of tools that enable them to grasp the complexity of the organization's environment. 1- Most of the first line manager’s time is allocated to the functions of directing and controlling. 2- Middle management implements top management goals 3- In contrast, top managers spend most of their time on the functions of planning and organizing.

Commercial banks Essay

ABSTRACT This report is based on corporate social responsibility. This project report contains the meaning of CSR which includes the advantage of CSR towards bank, society, responsibility of corporate houses, objective of CSR, motive of CSR, responsibility towards customer. This document is all about multidimensional growth of customers for which the bank liable for their service selling. This process leads to upliftment of people life. The banks are not bind to do so but the do these kind of activities for creating a goodwill sense among their customer which leads to growth in lifestyle of the overall society. This gives better environment to the society in which the bank is working. Hence, the present study titled â€Å"A STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS CUSTOMERS OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN MADURAI†, has assumed greater significance. INTRODUCTION Corporate social responsibility ( CSR, also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business/Responsible Business) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulation mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. CSR is a process with aim to embrace responsibility for the banks actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere who may also be considered as stakeholders. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Banks play an active role for the economic development of any country. In a present competitive environment bank needs to retain its customer for effective development in any sector. Hence there arises need for corporate social responsibility then only it will leads to development of society as well as growth in bank sector. The present study aims to know the effectiveness of CSR in commercial banks with special reference to Madurai. In this context following questions arises. To measure the level of social obligation To measure the level of effectiveness of corporate social responsibility towards customers of commercial banks. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: To study the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility towards customers of commercial banks. METHODOLOGY The present study is an empirical one based on the survey method. First hand data was collected from the field through interview schedule. Data relating to various customers of commercial banks in Madurai was gathered through interview schedule. The schedule structured was extensively pretested. The survey envisaged the application of convenience sampling. Thus a sample of 300 respondents was decided upon nature of the commercial banks in Madurai. The survey was conducted during 2012-2013 in commercial banks from state Bank of India, Indian bank, Canara Bank, Karurvysya bank, HDFC bank, Axis bank, ICICI bank in Madurai. ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION GARRET RANKING Garret Ranking is used to find out the ranking for respondents opinion towards the enhancing customer value for public sector, private sector, and New generation banks. Step I:  Ranking given by respondents opinion on enhancing customer value TABLE 1 RANKING OF RESPONDENTS opinion towards enhancing customer value. S.No.AttributesRankTotal 12345 1.Sharing bank details1866231129300 2.Comfortable0120524880300 3.Time management00018282300 4.Man management1515765270300 5.Filling forms22120539213300 Source: Primary Data Step II : The assigned ranks by the respondents were converted into percent position value by the formula given below. For each percent position, Using Garrett’s table, corresponding Garrett’s table value is obtained. Formula Per cent Position = 100 (Rij – 0.5) / Nj Rij = Rank given for the ith variable by the jth respondent Nj = Number of variables ranked by the jth respondent. GARRETT’S TABLE VALUE RanksCalculationPercentageGarrett’s Table Value I Rank=100*(1-0.5)/5= 10= 75 II Rank=100*(2-0.5)/5= 30= 60 III Rank=100*(3-0.5)/5= 50= 50 IV Rank=100*(4-0.5)/5= 70= 40 V Rank=100*(5-0.5)/5= 90= 25 Source: Computed data. Step III: Scores are obtained with reference to Garrett’s Table value, and each percentage position value is converted into scores. Here each aggregated ranks are multiplied with corresponding the Garrett’s value obtained in the table. AGGREGATED RANKS Sl. No.AttributesRank 12345 1.Sharing bank details1395037201550840225 2.Comfortable07200260033602000 3.Time management00012607050 4.Man management113253420325018900 5.Filling forms1650720026506440325 Source: Computed data. Step IV: Summation of the scores is worked out for each rank column and means scores calculated by dividing the total score by the number of respondents. Finally, overall ranking is obtained by assigning ranks 1, 2, 3 †¦ in the descending order of mean score. OVERALL RANKING for respondents opinion on enhancing customer value S. No.ReasonTotal ScoreAverageRank 1.Sharing bank details2028567.6I 2.Comfortable1526050.53IV 3.Time management831027.7V 4.Man management1988566.28II 5.Filling forms1826560.89III INFERENCE It is observed from the table Sharing bank details† has been ranked as the first for the Man management has been ranked second, Filling forms third position, followed by Comfortable in fourth rank with Time management ranked as the fifth that influences the respondents opinion on enhancing customer value the in bank’s CONCLUSION Although creating customer satisfaction is not a prime motivation for instituting corporate social Responsibility programs , research linking CSR strategies with positive customer outcomes, such as loyalty, has led to the expectation that these strategies generally have positive flow-on effects for customers. Banking industry surveys have led to the identification of a mismatch between consumer satisfaction levels and massive spending on CSR programs. Further research is warranted. In view of research suggesting that retail banking customers prefer initiatives that create direct customer benefits compared to those that have broader social impacts. To conclude the CSR activities in all the three study banks are not effective. It is proper time on their to promote CSR related activities.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Make a Difference on Labor Conditions? a Case Study in Southern China

Does Corporate Social Responsibility make a difference on labor conditions? A Case Study in Southern China Yiu Por Chen Assistant Professor Public Services Graduate Program DePaul University & IZA e-mail: [email  protected] edu Phone: 312/362-8441 Fax: 312/362-5506 1 Abstract The corporate social responsibility code of conduct (CSRC) has been the model of corporate governance (CG) used by multinational corporations (MNCs) for their suppliers.Using the transaction cost perspective, this study argues the CSRC system may reduce some transaction costs for MNCs in planning and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, the CSRC may suffer from opportunism at the supplier level, which may undermine CSRC outcomes. By utilizing a unidimensional item response model with a randomized survey of factory workers of 12 toy manufacturers in Southern China, this study provides a unified measure to evaluate the effects of CSRCs on labor conditions from workers’ voices.Furth ermore, this study offers fresh empirical evidence to show the ways opportunism may undermine CSRC effects on labor relations. JEL code: M14, M23, J28, J50, J81, J83, J88 Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Multinational Corporations, Outsourcing, Safety, LaborManagement Relations, Working Conditions, Workers’ Rights, Labor Market Policy 2 â€Å"There are lots of firms and lots of changes in labor practices among them, so there is no lack of data.To judge whether formal labor market rules produce worse employment outcomes, as claimed by orthodox analysts, one could contrast employment between firms with more or less rigid internal rules. † ? Richard Freeman (2005: 19-20), suggesting that a microanalysis of workers and firms will be a path forward to understanding the effect of labor institutions. 1. Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been rapidly institutionalized and now covers the vast majority of industrial sectors around the globe.Donalds on (1996) highlights that 90% of all Fortune 500 companies have established codes of conduct, which are by far the most common mode of CSR used by corporations today. Furthermore, 51% of German firms claim to have codes of conduct, compared to 41% in the UK, and 30% in France (Schneider and Barsoux, 1997). Brytting (1997) also found that 52% of the larger Swedish companies had codes of conduct. In fact, CSR is largely the response of multinational corporations (MNCs) to the accusation of being the major actors in â€Å"new exploitations† of less developed countries (LDCs) (Chan, 2001). For the outsourcing MNCs, one of the important aspects of CSR is to ensure that workplaces and labor conditions in poor nations are not â€Å"too† terrible (even if it is worse than in the workplaces of developed countries). Theoretically speaking, the original approach to CSR suggested in the literature is a stakeholder approach. The stakeholder approach advocates that firms should not only maximize profit but also behave as good citizens of the community and take account of the needs of other stakeholders that may be affected by the firms’ production.This approach to CSR involves all related stakeholders in the development and implementation of the CSR (Freeman, 1984). In reality, the corporate governance 1 CSR in general is closely linked with principles of â€Å"sustainable development†, that is, enterprises should be obliged to make decisions based not only on the financial/economic factors but also on the social and environmental consequences of their activities. In terms of labor condition issues related to the outsourcing process, there are numerous reports and news about the exploitation of labor.The interested reader can visit some labor NGOs’ websites, for example, www. AMRC. org, China Labor Watch, ILO, etc. 3 (CG) approach (or firm-centered approach), which uses corporate social responsibility codes of conduct (CSRC) to regulate th e suppliers’ operations in LDCs, is more prevalent. 2 From an institutional theoretical perspective, this article argues that the high transaction cost incurred prevents the stakeholder approach from bringing all stakeholders together and developing strategies to deal with the externality produced by the outsourcing of production.Instead, the current CSR practice has reduced the original stakeholder approach from the CG approach to CSR, the CSRC. In practice, while the CSRC may get around the transaction cost of getting all stakeholders together and reduce potential conflicts that may arise during the CSRC planning and implementation process, this CSRC may be vulnerable to opportunism (or agency problem) at the supplier levels (Jiang, 2009). As the codes are externally imposed on the suppliers, they can exploit the information asymmetry to disregard some of the codes.Because factory interviews and surveys for suppliers’ management could hardly reveal the true faces of labor conditions, an effective measure to reveal workers’ voices at suppliers’ level is called for. However, systematic survey data are needed to verify the validity of CSRC to labor conditions. In addition, there is no unified method to understand the effect of CSRC on labor conditions. 3 This article provides a theoretical argument and a unified empirical approach to analyze labor conditions under the CSRC and the opportunism effect at the supplier side.Utilizing a unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) model, this study looks at the CSRC effect on 16 labor conditions in three dimensions: labor bargaining and association rights, violation of law, and safety and living environment. These labor conditions data are generated from a randomized survey of 12 toy factories in Southern China, including 10 CSRC suppliers for McDonald’s, Mattel, Disney, and Wal-Mart, and 2 non-CSRC factories as a comparison group. 2In particular, some MNCs and business associations would use Corporate Social Responsibility Codes Certifications (CSRCC) as measures to regulate suppliers’ conduct, such as Nike and the like. 3 For example, the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U. S. Department of Labor mentioned in the China’s country report that â€Å"Because of China's repressive political system, it was not possible to obtain any information directly from China.There are no Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in this area, and foreign NGOs do not have access. Accordingly, it was impossible to corroborate or reject allegations by various labor and human rights organizations that children are working in export industries which produce for the United States market† (Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs). 4 The UIRT model effectively compares the relative seriousness of a labor problem with the lab or union problem, which is the most serious labor problem found in this study.It shows that, first, the CSRC may have a positive effect on labor conditions. CSRC suppliers have less serious labor condition problems than factories with no CSRC. Second, because different CSRCs may have different coverage and monitoring intensity, different CSRCs may result in different labor condition issues. Non-CSRC factories are found to have six serious labor problems; McDonald’s, Mattel, Disney, and Wal-Mart have four, two, one, and zero serious problems, respectively.Third, suppliers working with more than one CSRC may reduce the possibility of opportunism at the supplier level. While suppliers with 1 CSRC would have 2 problems as serious as the labor union problem, suppliers with 2 CSRCs would have no such problem. However, the CG approach to CSRC may suffer from opportunism. This study documented some typical suppliers’ measures to circumvent CSRC auditing: fire drill, trained qu estion, giving a holiday, cleaning the factory, and safety drill.In addition, the subsequent analysis shows that different suppliers’ measures to circumvent the CSRC may represent a diverse level of opportunism. The subsequent sections are organized as follows: the second section explores the effect of the stakeholder approach and CG approach to CSRC and their effects on labor conditions; the third section describes the survey, basic observation from the data, and the methodology; the fourth section provides the estimation results; the last section discusses the results and draws some conclusions. 2.Stakeholder versus corporate governance approaches to CSR and labor conditions: A transaction cost perspective With the globalization of production in recent years, MNCs from developed countries migrated their manufacturing (high labor cost) operation to LDCs for the sake of cost minimization or to be closer to the consumer market. Due to the regulations of the host government, th eir production is usually outsourced to local suppliers. The intense competition among suppliers may induce lower bidding price for outsourcing deals from MNCs.This low bidding price might, in turn, result in the downward pressure of labor cost, safety equipments (Jiang, 2009; Pun, 2005a ; b). As a result, the globalization of production may even make working conditions weaker than it was before the market opened (Lee, 5 1995; Chan, 2003). Such worker conditions have been reported in mass media, generating concern from consumers, NGOs, policymakers, and academics. For example, in China, labor relations have been changing since the market reform began (Zhu and Warner 2004 a ; b). Workers usually suffered from â€Å"new exploitations† (Chan, 2001). In response to the recent surge of complaints from NGOs, media, and consumer movements, outsourcing MNCs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been designed to meet the consumer demand for a â€Å"clearer† product with fewer exploitations and/or a better working environment and safety for the LDC worker. 5 In fact, the original stakeholder theory was mapped out by Freeman (1984). The theory attempts to ascertain which groups are stakeholders in a corporation and thus deserve management attention. A company’s stakeholders are therefore all those who are influenced by, or can influence, a company’s decisions and actions.This theory intends to address the â€Å"Principle of Who or What Really Counts. † A firm, as a member of the stakeholder, cannot survive without taking into account the needs of the other stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). Figure 1: Original stakeholder model (Freeman, 1984) 4 Richard B. Freeman (1994) conducted one of the earliest surveys on labor standards under globalization of production. For further CSR code description, please go to http://www. csreurope. org/ 5 Bjorner (2004) shows that consumers would prefer to pay more for a â€Å"clean† product in the market.See also Harrison and Scorse’s (2003) study on how globalization impacts compliance with labor standards. 