Develop a theoretical framework on the content of CSR towards employees, the process of implementing CSR, some subjective factors and objective conditions having impact on CSR towards employees of enterprises; Study experiences of foreign garment enterprises and find out lessons learned for Vietnam garment enterprises; Analyze and assess the status of the content and implementation of CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises; Analyze how a number of subjective factors can impact the process of implementing CSR towards employees of Vietnamese garment enterprises; Analyze and identify objective conditions affecting CSR towards employees of Vietnamese garment enterprises; Research orientations and opinions on CSR towards employees to propose solutions and recommendations to enhance CSR towards employees of Vietnamese garment enterprises from now to 2025 with a vision to 2030.
Trang 1Hanoi, 2019
Trang 22. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mai Thanh Lan
Examiner 1:……… ………
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Examiner 2:……… ………
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Examiner 3: ……… ………
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The Doctoral dissertation will be defended at Thuong Mai University level Board of Examiners at Thuong Mai University at ………
The Doctoral dissertation can be found at: The National Library of Vietnam Thuong Mai University’s library
Trang 31. Rationale for the study
Regarding scientific aspects, the term “corporate social responsibility” has been officially used for the first time since 1953 when H.R Bowen published the book
entitled "Social Responsibilities of the Businessman". Corporate social responsibility
(CSR) is a harmonious combination of environmental, social and economic factors in enterprises' decisions. More and more businesses have already realized that CSR towards employees plays an important role in business strategy. With a view to achieving good results in CSR towards employees, enterprises’ managers must ensure the scientific, systematic and efficient process of CSR implementation.
Regarding legal aspects, not only are employees indispensable to enterprises but they are also an important force of the society. Employees are associated with their basic rights
in labor relations which are recognized by the law, namely Article 5 of the Labor Code 2012
of Vietnam Nowadays, not only the rights of employees are stipulated in the labor regulations but they are also recognized in CSR standards through the code of conduct.Regarding practical aspects, Garment is the main economic sector of Vietnam. After
20 years of development, over 5000 garment companies are using more than 20% of workers in industries. Currently, CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises has been implemented partially in line with labor regulations. However, it still has many limitations. For a good CSR towards employees, enterprises must pay attention to its implementation process. In addition, barriers and challenges of garment enterprises are subjective and objective factors for more complicated CSR for implementation.
Trang 4CSR towards employees of Vietnamese garment enterprises; (v) Analyze and identify objective conditions affecting CSR towards employees of Vietnamese garment enterprises; (vi) Research orientations and opinions on CSR towards employees to propose solutions and recommendations to enhance CSR towards employees of Vietnamese garment enterprises from now to 2025 with a vision to 2030.
3. Research questions
For the foregoing research objectives and tasks, the dissertation has to answer the following questions: (1) What is the content and process of implementing CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises? (2) How can subjective factors affect the process of implementing CSR towards employees and how can objective conditions have impact on CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises ? (3) What should we do to enhance CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises as well as to improve the objective conditions affecting CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises?
5. New contributions of the dissertation
With regard to academic aspect: The theoretical framework of CSR ensuring
rights and benefits of employees related to labor contracts, working hours, occupational safety and health is developed; The theoretical framework of the implementation of CSR towards employees of enterprises from making plan on implementation, implementation and evaluation of implementation of CSR towards employees is scientifically developed; Some key factors affecting the process of implementing CSR towards employees are identified, hypotheses are created, variables
Trang 5and scales are selected in line with the research context. Namely, independent variables are business leadership, strategic planning, corporate finance, corporate culture; control variables are business size; objective factors are the situation of development and international economic integration, state management on the implementation of CSR towards employees, code of conduct related to implementation of CSR towards employees, other stakeholders affecting CSR.
