Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 3rd Edition by Raymond Andrew Noe, Patrick Wright, John Hollenbeck,Barry Gerhart

Exercise 7

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu applies a uniform set of ethical standards to its employees, who work in almost 150 different countries. Wherever they work, DTT's employees are expected to abide by the standards of honesty and integrity, professional behavior, competence, objectivity, confidentiality, fair business practices, responsibility to society, respect and fair treatment, and accountability and decision making (leading by example). The firm has one advantage, at least: Its professional employees share the values of their profession, even if they come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. For other companies, the political, cultural, and economic realities of a host country may be extremely different from those of the parent country, causing ethical dilemmas.
Consider companies that market clothing in the United States that is manufactured in low-wage countries where living standards are far from those in the United States. Critics have objected to the practice of selling goods made in "sweatshops," factories where working conditions are unhealthy and unsafe. Typically, the U.S. marketer doesn't hire its own manufacturing employees but instead contracts with manufacturing firms in low-wage countries, so the U.S. company has limited direct control over working conditions. To exert some control over working conditions, Gap Inc. requires that all its suppliers guarantee they will adhere to local labor laws, not use child labor or forced labor, and meet other standards of its Vendor Code of Conduct. It sends more than 90 full-time inspectors to its contractors, checking more than 2,000 factories each year. In one recent year, the company canceled contracts with almost two dozen factories that had violated the code of conduct.
But in a recent case, London's Observer newspaper reported that it had found workers as young as 10 making Gap clothes at a filthy sweatshop in New Delhi, India. Some reportedly worked 16 hours a day sewing clothing by hand but were not paid because they were still "trainees." One child told the Observer that if children cried or did not work hard enough, they could be beaten. Gap responded by saying it would convene a meeting of all its Indian suppliers to "forcefully reiterate" its policy against child labor.
How can HRM support ethical conduct at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu At Gap Is its role at these two companies different