6 The CSR problem may be viewed from the institutional perspective: when a firm’s operations create externality, the stakeholders, those who have been affected by the externality, could bargain with the firm and achieve welfare improvement as long as the property rights of each party are well defined and the information cost for bargaining is low (Coase, 1960). Under these conditions, an agreement that guarantees the interests of stakeholders could be made.In the case where the externality is produced by MNCs’ outsourcing, the CSR is therefore an institution (or the rule of game) that may help to remedy past and potential conflicts of interest among stakeholders and produce a more sustainable future development. However, the stakeholder approach of CSR may not be sustainable due to the complexity of the agreement, the high cost of property righ ts’ identification, and the high information cost of bargaining. First, there is doubt about the willingness of MNCs to design a valid CSR practice that would help alleviate workers’ conditions at the supplier level (AMRC, 2004:10).Second, it is sometimes difficult to identify all the stakeholders because they are often locally determined. The transaction cost may be significant as stakeholders who can work together are needed to conceptualize and implement CSR. 6 Third, even when one can draw a rough picture about potential stakeholders, the question is how these very different – usually polarized – stakeholder views can successfully collaborate from the drafting the CSR to its implementation and monitoring (Dubinsky, 2002).The stakeholder approach to CSR is thus considered to have a higher transaction cost than the CG approach because it has to define all stakeholders and bring them together to develop the CSR design. In general, the CG approach to CSR is an expression used to describe what some see as a company’s obligation to be sensitive to the needs of all stakeholders in its business operations (Hill and Jones, 1992). 7 This is a top-down approach that aligns with the MNCs’ board (Husted, 2003).However, in the case of outsourcing decision, according to Williamson (2008), the choice of form of governance is subject to transaction costs due to asset specificity, uncertainty, frequency and their transaction costs, among others. These transaction costs would then determine the form of outsourcing (market or vertical integration). 8 The CG approach to CSR thus coincides with the outsourcing form and uses external social auditors instead of relying on stakeholders to monitor the behaviors of suppliers. 6 Murray (2002) suggests that even when companies have elegant statements of principle, the complexity is the accountability.Local-level involvement is needed and involves a complex regime of stakeholders (Murray, 2002: 41). 7 Most of the CSR has similar objectives. See, for example, Leipziger (2001) for SA8000, one of the guides to the new CSR code. 7 Figure 2: Corporate governance approach: the firm is at the center. Source: Fassin (2008) Figure 5. In practice, the CG approach to CSR usually employs the CSRC as a means to control the behavior of suppliers. 9 From the MNCs’ point of view, the CSRC may have less uncertainty and may be a more cost-effective market solution. First, MNCs can use their existing internal system to monitor the suppliers.Second, MNCs can employ â€Å"external specialists† such as auditing firms instead of the stakeholders to â€Å"plan† and â€Å"monitor† the implementation of CSRC at the supplier level. 10 One of the potential pitfalls of the CG approach to CSR is that even when the MNCs aim to implement the CSRC for these suppliers/suppliers, monitoring issues prevail and are subject to opportunism (Brown, 2002). 11 In some cases, the CG app roach to CSRC has been criticized as a â€Å"lame duck† by labor NGOs, even if the MNCs are indeed willing to safeguard better working conditions for 8Williamson (2008) has extended the transaction cost economics approach to outsourcing decision of a firm. The contractual schema suggested that key attributes of transactions such as asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency and their transaction costs will determine the form of outsourcing (market or vertical integration) (Williamson, 2008: 8). The schema assumed the outsourcing form would be determined and stabilized as long as the property rights are well defined and reliably enforced by courts. 9 See Kotler and Lee (2005) for their suggestions on using CSR from a corporate governance point of view and from a marketing perspective. 0 See, for example, the social auditing of Pricewaterhouse. Also see the establishment of SA 8000 by Social Accountability International (SAI) as a newly formed labor standard that responds to the need of MNC’s code of conduct. Their website: http://www. sa-intl. org/index. cfm? fuseaction=Page. viewPage=473 11 Dara O’Rourke (2001, 2004), an urban planning professor at U C Berkeley, has shown that there has been a problem in implementing the CSR code to the workshop level and the code’s impacts on workshops’ working condition and safety may be not as expected. 8 uppliers’ workers. This is because of the existing monitoring problems at the implementation level . 12 There may be two basic problems at the supplier level. First, the suppliers may not want to comply with the procedure that the MNCs require (AMRC, 2004, 65; Jiang, 2009). There are many measures from suppliers to MNCs’ CSRCs. Second, the â€Å"social auditing† monitoring procedures may be biased and possibly diluted by suppliers’ measures (O’Rourke, 2002). 13 Auditors sometimes leave out some important factors during their investigations (See O†™Rourke, 2000, 2001, 2002). 4 This leads to agency problems associated with CG approach to the CSRC (Goodpaster, 1991; Winn, 2001). In the CG approach, there is high monitoring cost and information asymmetry among stakeholders, especially between local suppliers and the MNCs. 15 In this regard, the CSR movement also encountered challenges about its validity at the theoretical and implementation levels. 16 To validate the theoretical discussion, the testable hypotheses are as follows: H1: If the CSRC is â€Å"good† for workplace conditions, then we should see suppliers with CSRC that have better labor conditions than â€Å"no CSRC† factories.H2: In addition, if a different CSRC content has a different effect, we should expect a systematic difference among CSRC firms. H3: Moreover, if the CSRC suffers from opportunism, different measures to get around the CSRC at the subcontract level may affect CSRC effects. 12 In fact, a number of â€Å"social auditors† have b een created in response to the new â€Å"demand† from MNC. However, the incentive for these auditors to reveal the true situation at the workshop level is in doubt (O'Rourke, 2000). 13 The Designs of Codes vary greatly across companies and industries.For example, the World Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP) certification requested that the independent monitors be paid by the company under investigation. That causes serious doubt of the independency of auditor. Also, there is no requirement to interview workers during the factory investigation (Jenkins, 2002: 26). 14 O’Rourke (2002) investigates the social auditing process of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in a garment factory in Shanghai. Pricewaterhouse Coopers used a standard factory monitor process for factory management, but not for workers.He also shows that there may be management bias and flaw reporting on the auditing process. The management bias includes failures to collect information from workers and f ailures to access restraints on freedom of association. 15 Dubinsky (2002) documented the garment worker of suppliers in L. A. for GUESS. While the CSRC in GUESS was intended to enhance workers’ condition, the workers interviewed reveal no material improvement in their working conditions and were threatened and penalized when they speak out. 6 For more information of the consultants for CSR code, please visit: http://www. thecsrgroup. com/ 9 H4: Finally, if CSRC can increase transaction cost of opportunism at the supplier side, more CSRC would reduce the effect of opportunism. To assess the validity of these hypotheses, this study employs data generated from a random survey of workers from 12 suppliers of branded toy MNCs in Shenzhen and evaluates the CSRC effect using a unidimensional item response theory model. The following section describes the survey and the methodology of this study. . Survey and Methodology This section will discuss the survey and the methodology used this study. Section 3. 1 provides details on the survey design and the sample frame. Section 3. 2 compares the CSR code of conduct of branded companies with the mandate of the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) and International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions. Section 3. 