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- September 2015
- Article
Codes in Context: How States, Markets, and Civil Society Shape Adherence to Global Labor Standards
By: Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short and Melissa Ouellet
Transnational business regulation is increasingly implemented through private voluntary programs—like certification regimes and codes of conduct—that diffuse global standards. But little is known about the conditions under which companies adhere to these standards. We... View Details
Keywords: Transnational Regulation; Labor Standards; Consumer Politics; Codes Of Conduct; Compliance; Governance Compliance; Operations; Globalization; Labor
Toffel, Michael W., Jodi L. Short, and Melissa Ouellet. "Codes in Context: How States, Markets, and Civil Society Shape Adherence to Global Labor Standards." Regulation & Governance 9, no. 3 (September 2015): 205–223.
- July 1999
- Background Note
Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor
By: Roy D. Shapiro
A brief note on the origins and uses of standard times in production process flow diagrams and on the benefits and drawbacks of division of labor. A rewritten version of two earlier notes. View Details
Shapiro, Roy D. "Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor." Harvard Business School Background Note 600-013, July 1999.
- 27 Jun 2012
- Conference Presentation
Private Enforcement of Labor and Environmental Standards in Global Supply Chains
- 26 Dec 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards
- 18 Jul 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Beyond Symbolic Responses to Private Politics: Examining Labor Standards Improvement in Global Supply Chains
- July–August 2019
- Article
Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of Internal Structural Conditions
By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel
Exploitive working conditions have spurred companies to pressure their suppliers to adopt labor codes of conduct and to conform their labor practices to the standards set forth in those codes. Yet little is known about whether organizational structures such as codes... View Details
Keywords: Organization Theory; Economic Sociology; Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Auditing; Process Improvement; Organizational Structure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain; Labor; Working Conditions
Bird, Yanhua, Jodi L. Short, and Michael W. Toffel. "Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of Internal Structural Conditions." Organization Science 30, no. 4 (July–August 2019): 847–867. (Best Paper Award at ComplianceNet Conference 2019, 2020 Responsible Research in Management Award Finalist.)
- March 2024
- Article
Do Safety Management System Standards Indicate Safer Operations? Evidence from the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Standard
By: Kala Viswanathan, Matthew S. Johnson and Michael W. Toffel
Problem definition: Given the enormous disruptions and costs of occupational injuries, companies and buyers are increasingly looking to voluntary occupational health and safety standards to improve worker safety. Yet because these standards only require... View Details
Keywords: Occupational Health; Occupational Safety; Program Evaluation; Safety Performance; Injuries; OHSAS 18001; ISO 45001; Working Conditions; Safety; Standards
Viswanathan, Kala, Matthew S. Johnson, and Michael W. Toffel. "Do Safety Management System Standards Indicate Safer Operations? Evidence from the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Standard." Art. 106383. Safety Science 171 (March 2024).
- 14 Feb 2013
- Talk
Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards
Toffel, Michael W. "Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards." New Directions in Regulation Seminar Series, Harvard Kennedy School Regulatory Policy Program, Cambridge, MA, United States, February 14, 2013.
- April 1982 (Revised September 1986)
- Case
Ideal Standard France: Pat Paterson
A newly appointed country subsidiary manager must decide on action for an operation losing $1 million per month. He is constrained by price controls on one hand and sensitive union relations on the other. Furthermore a major loss-contributing plant has recently been... View Details
Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Transition; Cost Management; Management; Crisis Management; Labor and Management Relations
Bartlett, Christopher A. "Ideal Standard France: Pat Paterson." Harvard Business School Case 382-139, April 1982. (Revised September 1986.)
- 2025
- Working Paper
How Firms Respond to Worker Activism: Evidence from Global Supply Chains
By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel
Social movement pressures can lead organizations to concede and improve social performance to avoid disruption costs, but we theorize that such responses evoke concession costs that prompt organizations to shift resources and attention from other social domains whose... View Details
Keywords: Worker Activism; Labor Standards; Tradeoffs; Global Supply Chains; Internal Governance Structure; Public Opinion; Supply Chain; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Working Conditions
Bird, Yanhua, Jodi L. Short, and Michael W. Toffel. "How Firms Respond to Worker Activism: Evidence from Global Supply Chains." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-061, June 2025.