With regard to practical aspects, the dissertation analyzes and evaluates the
situation in a systematic and objective manner and comes to a conclusion that compared
to SMEs, largescale garment enterprises stand out in terms of implementing clauses ensuring rights of employees in labor contracts, carrying out advanced health care programs, social insurance, health insurance for employees. SMEs still have limitations in ensuring rights of employees, ensuring working hours in line with their commitments, strictly complying with regulations on rewards for extra working hours in weekdays Large enterprises have initially been interested in the process of implementing CSR towards employees from making plan on implementation, implementation and evaluation
of implementation of CSR towards employees. However, they still have difficulties CSR implementation accounting, CSR communication and communication report making. SMEs do not know the whole process of implementing CSR towards employees. The dissertation also finds out other stakeholders influencing the most CSR towards employees. The use of exploratory factor EFA, CFA, SEM and Boostrap tests result: CSR
= 0.271*LD + 0.193*HD + 0.180*TC + 0.158*Size and Leadership variable has the strongest impact. The dissertation proposes some solutions: to enhance the content of the implementation of CSR towards employees; to promote the implementation of CSR towards employees; to improve subjective objectivefactors to create favorable conditions for CSR towards employees of garment enterprises
5. The dissertation structure
The dissertation has the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Research overview and methodology
Chapter 2: Theoretical and practical framework of CSR towards employees of enterprisesChapter 3: Situation of CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprisesChapter 4: Solutions to strengthening CSR towards employees of Vietnam garment enterprises
CHAPTER 1RESEARCH OVERVIEW AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Trang 6Foreign and domestic researches on "corporate social responsibility (CSR), CSR towards employees” published in books, scientific articles with empirical, clear and specific evidence are the following:
Researches on CSR focusing on a number of theories that are considered fundamental: Stakeholder and responsibility level theories;
Researches on "CSR towards employees" mainly focusing on: (i) Content of CSR towards employees in line with the implementation level, ISO26000, CSR ensuring rights and benefits of employees, (ii) The process of implementing CSR towards employees
Researches on some subjective factors affecting the implementation of CSR towards employees" coming to a conclusion that CSR towards employees, the process of implementing CSR towards employees are affected by many factors: business leadership, strategic planning, corporate finance, size and type of business
Researches on objective factors affecting CSR towards employees of enterprises such as the situation of economic development and international economic integration; state management on the implementation of CSR towards employees; CoC related to the implementation of CSR towards employees; other stakeholders.
1.2. Research gap and scientific values inherited in the dissertation
1.2.1. Research gap
Firstly, according to some practical researches deploying the pyramid of CSR
towards employees of enterprises, levels of CSR are interlinked. Therefore, subsequent researches can focus on CSR ensuring rights and interests of employees to overcome this limitation and ensure the comprehensive and systematic process of the implementation
of CSR towards employees
Secondly, domestic researches are mainly reports, theoretical and practical review
articles on CSR and some researches referring to the process of implementing CSR in seafood processing and exporting enterprises, electronic business enterprises. Therefore, the research gap is to establish a theoretical framework on the process of implementing CSR towards employees from making plan on implementation
Thirdly, researches identify some subjective factors: business leadership, strategic
planning, corporate finance, corporate culture, enterprise size and objective conditions such as the situation of economic development and international economic integration, state management, CoC, other stakeholders affecting the implementation of CSR towards employees Not many researches systematically and comprehensively focus on developing models and testing the aforesaid subjective factors have impact on the
Trang 7In order to answer the identified research questions, the research uses a process consisting of some steps from making the theoretical framework of CSR towards employees, preliminary qualitative research, preliminary quantitative research, official quantitative research and indepth analysis after quantitative research.
1.3.2. Research scale and hypothesis
(i) Research scale
These scales are inherited from domestic and foreign researches of Panapanaan
et colleguages (2003), Jonker & Marco de Witte (2006), Sumina Elizabeth Thomas (2011); Teresa Correia de Lacerda (2014), Barbara J. Fick (2014), Le Thi Huong (2017), ILO & IFC (2017), Labor Code (2012) and a fivepoint Likert scale specifying that 1 point is strong disagreement and 5 points are strong disagreement
(ii) Research hypothesis
H1Business leadership has a positive impact on the process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises ; H2Strategic planning has a positive impact on the
Trang 8a positive impact on the process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises; H4 Corporate culture has a positive impact on the process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises; H5 Business size has a positive impact on the process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises; H6 Type of enterprise has a positive impact on the process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises
1.3.4. Quantitative research
(i) Preliminary quantitative research
Preliminary quantitative research is carried out on basis of data collected from surveys conducted in 50 Vietnam in which 152 notes of employees and 107 notes of managers are collected. The preliminary quantitative research results show that scales of all variables have Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient greater than 0.6 and the corrected item total correlation greater than 0.3, which means that they are reliable. However, observed variables such as glv6, CSR14 are eliminated as the corrected item total correlation is lower than 0.3. Type of business, the control variable is also excluded because the level
of significance is greater than 10%. H6 is removed. Only business size, the control variable, is satisfactory with the level of significance lower than 5%.
(ii) Research model of subjective factors affecting the process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises
The research model has a total of 32 observed variables including 4 independent variables being leadership, strategic planning, corporate finance, corporate culture and 1 dependent variable being CSR and 1 control variable being business size
Trang 9
Figure 1.3: Model of subjective factors affecting of implementing CSR towards employees
(iii) Official quantitative research
Official quantitative research is conducted on the basis of data collected from 308 Vietnam garment enterprises. Namely, 782 survey notes on the content of CSR ensuring rights and benefits of employees collected from employees are open to EFA and CFA and 525 survey notes on the process of implementing CSR towards employees collected from managers are open to EFA, CFA and SEM with 6 steps.