3 provides a ranking of CSRC tasks in terms of level of difficulty. Section 3. 4 demonstrates the methodology used in this study. 3. The survey The survey was conducted at the Shenzhen and Dongguan areas in Southern China, both highly concentrated with labor-intensive industries, in particular, toy factories. 17 The survey, which took place from June 2006 to March 2007, focused on the toy industry’s CSRC. To systematically examine the impact of CSRC on labor conditions, this survey first used the industrial phone book and identified a sampling frame before the randomized selection of 12 toy factories in Shenzhen and Dongguan areas at Southern China.The selection of the sample is as follows: Their size should be comparable (usually around 1000 workers in each factory). This study identified 10 code factories within which there were eight suppliers with single CSR (Mattel, McDonald’s, Disney, Wal-Mart) and two suppliers with two CSRCs (Disney & Wal-Mart, Mattel, and Wal-Mart). The survey also included two suppliers with similar technologies that produce only for the domestic market as a comparison group. Twenty 17 Please see Appendix 1 for the background of the setting, toy industry in China, and the reasons for choosing the sites in this study. 0 workers at the entry level were interviewed in each factory, and all the workers were interviewed anonymously. 18 A total of 240 workers were surveyed in this study. 19 3. 2 A Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Codes of Conduct Table 1 shows a comparison between the statements of the study firms’ CSRC, the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) and the International Labor Organization’s c onventions according to publicly available information. The first column shows ILO conventions that are very detailed and cover the labor conditions mentioned.However, the ILO conventions operate at the state level. That is, unless a state signed the conventions, ILO convention restrictions would not be imposed at the local level. The ICTI codes at the association level and other firms’ CSRC followed the ILO conventions, but with less detail. 20 Table 1 is divided into the following sections: violation of law, bargaining rights and freedom of association, workshop safety and living environment, and monitoring procedures. In terms of violation of law, all the codes indicated that there should no child labor under 14 years of age and no forced labor.However, with the exception of the ICTI code, no individual CSRC mentions maternity leave. As for the section on labor bargaining rights and freedom of association, Disney shows its respect for rights for association and collective bargaining, while the ICTI and Wal-Mart show respect for rights of association only. With regard to safety and living environment, Mattel’s CSRC shows the most detailed description, followed by the ICTI; Disney and McDonald’s CSRCs show similar content and are less detailed than those of Mattel and ICTI. Wal-Mart’s CSRC shows the least detail in this aspect.For the monitoring mechanism, the ICTI CSRC mentioned auditing at the initial stage and in production, as well as a follow-up auditing during the production cycle. The ICTI also mentioned that the factory audit could review the employment record, books, and interview worker privately and the audit could be unannounced to reduce the opportunism. While no individual CSRC gives such detailed monitoring mechanism description, Disney makes it clear that they can review records and books, and suppliers cannot subcontract their work further. McDonald’s mentions that the supplier’s management 18Understa nding that suppliers may have pressure to workers not to reveal the true factory information to strangers, I have instructed the surveyors to talk to perspective workers and develop trust between each other. Surveyors would explain the survey purpose and ask the agreement of perspective respondents. The survey is conducted outside of the factory areas, usually at local restaurant during workers’ lunch time, to eliminate influence from suppliers. 19 The survey questionnaire can be provided upon request. 20 More detailed descriptions of the CSRC for ICTI can be found in its website: http://www. toyicti. rg/info/codeofbusinesspractices. html. 11 should put an effort to monitor the CSRC standard, and show that the auditor can enter workers’ dormitory and interview the workers. Among other CSRCs, only Wal-Mart shows that it has increased efforts to monitor the suppliers in both announced and unannounced factory audits. Mattel, however, does not show any monitoring informati on to public. In a nutshell, individual firms’ CSRC could be very different and their monitoring efforts may differ from earlier observations. The next section offers basic observations about the ranking of the difficulty CSRC tasks from a survey of 12 factories. 12Table 1: A comparision of Toy Industries' Corporate Social Responsibility Code of Codes with ILO convent International Labor Organization (ILO) convent International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) Violation of Law child labor (;15 yrs) (C59) minimum age of 14 * under age labor (;16 yrs) No Maternity leave (C3) maternity benefits as provided by law Illegal Over Time work (C1) (C6) ( C41) (171) by law Forced Labor (C29, C105) Labor Bargaining Rights and Freedom of Association Bargaining Rights (C98) Bargaining Channel Employee Association (C87) Compliant to Client Labor Union (C87) Labor department Use Collective Bargain (C154) Strike Use Safety nd Living Environment Fire Safety (C155) Workshop Safety (C155) Food p roblem Live environment problem other problem no discrimination (C111) compensation Coercion and Harassment notification to employee monitor and inspection: Unannouned Factory Audit no forced or prison labor is employed Disney 15 yrs (but 14 yrs if law allowed) Mattel specified by country's law McDonald 15 yrs (but 14 yrs if law allowed) yes, only if no schooling 60hr/week, 1 day/week off no forced labor Wal-Mart not allow >14 yrs old 48/week +12 hr OT, 1/week day off except special business circumstances no forced labor overtime must be voluntary and documented, rest days with local law payroll deductions must comply with law and mattel requirment 72hr/6days, 14/24hrs no forced labor freel employee representation by local law upplier need to respect right for association lawful union activities supplier need to respect right for Collective Bargain lawful collective bargain in lawful and peasceful manner, without penalty, interference supplier need to respect right for association e mergency exits, trained emergency evacuation; machinery safeguards >= local laws and employees trained facilities or appropriate provisions for meals and other breaks housing, rooms, sanitary facilities meet basic needs; ventilated, fire safety by local laws toilet facilities meet local hygiene requirements , and are properly maintained standards set by law fire safety adequate lighting and ventilation potable drinkng water, sanitary facilites, health and safety housing envriomental friendly race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law or local standard, choose the higher one rogram and system for fires, spills and natural disasters, emergency exit unlocked have programs to address health and safety, first aid, medical treatment canteens must be safe, sanitary, meet basic needs dormitories must be safe, sanitary, meet basic needs minimize environmental impact fire exit esential safety equipment, first aid kit, emergency care potable drinkng water, adequate, clean res trooms, appropriately-lit work station race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law no unhealth and hazardous enviroment nontoxic material, envrionmental friendly race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law legally mandated rates eed to have local lanuage post the CSR terms to employee 1 to 2 factory manager shall be monitor the compliance of standard yes yes, review employment record and books, yes, but no number specified, 26% of 16000 in 2006 (6% increase) can go to housing accommodations can go to housing accommodations others Audit inculdes: Initial , Follow-up, In-Production. no further subcontractor can be used. can private interviews with employees >16000 audit for 8873 suppliers in 2006 Source: International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions, International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), The Walt Disney Company Code of Conduct for Manufactures, Mattel, Inc. Global Manufacturing Principles, McDonald's Code of Coduct for Suppliers, Wal-Ma rt Stores, Inc.Standard for Suppliers *but notwithstanding the foregoing, that C138 Minimum Age Convention (1973) and C182 Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention (1999) of the International Labor Organization apply Code posted or available for all employees in local language. need to have local lanuage post the CSR terms to employee 13 3. 