Articles in Sociology: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights

The article “The spotlight on the bottom line: how multinationals export human rights. (child labor and sweatshop abuses by foreign contractors of American corporations)”, written by Debora L. Spar, discusses how multinational corporations are bringing human rights to the labor forces in foreign countries through something called the ‘spotlight phenomenon. Spar describes the spotlight phenomenon thusly, “When U.S. corporations go abroad, they take more than their capital and technology with them. They also take their brand names, their reputations, and their international images. They bring in their wake the scrutiny of U.S.-based activist groups and the international media. When U.S. corporations are caught engaging in unfair or abusive practices, these groups spring into action, casting a shadow of scorn.” Basically, when an American corporation becomes multinational, it brings along with it American values and ideals regarding human rights and, thanks to globalization, many human rights and grass roots organizations are able not only to monitor the practices of these companies but also to wage campaigns against them should the companies go against the American standard of what is right. Because of this scrutiny, American companies have been forced to take a more hands-on approach to their dealings in outsourcing and the end result has been that human rights in the labor force have been imposed upon these foreign countries by American multinational corporations.

I found this article incredibly interesting for several reasons. The first reason has to do with the double-edged consequences that globalization has for multinational corporations. On the one hand, globalization is a boon because a globalized economy allows U.S. corporations to go abroad in search of cheaper labor and wider markets. Globalization is what allows outsourcing of manufacturing and production so that U.S. companies can spend less and make more profit. However, this same globalization gives human rights organizations in America the power to become watchdogs over what these U.S. corporations are doing in foreign countries. That creates a tremendous amount of pressure on these companies because, as Spar puts it, “Suddenly, the advantages of lower cost labor or lower-cost inputs from more abusive suppliers must be weighed against the crush of negative publicity, the cost of public relations, and the possibility of consumer protests.”

But even the difficulty that U.S. corporations face at the hands of globalization has an upside because it forces them to impose protective codes of conduct on the companies that they use for outsourcing. And while I don’t believe that every rule America makes is right for every other country, there are certain things, such as human rights, that are fairly universal and I find it amazing that globalization, in a round about way, has actually brought a better way of life to some other countries.

The fact remains, however, that outsourcing labor and manufacturing, though wonderful for corporations, are not good for the American people. And this is where globalization again becomes a double edged sword. Cheaper labor means more profits for multinational corporations but it also means fewer jobs for Americans. It’s amazing that U.S. corporations can bring human rights to other nations, but what is the over all cost to Americans? Beyond the fact that Americans lose jobs thanks to this phenomenon, there’s also a loss of quality in the products that are being produced this way. American companies are making profits on products that Americans can’t afford to buy because they’ve lost the job of manufacturing them, and Americans are paying more money for products that are more cheaply made.

In the end, I think it’s an amazing trick that capitalism and globalization can have the side effect of making conditions better for laborers in other countries, but I also think that America needs to focus more of it’s human rights efforts right here on it’s own soil. After all, while we have people lobbying for the protection and fair treatment of laborers abroad, we still have quite a number of people here in America who are unemployed because we’re giving so many of our jobs to foreigners. How we maintain our own economy when we don’t employ our own people so that they can purchase the items that our companies are producing? Globalization may, in the long run, prove to do more harm than good.

Spar, Debora L. “The spotlight on the bottom line: how multinationals export human rights. (child labor and sweatshop abuses by foreign contractors of American corporations).” Foreign Affairs 77.n2 (March-April 1998): 7(6). InfoTrac OneFile. Thomson Gale. Virginia Commonwealth University. 20 Oct. 2006

Reference:

• Foreign Affairs – www.foreignaffairs.org/