Sharing another publication that went live today. This article is in Transnational Corporations, which is published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and addresses an important and serious issue: forced labor (SDG 8.7). My coauthor Linda Brewer and I first presented this paper at the AIB-UKI conference earlier this year and it is now finally in print.
Our article “The United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act: Are we making progress? A look at organizational commitment to eradicating modern slavery” examines whether UK government compliance actions have had any impact on approving policy robustness, the role of the CEO as the approving authority, and whether UK firms are including ILO forced labor statements.
Using institutional theory as our framework, we do see some evidence of mimetic pressure caused by government outreach for submission to the policy registry, but also the need for more active outreach to maintain compliance. There is some evidence that policies have become more robust since their outreach actions, but not with respect to the inclusion of ILO criteria. While there is some focus on addressing child labor, there is a concerning lack of focus on women as a vulnerable population.
citation:
Carle, H., & Brewer, L. (2023). The United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act: Are we making progress? A look at organizational commitment to eradicating modern slavery. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS, 30(2), 71–103.