3 Ranking the difficulty of CSRC tasks Before going into the methodological analysis, let us examine the level of the labor problem from the survey data. This survey considers each labor problem as a task for the supplier to accomplish. The seriousness of each labor problem can be considered as the level of difficulty to accomplish the task. Table 2 shows the percentage of all respondents saying â€Å"the task is a problem† = â€Å"1† and â€Å"the task is not a problem† = â€Å"0. 21 The larger the mean in the variable, the greater the number of respondents who answered â€Å"1,† and the more problem is perceived in tha t task. The variations in these variable means are large. All the respondents cited â€Å"1† in response to â€Å"Union,† which had a mean of â€Å"1†. This is considered to be the â€Å"most difficult problem. † The two other â€Å"most difficult problems† are â€Å"complaint to client† and â€Å"labor association,† with 99% and 98%, respectively, with â€Å"1† on average. As only few respondents raise â€Å"other problems†, its mean is the lowest at 2% on average, which indicates that suppliers consider this the â€Å"easiest problem†. Table 2: Corporate Social Responsibility Tasks' Diffculty level Item Obs Mean Std. Dev.Min Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Labor Union 240 1. 00 0. 00 1 0. 99 Complaint to Client 240 0. 11 0 Employee Association 240 0. 98 0. 14 0 Bargaining Rights 238 0. 45 0. 50 0 Bargaining Channel 240 0. 73 0. 45 0 Labor department Use 240 0. 48 0. 50 0 Collective Bargain 240 0. 96 0. 1 9 0 Strike Use 240 0. 62 0. 49 0 Violation of Law child labor (>14 yrs) 238 0. 11 0. 31 0 under age labor (>16 yrs) 238 0. 34 0. 47 0 No Maternity leave 238 0. 82 0. 39 0 Illegal Over Time work 238 0. 85 0. 36 0 Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 235 0. 03 0. 18 0 Workshop Safety 235 0. 26 0. 44 0 Food problem 235 0. 83 0. 38 0 Live environment problem 235 0. 29 0. 46 0 0. 02 other problem 235 0. 3 0 Note: the respond â€Å"1† means â€Å"the task is a problem,† while â€Å"0† means â€Å"the task is not a problem† in respondent's factory. â€Å"labor union† has 100% respond â€Å"1† and that mean it is the â€Å"hardest problem† for suppliers. â€Å"other problem† has 2% respond with â€Å"0† and is considered to be the most â€Å"easiest problem† for suppliers. Max 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 Please see Appendix 2 for a detailed breakdown of the labor condition distribution. 14 3. 4 Methodology T able 2 presents the distribution of the CSRC task and the problem perceived. However, both the respondents’ knowledge of the problem and the suppliers’ characteristics may bias the analysis of CSRC effect on labor conditions.The respondents’ knowledge and the suppliers’ effort to implement CSRC are, however, unobservable. To correct these unobservable biases and obtain a consistent estimate of the likelihood of suppliers’ problem, this methodology section proposes to use the unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) (or the Rasch) model. In general, the item response theory (IRT) is a body of theories describing the application of mathematical models to data from questionnaires and tests as a basis for measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. 22 The IRT model is based on the idea that the probability of getting an item correct is a function of a latent trait or ability. The UIRT model is a member of IRT family which applies to dichotomo us data. 3 The UIRT model is usually used in test analysis, which can analyze the relative difficulty level of an examination question by removing the individual (the examinee’s) unobservable influence on the answer of the question. It is used for statistical analysis and development of assessments, often for high-stake tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). 24 Using the GRE as example, a person with higher intelligence would more likely be able to correctly respond to a question in an intelligence test. This study introduces UIRT model to evaluate the impacts of CSRC on labor conditions. The UIRT model in this study estimates the probability of a worker getting a positive response in a list of the ifferent tasks by taking into account each task’s difficulty level and the different abilities, knowledge, 22 IRT models apply mathematical functions that specify the probability of a discrete outcome, such as a correct response to an item, in terms of person a nd item parameters. Person parameters may, for example, represent the ability of a student or the strength of a person's attitude. Item parameters include difficulty (location), discrimination (slope or correlation), and pseudoguessing (lower asymptote). Items may be questions that have incorrect or correct responses, as well as statements that allow respondents to indicate the level of agreement. 3 In general, the UIRT model estimates these outcomes using two types of predictors – a person’s ability and the test item’s difficulty level. A person’s ability and the test item’s difficulty level are given as â€Å"X† in the right side of the equation. â€Å"Y† is a person’s response to a test item (or a survey item) and is given on the left side of the equation. 24 Among other methods, IRT provides a basis for evaluating how well assessments and individual questions on assessment work. In education, psychometricians apply IRT to a chieve tasks as developing and refining exams, maintaining banks of items for exams, and equating the difficulties of successive versions of exams (for example, to allow comparisons between results over time). 15 nd willingness level of each respondent and individual supplier. The UIRT model is particularly useful in this study because this model can effectively take into account an individual’s knowledge of the problem and each supplier’s willingness to carry out the task. With the estimated outcomes on hand, one can compare the relative difficulty level of any task by using the easiest task (or the hardest task) that suppliers could fulfill. The last section shows that the â€Å"other problem† is the easiest problem among others; this study will therefore use the â€Å"other problem† as the basis for the relative difficulty in ranking problems in the statistical analysis. 25In our context, the UIRT model is defined as follows: Let us consider a sample o f individuals who answer the survey as if taking a test, and assume the probability, Pij , that worker i’s answer â€Å"yes† (or â€Å"1†) responds to task j and depends only on a parameter, ai , representing the respondent’s ability (which can represent the joint outcome of a worker level understanding of the firm and other factors such as suppliers’ characteristics) and another parameter, b j , representing the difficulty level of the task attempted. Assume further that for some monotone transformation, M. M ( P ) = ai ? b j ij (1) for all i and j. The odds of getting a task right decreases with task’s difficulty (and thus the minus sign before b j ). That is, an additive representation is postulated for the suitably transformed probabilities, Pij . When M is the inverse logistic transformation,M ( Pij ) = ln( Pij ) = ai ? b j 1 ? Pij (2) (ln is the natural logarithm), we have UIRT model. 25 We can also use â€Å"union† as a base to obtain a more precise estimation of the probability of getting a task â€Å"right† as the responses are all zeros. As this article focuses on the relative difficulty level of tasks, it is reasonable to use the easiest task as the base. 16 The UIRT model has certain very desirable statistical properties for the estimation of these parameters. With the UIRT model, this grouping method can be approximated to estimate parameters. 26 We can then compare the estimated M ( Pij ) to determine the relative difficulty level of each task. robability of getting a particular task with â€Å"1† can also be calculated The as: exp( M ( Pij )) /(1 + exp( M ( Pij ))) . 27 With these desirable properties of the UIRT model, this study can allow different groupings of CSRC and evaluate their effects on labor conditions by comparing the parameters. 4. Results 4. 