CHAPTER 2THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK ON CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS EMPLOYEES OF ENTERPRISES2.1. Some concepts of corporate social responsibility
2.1.1. Concept of employees
Employees are people who are at working age, working under labor contracts making them perform certain work and get paid as agreed in accordance with current legal provisions.
2.1.2. Concept of corporate social responsibility of enterprises
Corporate social responsibility of enterprises is a commitment of businesses to related parties to complying with and exceeding the requirements of the law leading to the improvement of the quality of life of employees, appropriate treatment for partners, community, environment to ensure the sustainable development of businesses as well as society.
2.1.3. Concept of corporate social responsibility towards employees
Corporate social responsibility towards employees of enterprises is to fulfill their commitments to employees through responsibility for ensuring rights and interests of employees leading to improvement of the quality of life of employees as well as the sustainable development of enterprises and society.
2.2 Content of corporate social responsibility ensuring rights and interests of employees of enterprises
2.2.1.Labor contract
Trang 10In a labor relation, employees are always in a disadvantageous position. In order to enforce employees' rights as well as identify a formal labor relation, employees and employers sign a legal document called a labor contract. Regarding labor contracts with clauses ensuring rights of employees, signing a labor contract appropriate to the nature of work and terminating the labor contract in accordance with the labor regulations are fundamental rights of employees. Besides, many businesses have realized that they need to attach importance to and enforce clauses ensuring benefits of employees in labor contracts.
2.2.2. Working time
Working time is the period of time that employees must perform work according to legal provisions, the agreement of employees and employers in labor contracts and collective labor agreement. Regulations on working time include committed working hours; extra hours per day, month, year and leave. CSR relating working time should expand the voluntariness of about extra working hours of employees
2.2.3. Occupational safety and health
Regarding CSR ensuring employees’ rights to occupational safety and health, training on occupational safety and health, fire protection, labor protection, not having emergency exits entangled or locked, periodic health examinations for employees are prerequisites. In addition, commitments to ensuring benefits such as advanced health care programs, organization of cultural and sports activities are also important.
2.2.4. Salary and welfare
For CSR related to salary and welfare being a lever stimulating financial benefits for employees, employees' salary must not be lower than the prescribed minimum wage; social insurance, health insurance of employees must comply with legal regulations. The state always encourages enterprises to pay competitive salaries, pay allowances higher than prescribed and give housing support to employees
2.2.5. Freedom of association and collective bargaining
With a view to protecting rights of employees, employees in any enterprise are allowed to have the right to join labor unions, freedom of association and collective bargaining to establish general rules on labor relation. For example, enterprises organize annual employee conference
as well as allow employees to discuss working conditions or collective labor agreements resulting to clauses and conditions that are better than provisions of labor regulations.
2.3 The process of implementing CSR towards employees of enterprises
Trang 112.3.1. Making plan on implementation of CSR towards employees of enterprises
Determination of objectives of implementation: to comply with provisions of labor
regulations regarding protection of rights as well as improvement of benefits of employees, to meet requirements of customers in international business, to implement the sustainable business strategy of enterprises, to improve labor productivity and quality of work, to enhance the reputation of enterprises, to attract qualified and skilled human resources
Research and selection of codes of conduct: Codes of conduct must be appropriate to
social ethics, codes of conduct to be selected must be provided from reputable organizations, codes of conduct are accepted by many international customers. In the process of finding out codes of conduct on labor, it is important to pay attention to reputation of certification organizations and reasonable certification evaluation cost
Development of programs on implementation: Starting from drafting the
implementation program to issuing and saving store and copy the departments and units in the enterprise to implement the program on implementation of CSR towards employees. Some social responsibility programs for employees can be single programs or dual programs containing social responsibility to ensure rights and benefits. Firstly, they develop programs, then prepare written documents on programs and distribute them to other divisions in enterprises.
Drawing up a budget for implementation: Drawing up a budget is estimating all receipts
and expenditures related to one or more programs of implementation of CSR towards employees in each period. All receipts and expenditures at any time must be noted exactly.
2.3.2 Implementation of CSR towards employees
Assignment of a division responsible for implementing: In SMEs, the owner or the
division in charge of administration and human resources is responsible for implementing CSR towards employees. In large enterprises, may be CSR committee or Advisory and Innovation or Life quality committee.