- 08 Nov 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct
- December 2012
- Article
Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880–1965
By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
Recent literature on the historical determinants of African poverty has emphasized structural impediments to African growth, such as adverse geographical conditions, weak institutions, or ethnic heterogeneity. But has African poverty been a persistent historical... View Details
Keywords: Living Standards; Real Wages; Labor Market; Colonial Institutions; Economic Growth; Wages; History; Africa
Frankema, Ewout, and Marlous van Waijenburg. "Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880–1965." Journal of Economic History 72, no. 4 (December 2012): 895–926. (Awarded Economic History Association's Arthur Cole Prize for best article published in The Journal of Economic History in 2012.)
- September 2009
- Article
Virtue out of Necessity? Compliance, Commitment and the Improvement of Labor Conditions in Global Supply Chains
By: Akshay Mangla, Richard Locke and Matthew Amengual
Private, voluntary compliance programs, promoted by global corporations and nongovernmental organizations alike, have produced only modest and uneven improvements in working conditions and labor rights in most global supply chains. Through a detailed study of a major... View Details
Mangla, Akshay, Richard Locke, and Matthew Amengual. "Virtue out of Necessity? Compliance, Commitment and the Improvement of Labor Conditions in Global Supply Chains." Politics & Society 37, no. 3 (September 2009): 319–351.
- 01 Dec 2002
- News
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao Advises New MBA Students on Business Values
Chao Photo Stuart Cahill As part of the orientation for the MBA Class of 2004, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao (MBA '79) told 899 entering students that they had an obligation to help fix the American free-enterprise system. “This... View Details
- June 2010
- Article
Quality Management and Job Quality: How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Affects Employees and Employers
By: David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel
Several studies have examined how the ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard predicts changes in organizational outcomes such as profits. This is the first large-scale study to explore how employee outcomes such as employment, earnings, and health and safety... View Details
Keywords: Quality; Management; Standards; Employees; Wages; Organizations; Profit; Safety; Health; Policy
Levine, David I., and Michael W. Toffel. "Quality Management and Job Quality: How the ISO 9001 Standard for Quality Management Systems Affects Employees and Employers." Management Science 56, no. 6 (June 2010): 978–996. (Appendix. Profiled by industry practitioners in Quality Digest, Quality Progress, ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB).)
- 2007
- Chapter
Expanding Ethical Standards of HRM: Necessary Evils and the Multiple Dimensions of Impact
By: Joshua D. Margolis, Adam M. Grant and Andrew Molinsky
Margolis, Joshua D., Adam M. Grant, and Andrew Molinsky. "Expanding Ethical Standards of HRM: Necessary Evils and the Multiple Dimensions of Impact." Chap. 16 in Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment, edited by Ashly Pinnington, Rob Macklin, and Tom Campbell, 15 pages. Oxford University Press, 2007.
- 25 Jan 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Who Lives in the C-Suite? Organizational Structure and the Division of Labor in Top Management
- 2016
- Working Paper
Signaling without Certification: The Critical Role of Civil Society Scrutiny
By: Susan A. Kayser, John W. Maxwell and Michael W. Toffel
In response to stakeholders' growing concerns, companies are joining voluntary environmental programs to signal their superior environmental management capabilities. In contrast to the literature's focus on certification programs that require a third-party audit, we... View Details
Keywords: United Nations; Labor Standards; Supplier Relationship; Procurement; Sustainability; Sustainability Management; Quality And Safety; Risk; Globalization; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance; Working Conditions; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Quality; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Reputation
Kayser, Susan A., John W. Maxwell, and Michael W. Toffel. "Signaling without Certification: The Critical Role of Civil Society Scrutiny." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 15-009, August 2014. (Revised July 2016.)
- 02 Mar 2020
- News
Cheese Whiz
At Specialty Cheese Co. in Reeseville, Wisconsin, founder Paul Scharfman (MBA 1979) heads up a company that makes one of the state’s best-known exports: cheese. But as its name suggests, Specialty’s 250 employees manufacture products more unusual than the View Details
- March 2003 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement
Examines the political and economic dimensions of the campaign to improve workers' rights around the world through the inclusion of labor standards in international trade agreements. The U.S.-Cambodia Textile Trade Agreement was the first agreement of its kind to link... View Details
Keywords: Trade; Agreements and Arrangements; Rights; Working Conditions; Globalization; Consumer Products Industry; Cambodia; United States
Abrami, Regina M. "Worker Rights and Global Trade: The U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement." Harvard Business School Case 703-034, March 2003. (Revised September 2004.)