1 Basic Result Table 3 shows the benchmark model that pooled all the factories together to investigate the overall picture of lab or conditions using the UIRT model and the â€Å"other problem† as the basis of comparisons. As shown in Table 2, response â€Å"0† means the worker thinks that there is â€Å"no problem† with a particular task, while â€Å"1† means the task â€Å"has problem†.Therefore, using the estimated coefficients, the â€Å"union† coefficients serve as the upper bound and the â€Å"other problem† as the lowest bound; the interpretation of the coefficient is therefore an assessment of the relative significance of the problem against â€Å"union† and â€Å"other problem. † That is, when a task has similar significance as the â€Å"union,† it means that the task is â€Å"very difficult† for suppliers, while a task that is not significantly different from the â€Å"other problem†, it means that the task is also an â€Å"easy problem† for suppliers. Table 3 shows (from left), the fixed effect model, the fixe d effect with probability weighted, and the random effect model, respectively. All the models have passed their test of specification. Comparing 26Specifically, it can be shown (Lord & Novick, 1968, p. 429) that a respondent’s raw score (number of tasks correct) is a minimal sufficient statistic for his/her ability. This leads to a practical implementation of the model in that statistical estimates of abilities and item parameters can be obtained by proceeding as if everyone with the same raw score has exactly the same ability. The parameter estimates are commonly computed using conditional maximum likelihood CMLE and yield consistent estimates of item parameters (Andersen, 1973). 27 Obviously, the Pij is unobservable, as are ability and item parameters. Estimates of the Pij (and, hence, the ai and b j could be obtained if it were possible to give a respondent the same question about a task on repeated occasions, and his/her responses were independent over trials. Clearly, th is is not possible. Alternatively, the probabilities could be estimated if a worker with similar ability could be identified. Assuming a group of people with the same ability, as individuals respond to items independently, the observed proportion of individuals within the group who respond positively to task j is an estimate of the probability that any given person from that group passes the task. 17 the fixed effect model and the model with probability weighted, the ranking of variables’ coefficients is in the same order. There is no qualitative difference between the two models.In fact, the coefficient value and the ranking are identical between the fixed effect model in the first column and the random effect model in the third column, suggesting that heterogeneity is not a problem and the random effect model is not necessary. 28 Therefore, this study will be based on the fixed effect model for extended models in the subsequent sections. â€Å"Union,† â€Å"complain t to client,† and â€Å"employee association† are the top three difficult tasks for suppliers. The estimated probability of union, complaint to client, and employee association in the fixed effect model is 1, 0. 9998, and 0. 9996, respectively, suggesting a 100%, 99. 98%, and 99. 96% chance of getting these tasks with a problem. These estimated probabilities are very consistent with the statistics in Table 2. This reflects that CSRC may not be very helpful for labor union and freedom of association activities.All the tasks in the model are positively and significantly different from the â€Å"other problem,† suggesting that these problems warrant our attention, except the fire safety problem. The reason why the fire safety problem is not frequently cited as a problem may be attributed to the fact that after a fatal factory fire in Shenzhen area in the early 1990s, a workshop-level fire safety law has been introduced. Since then, labor NGOs and the local governmen t have paid attention to fire safety in workplaces. 29 After a brief overview about the problem with the pooled data, the next section tests hypotheses about the effectiveness of the different CSRCs and the problem of opportunism at the supplier level. 28When reading across the columns, one should avoid directly comparing the coefficients among different models as the assumptions are different. However, we can focus on the relative importance of variables in each model. 29 For a detailed discussion about the labor movement and the history about the event, read AMRC (2004: 41-82). 18 Table 3: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions Fixed Effect Item Coef. Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 22. 71 (1. 82) Complaint to Client 8. 37 (0. 9) Employee Association 7. 85 (0. 76) Bargaining Rights 3. 87 (0. 61) Bargaining Channel 5. 03 (0. 59) Labor department Use 3. 99 (0. 58) Collective Bargain 7. 25 (0. 73) Strike Use 4. 54 (0. ) Violation of Law Child labor (>14 yrs) 1. 96 (0. 6) Under age labor (>16 yrs) 3. 38 (0. 61) Maternity leave 5. 51 (0. 62) Illegal Over Time work 5. 74 (0. 63) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 71 (0. 7) Workshop Safety 3. 01 (0. 61) Food problem 5. 58 (0. 65) Live environment problem 3. 18 (0. 61) constent Number of obs F( 16, 239) Prob > F Pseudo R2 Linktest: _hat 4045. 00 10551. 86 0. 00 0. 49 0. 00 1. 00 P>|z| 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Fixed Effect with p-weighted Coef. P>|z| 28. 30 (0. 59) 10. 70 (0. 92) 10. 52 (0. 78) 4. 72 (0. 61) 6. 14 (0. 61) 5. 09 (0. 6) 9. 39 (0. 75) 5. 33 (0. 61) 2. 56 (0. 66) 4. 03 (0. 61) 6. 2 (0. 62) 7. 99 (0. 67) 1. 58 (0. 78) 4. 47 (0. 61) 7. 28 (0. 65) 4. 74 (0. 62) 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Random Effect Coef. 29. 19 (9. 73) 8. 44 (0. 9) 7. 92 (0. 76) 3. 88 (0. 61) 5. 05 (0. 6) 3. 99 (0. 58) 7. 31 (0. 72) 4. 56 (0. 6) 1. 96 (0. 6) 3. 38 (0. 61) 5. 55 (0. 62) 5. 79 (0. 63) 0. 71 (0. 7) 3. 01 (0. 61) 5. 62 (0. 65) 3. 18 (0. 61) 4. 06 (0. 58) 4045. 00 F( 16, 239) Prob > F /lnsig2u P>|z| 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 31 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 04 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 31 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 4045. 00 88251. 79 0. 0 0. 55 1. 00 (0. 13) 0. 00 (0. 01) 0. 00 1. 00 1. 00 (0. 13) _hatsq 0. 00 (0. 01) Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis 60. 68 0. 00 -4. 55 (0. 29) sigma_u 0. 10 (0. 02) Prob >= chibar2 0. 40 Likelihood-ratio test 0. 08 19 4. 2 Which CSR code is better? As shown in Table 1, different branded companies may have differences in the CSRC statement. This section aims to evaluate the effect of an individual brand company’s CSRC on labor conditions and to understand the relationships between company’s CSRC statement and CSRC outcomes. Table 4 shows the UIRT model for labor conditions by different CSRCs.As there are suppliers with more than one CSRC, this study will pool suppliers with same CSRC to estimate the difficulty level of relative tasks. For example, as the survey has one supplier with Disney only but two suppliers with Disney & Wal-Mart, this study combines these three supplier data into the UIRT model. As discussed in the methodology section, the UIRT model can then essentially extract the common information from these Disney suppliers and investigate the aggregated â€Å"Disney CSRC effect. † Table 4 ranks the CSRC according to the number of tasks similar to the difficulty level of â€Å"union,† descending from left (the easiest task) to right (the most difficult task).In Table 4, columns 1 to 5 show suppliers with a larger number of problems and the lowest number of problems similar to the difficulty level of the problem â€Å"union. † They are non-CSRC suppliers (with 6 problems), McDonald’s (5 problems), Mattel (2 problems), Disney (2 problems), and Wal-Mart (with 0 problem). The first obser vation is that the most serious problems are concentrated on â€Å"labor bargaining and association rights†. When focusing on individual CSRC in this section, the â€Å"non-CSRC† suppliers in cited in the first column show that five tasks have the same difficulty level as union. In contrast, there are no such tasks for the Wal-Mart suppliers, suggesting that they may commit less serious labor bargaining and association rights problems.While we focus on the tasks with the lowest bound of difficulty, Disney suppliers may have more (6 tasks) tasks that are insignificantly different from the â€Å"other problem. † This means that Disney’s suppliers may be less likely to have labor bargaining and association problems. Why so? Can the mission statements of CSRC give some useful information? As Table 1 shows, Disney’s mission statement provides a more detailed description than other CSRCs with respect to the labor bargaining and association problems. Howe ver, while there is no explicit statement about labor bargaining and association problems in the McDonald’s CSRC, its suppliers are more likely to commit violations over other CSRCs, as shown in the second column of Table 4. On 20 he whole, it seems that the CSRC could have some positive impacts on labor bargaining and association problems, and the effects would be dependent on the details of the CSRC statements. 