Preparation for written registration for the code of conduct: enterprises must
initially contact organizations having right to grant the certificate After receiving written registration of enterprise, the organization will evaluate preliminarily and officially regulations in the code of conduct.
Trang 12unified set of documents to all departments and employees specifying responsibilities, obligations and duties of the department in charge of CSR and other departments making them aware of and fulfill their own ones.
Implementation of internal communication activities on implementation:
Enterprises need to well inform each employee of the content, process and time of implementation of its CSR towards employees through traditional and modern internal communication activities.
Organization of training courses on implementation: Trainers are experts or staff of
enterprises qualified about the implementation of CSR towards employees to meet requirements and objectives of the training courses. Trainees are divided into 2 groups: Group 1 include staff responsible for implementing CSR towards employees and group 2 consist of remaining employees of the enterprise. The trainers must develop the training content and method appropriate to each group.
Organization of programs on implementation: Enterprises should carry out programs
ensuring rights and benefits of employees in cooperation with their departments and employees. These programs should focus on guiding employees to sign the type of labor contract appropriate to the nature of their work; ensuring extra hours per day, month and year of employees in accordance with labor regulations;
2.3.3 Evaluation of the implementation of CSR towards employees of enterprises
Determination of criteria for evaluating the implementation: quantitative
assessment criteria such as the number of clauses ensuring rights of employees, the rate
of labor contracts signed appropriately (regarding their type and the nature of work) signed in the right type; the rate of working time appropriate to commitments and qualitative assessment criteria being awareness of grassroots labor union, satisfaction level of employees regarding the annual employee conference,…
Measurement of main results of the implementation: through data collection and
analysis, warning signs, direct observation and personal contact.
Take corrective and preventive action: enterprises need to adjust objectives of the
implementation of CSR towards employees; the action program or no action propram.2.4. Subjective factor affecting the implementation of CSR towards employees
2.4.1. Leadership
Trang 132.4.2. Strategic planning
In opinion of Carroll (1984), “Strategic planning is a necessary condition to implement CSR towards employees" as strategic planning is to develop and follow the roadmap for achieving selected strategic objectives
2.4.3. Corporate finance
Finance plays an important in every activity of enterprises. With a view to implementing well CSR towards employees, enterprises must pay attention to their financial status.
2.4.4. Corporate culture
From the point of view of Kotter, J.P. & Heskett, J.L (2011), “Culture also reflects a combination of values and interdependent behaviors that are common in enterprises and tend to be passed down for a long time”.
2.4.5. Business size
From the establishment to development of an enterprise, its size may be the same or increase. Results of some researches show an important and positive link between the enterprise’s size and implementation of CSR towards employees.
2.5. Objective factor affecting CSR towards employees of enterprises
2.5.1. Situation of economic development and international economic integration
Globalization and international economic integration have been prominent trends of the world economy Economic integration requires enterprises to implement CSR towards employees to ensure fundamental rights of employees in line with ILO and labor standards of bilateral, multilateral and free trade agreements (FTA) signed by countries.
2.5.2. State management on the implementation of CSR towards employees
The State promulgates legal provisions and policies related to the implementation
of CSR towards employees of enterprises in the Labor Code, Law on occupational safety and health, The State assigns the central and local agencies to implement CSR towards employees including ministries, departments and people’s committees and at the same time inspects the compliance with policies, plans and legal provisions related to the implementation of CSR towards employees.
2.5.3. Codes of conduct on CSR towards employees
Trang 142.5.4. Other stakeholders
The fate of enterprises lies in the hands of customers. Suppliers ensure the quality and price of enterprises’ products. Therefore, when the community is aware of social justice, they can put pressure on enterprises to implement CSR towards employees
2.6 The situation of the implementation of CSR towards employees of some foreign enterprises and lessons learned for Vietnam garment enterprises
Shenzhou International Group Holdings Ltd (China), CBC Fashions (Asia) Private Limited (India), Abu Taher Company (Bangladesh) gradually paying attention to sustainable development and CSR towards employees Lessons learned for Vietnam garment enterprises include (i) The content of CSR towards employees is to ensure rights and benefits of employees; (ii) Objectives of the implementation of CSR towards employees are set specifically, reasonably and feasibly; (iii) It is important to assign a division responsible for implementing CSR towards employees methodically and professionally in the whole enterprise; (iv) The assessment of the implementation of CSR towards employees
is conducted regularly; (v) These enterprises make report on the implementation of CSR towards employees
CHAPTER 3THE SITUATION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS
EMPLOYEES OF VIETNAM GARMENT ENTERPRISES
3.1. Overview of Vietnam garment enterprises
3.1.1. The establishment and development of garment enterprises