30 Let us now discuss the violation of laws. While the non-CSRC suppliers may have serious problems regarding maternity leave, McDonald’s suppliers may have serious problems with illegal overtime work when compared with the labor union problem. This is consistent with McDonald’s CSRC statement – the most concise among other CSRCs – on illegal overtime work. When focusing on the insignificant problem, an interesting pattern emerged: the tasks that are not as serious as â€Å"other problems† are inversely distributed along the columns , except for Wal-Mart suppliers.Disney suppliers continually outperform other CSRCs with no tasks considered significant, while Wal-Mart suppliers show significance in all the tasks. While Table 1 does not show any significant difference between Wal-Mart’s CSRC compared to the other CSRC in this issue, the results may be affected by the fact that these suppliers do not produce goods only for Wal-Mart. The next subsection analyzes the number of CSRCs and its the impact on labor conditions. In terms of safety and living environment issues, all suppliers under this study do not indicate significant problems on fire safety. However, the non-CSRC suppliers are consistently worse than other suppliers in terms of workshop safety and food problem.Indeed, food seems to be a common problem among suppliers, except for Disney suppliers. Consistent with results in labor bargaining and association rights, Disney suppliers outperform other CSRC suppliers because no task is significantly dif ferent from the â€Å"other problem. † In all the three sections, Disney suppliers continually outperform other CSRCs. This result seems to be consistent with Disney’s CSRC statement, shown in Table 1. Some suppliers work for more than one CSRC, which may mean more transaction costs in avoiding the CSRC. It is interesting to explore how the number of CSRCs affect firms. 30 Certainly, we can just observe the CSRC statement, but efforts to enforce the statement terms are unobservable.As discussed in the methodology section, the UIRT model is a tool to remove unobservable influences and obtain consistent estimates of the difficulty level of tasks. 21 Table 4: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by different CSR code No CSR code McDonald's Mattel Item Coef. P;|t| Coef. P;|t| Coef. P;|t| Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 19. 98 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (3. 01) Complaint to Client 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 5. 53 0. 00 (4 . 33) (4. 15) (0. 94) 42. 38 41. 63 19. 98 Employee Association 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (3. 01) Bargaining Rights 42. 38 0. 00 -0. 03 0. 26 0. 28 0. 77 (4. 33) (0. 03) (0. 3) Bargaining Channel 42. 38 0. 00 21. 30 0. 00 19. 98 0. 00 (4. 33) (2. 27) (3. 01) Labor department Use 0. 00 0. 87 20. 67 0. 00 2. 69 0. 00 (0. 00) (2. 01) (0. 68) Collective Bargain 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 4. 80 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (0. 89) Strike Use 20. 77 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 1. 48 0. 05 (2. 30) (4. 15) (0. 74) Violation of Law Child labor (;14 yrs) Under age labor (;16 yrs) Maternity leave Illegal Over Time work 0. 00 (0. 00) 19. 92 (1. 77) 42. 38 (4. 33) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 -0. 03 (0. 03) -0. 03 (0. 03) 21. 92 (2. 44) 41. 63 (4. 15) 0. 00 (0. 00) 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 84 (2. 43) 0. 26 0. 26 0. 00 0. 00 0. 28 (0. 93) 0. 51 (0. 9) 3. 83 (0. 77) 5. 23 (0. 99) 0. 30 (0. 93) 2. 29 (0. 78) 4. 01 (0. 88) 0. 77 0. 57 0. 00 0. 00 Disney Coef. 23. 12 (13. 27) 23. 12 (13. 27) 6. 32 (13. 94) 4. 63 (14. 02) 3. 24 (14. 00) 4. 87 (13. 94) 8. 00 (19. 73) 23. 12 (13. 27) 2. 94 (13. 92) 4. 48 (14. 02) 6. 49 (14. 24) 5. 35 (14. 05) 1. 13 (14. 02) 3. 27 (14. 01) 7. 97 (28. 15) P;|t| 0. 09 0. 09 0. 65 0. 74 0. 82 0. 73 0. 69 0. 09 0. 83 0. 75 0. 65 0. 71 21. 01 (1. 94) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety Workshop Safety Food problem 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 01 (1. 94) 20. 89 (1. 91) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 34 0. 31 0. 00 0. 75 0. 01 0. 00 0. 94 0. 82 22 0. 78 4. 3 Is more CSRC better?This section focuses on the number of CSRCs: if more CSRCs increase transaction costs for suppliers, which in turn results in violations of the CSRC, then there should be less violation with regard to labor conditions as the number of CSRCs increases. Table 5 shows the UIRT model for labor conditions according to the number of CSR code. The nonCSRC supplier column is the same as in Table 4, while the â€Å"1 CSRC† column has a pool of suppliers with a single CSRC and â€Å"2 CSRC† suppliers include Matt el ; Wal-Mart and Disney ; Wal-Mart. The pattern of violations in labor conditions in Table 8 is consistent with the hypothesis that more CSRCs is better to control opportunism at the suppliers’ level; the suppliers of 2 CSRCs constantly outperform the 1 CSRC suppliers and the non-CSRC suppliers on the control of labor conditions.For example, in terms of labor bargaining and association rights, the number of tasks with a similar significant coefficient as union is 5 in â€Å"No CSRC† suppliers, 2 in â€Å"1 CSRC† supplier, and none in â€Å"2 CSRC† suppliers. All the estimation results in â€Å"violation of law† and â€Å"safety and living environment† show that the tasks relative to coefficients are reduced as the number of CSRC increases. These results are consistent with the perspective that an increase in the number of CSRCs may increase the transaction costs of opportunism at the suppliers’ level. However, suppliers may also have measures to reduce governance effects from CSRC. The effects of different measures of opportunism are investigated in the next section. 23 24Table 5: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by number of CSR code No CSR code 1 CSR code 2 CSR codes Item Coef. P;|t| Coef. P;|t| Coef. Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 19. 40 (4. 33) (0. 31) (3. 12) Complaint to Client 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 6. 11 (4. 33) (0. 31) (0. 89) Employee Association 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 5. 57 (4. 33) (0. 31) (0. 76) Bargaining Rights 42. 38 0. 00 19. 10 0. 00 2. 02 (4. 33) (0. 26) (0. 67) Bargaining Channel 42. 38 0. 00 20. 14 0. 00 3. 92 (4. 33) (0. 20) (0. 64) Labor department Use 0. 00 0. 87 19. 73 0. 00 3. 51 (0. 00) (0. 25) (0. 58) Collective Bargain 42. 38 0. 00 23. 61 0. 00 5. 21 (4. 33) (0. 98) (0. 6) Strike Use 20. 77 0. 00 20. 24 0. 00 3. 51 (2. 30) (0. 26) (0. 64) Violation of Law Child labor (;14 yrs) Under age labor (;16 yrs) Maternity l eave Illegal Over Time work Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety Workshop Safety Food problem Live environment problem 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 01 (1. 94) 20. 89 (1. 91) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 87 15. 47 (0. 87) 14. 77 (14. 65) 22. 30 (0. 42) 18. 70 (0. 23) 2030. 00 0. 64 0. 00 0. 32 0. 00 0. 00 0. 43 (0. 76) 2. 98 (0. 68) 4. 48 (0. 79) 2. 72 (0. 67) 1335. 00 0. 40 0. 00 (0. 00) 19. 92 (1. 77) 42. 38 (4. 33) 21. 01 (1. 94) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 17. 05 (0. 41) 19. 27 (0. 24) 20. 85 (0. 24) 24. 31 (15. 01) 0. 0 0. 00 0. 00 0. 11 1. 61 (0. 64) 1. 76 (0. 67) 4. 07 (0. 67) 4. 30 (0. 70) P;|t| 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 01 0. 01 0. 00 0. 00 0. 57 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 (0. 00) Number of obs 680. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 84 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis 4. 4 Suppliers’ Measures to circumvent CSRC auditing 25 When considering other transaction costs of governing with the CSRC, suppliers may apply different strategies to get around the CSRC auditing. Because most CSRC auditing would give advance notice to suppliers, suppliers would have room for measures to circumvent the auditing.This study has documented some of the common supplier measures to circumvent CSRC auditing: fire drill, trained question, giving a holiday, cleaning the factory, and safety drill. Certainly, suppliers may use more than one measure to get around the CSRC auditing; it is likely that suppliers with more labor problems would use more measures to cover up their problems. This section first looks at the number of measures that may be associated with labor problems. We then investigate how the different measures affect labor conditions. Table 6 shows the UIRT model for the number of measures to circumvent CSRC auditing. The first column of Table 6 shows the result of â€Å"no measure. A response of â€Å"no measure† to circumvent CSRC auditing is associated with no significant measures that are different from â€Å"o ther problem,† suggesting that a supplier without any measure for CSRC auditing is performing relatively well in terms of labor conditions. The second column, i. e. , â€Å"one measure† to circumvent CSRC auditing, shows a very different pattern. Although no task is as difficult as the union problem, all tasks show a significant coefficient, except the fire safety problem. The third column, â€Å"two or more measures,† indicates an even stronger coefficient in all the tasks than the column with one measure. Furthermore, the task â€Å"complaint to client† is as strong as â€Å"union† in this column.When comparing the three columns in Table 6, it appears that the more the measures suppliers use, the higher the likelihood they commit more labor problems. This is consistent with the transaction cost hypothesis that opportunism may increase the transaction cost of governing with the CSRC. It is not necessary that all measures have an equal effect on lab or problems. The next section shows the effect of individual measure of CSRC auditing on labor problems. 26 Table 6: Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by Number of Supplier's Measure No Measure One Measure Two or More Measures Item Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 19. 88 0. 22 20. 47 0. 0 34. 57 0. 00 (15. 58) (3. 66) (4. 30) Complaint to Client 5. 35 0. 79 7. 34 0. 00 34. 57 0. 00 (19. 88) (1. 20) (4. 30) Employee Association 5. 35 0. 79 7. 34 0. 00 20. 80 0. 00 (20. 03) (1. 21) (2. 85) Bargaining Rights 1. 64 0. 92 2. 40 0. 00 17. 16 0. 00 (15. 09) (0. 77) (2. 19) Bargaining Channel 3. 47 0. 82 4. 24 0. 00 17. 84 0. 00 (14. 91) (0. 74) (2. 13) Labor department Use 3. 20 0. 83 3. 85 0. 00 17. 42 0. 00 (14. 89) (0. 71) (2. 17) Collective Bargain 19. 88 0. 22 6. 63 0. 00 19. 85 0. 00 (15. 58) (1. 03) (2. 30) Strike Use 2. 94 0. 85 3. 78 0. 00 18. 47 0. 00 (15. 15) (0. 73) (2. 18) Violation of Law Child labor (>14 yrs) -14. 1 0. 34 1. 26 0. 09 15. 87 0. 00 (14. 61) (0. 74) (2. 18) Under age labor (>16 yrs) 2. 24 0. 88 2. 59 0. 00 16. 91 0. 00 (15. 11) (0. 77) (2. 12) Maternity leave 2. 77 0. 86 4. 60 0. 00 18. 89 0. 00 (15. 14) (0. 76) (2. 20) Illegal Over Time work 5. 23 0. 80 6. 39 0. 00 19. 09 0. 00 (19. 94) (1. 06) (2. 26) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 00 1. 00 0. 73 0. 40 12. 91 0. 32 (22. 56) (0. 86) (12. 82) Workshop Safety 0. 00 1. 00 2. 03 0. 01 16. 24 0. 00 (22. 56) (0. 78) (2. 09) Food problem 4. 13 0. 79 5. 10 0. 00 21. 50 0. 16 (15. 39) (0. 86) (15. 24) Live environment problem 2. 19 0. 89 2. 67 0. 00 16. 88 0. 00 (15. 10) (0. 77) (2. 2) Number of obs 267. 00 1777. 00 1321. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 52 0. 51 0. 52 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis Supplier's measures to circumvent CSRC auditing include fire drill, trained question, giving a holiday, Cleaning the Factory, and Safety Drill. 27 4. 4 Suppliers’ Measures to circumvent CSRC auditing Table 7 s hows the UIRT model for individual measures to circumvent CSRC auditing. The measures in this study include fire drill, safety drill, giving a holiday, trained question, and cleaning the factory. As the safety drill estimation is not converged, Table 10 shows only the four other supplier measures.Table 7 ranks the measures according to the number of the most serious tasks (compared to union) from the left, namely, fire drill (6 tasks), giving a holiday (4 tasks), trained question (0 task), and cleaning the factory (0 task). Why do fire drill suppliers have the most tasks similar to the union coefficient? As discussed in the last subsection, fire safety is one of the most serious areas that the Chinese local authorities are concerned with, and it is the most frequent task to be checked during a factory visit. If a supplier has not even met the basic standard of the fire safety, it is reasonable to infer that other tasks are likely to be a problem as well. This is similar in the case of holidays for workers – meaning that the supplier tries to prohibit workers from revealing this fact.As giving holidays for a busy factory is costly, suppliers are likely to create more than one problem in the task. â€Å"Trained question† is one of the most common ways that suppliers try to get around CSRC auditing during the worker interview. Suppliers try to train workers with â€Å"model answers† that fit the CSRC auditing interview questions. The â€Å"trained question† effect may be very limited as only trained workers model their answers to the interview question, and this cannot cover other the problems in the factory. It is clear that the â€Å"trained question† may have fewer problems than â€Å"fire drill† and â€Å"giving a holiday. † â€Å"Cleaning the factory† was found the least serious measure.Only suppliers who are confident with their labor conditions would use â€Å"cleaning the factory† to polish th eir workshop. 28 Table 7:Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by Supplier's Measure Fire Drill Give Holiday Trained question Cleaning Factory Item Coef. P>|t| Coef. P>|t| Coef. P>|t| Coef. P>|t| Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 35. 79 0. 00 21. 80 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (5. 39) (2. 87) Complaint to Client 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 21. 55 0. 00 8. 79 0. 49 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 80) (12. 70) Employee Association 40. 28 0. 00 22. 22 0. 24 21. 55 0. 00 7. 68 0. 00 (1. 05) (18. 58) (2. 98) (1. 00) Bargaining Rights 18. 38 0. 29 0. 00 0. 75 17. 88 0. 00 3. 5 0. 00 (14. 33) (0. 00) (2. 78) (0. 75) Bargaining Channel 18. 38 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 18. 36 0. 00 4. 47 0. 00 (0. 45) (3. 83) (2. 62) (0. 73) Labor department Use 21. 11 0. 00 16. 38 0. 32 18. 07 0. 00 4. 38 0. 00 (0. 61) (16. 06) (2. 69) (0. 71) Collective Bargain 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 20. 60 0. 00 6. 54 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 81) (0. 85) Strike Use 40. 28 0. 00 17. 62 0. 0 0 19. 30 0. 00 4. 85 0. 00 (1. 05) (1. 31) (2. 88) (0. 74) Violation of Law Child labor (>14 yrs) 0. 00 0. 45 18. 35 0. 00 16. 41 0. 00 2. 01 0. 01 (0. 00) (1. 70) (2. 61) (0. 73) Under age labor (>16 yrs) 18. 38 0. 29 18. 00 0. 00 17. 51 0. 00 3. 33 0. 00 (14. 3) (2. 04) (2. 60) (0. 75) Maternity leave 21. 11 0. 25 22. 22 0. 27 19. 09 0. 00 5. 22 0. 00 (14. 97) (19. 80) (2. 72) (0. 74) Illegal Over Time work 40. 28 0. 00 22. 22 0. 27 19. 85 0. 00 6. 14 0. 00 (1. 05) (19. 80) (2. 72) (0. 85) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 00 0. 39 0. 00 0. 75 14. 16 0. 00 0. 72 0. 40 (0. 00) (0. 00) (2. 54) (0. 85) Workshop Safety 0. 00 0. 38 0. 00 0. 75 16. 77 0. 00 2. 84 0. 00 (0. 00) (0. 00) (2. 70) (0. 75) Food problem 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 20. 59 0. 00 6. 11 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 87) (0. 89) Live environment problem 18. 38 0. 00 21. 51 0. 00 17. 53 0. 00 2. 88 0. 00 (0. 45) (2. 15) (2. 72) (0. 5) Number of obs 85. 00 408. 00 1440. 00 2452. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 83 0. 88 0. 49 0. 50 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis except the fire estimation, which indicates standard error in parenthesis. â€Å"Safety Drill† is not converged in estimation. 29 Robustness Check For convenience, the estimation of the UIRT model in Table 7 uses the â€Å"other problem† as a base. However, as the â€Å"other problem† is not exactly along zero in the data, there may be a problem in estimating the â€Å"true probability† of the task. More importantly, there may be problem of the UIRT assumption about the zero covariance among items in the estimation.This robustness check uses the â€Å"union† as a base in Table 8, which reruns the UIRT model in Table 5. If the zero covariance assumption is violated, using the upper bound of the problem, the union, as the base of estimation will give very different results. However, if the zero covariance assumption is not violated, as this estimation uses  "union† as a base, the coefficient will be interpreted exactly opposite to that given in Table 5; those problems with larger and significant coefficients given in Table 5 should now be close to zero and insignificant in Table 8 and vice versa. Most of the coefficients here are negatively signed, suggesting that they are â€Å"weaker† than the union problem.Non-CSRC suppliers are seen to have six problems (complaint to client, employee association, bargaining rights, bargaining channel, collective bargain, and maternity leave), â€Å"1 CSRC† has two problems (complaint to client and emplo