Restructuring of football production

During the 1970 and 80s, there was a significant restructuring of the production of footballs in Sialkot, Pakistan. Changes in raw materials from leather to synthetics and improved machinery for cutting resulted in the possibility of stitching footballs in the home. As a result, middlemen began outsource stitching to families working from home, leading to increasing rates of child labour. It was estimated that more than 7,000 children between the ages of 7-14 years old were working full time stitching footballs. The media began to report on this issue, which led to negative publicity for the industry around the 1994 Soccer World Cup and the 1996 European Football Championships. Life magazine ran a story in June 1996 that featured a 12 year old boy making footballs. Media focus on child labour in the football sector in Pakistan was damaging to major brands and retailers.

Suppliers were sourcing footballs from a complex production network of over 1,600 villages around Sialkot. Most of the production sites were small shops, homes and sheds. The complexity of the supply chain made it difficult for companies to monitor workplaces, and most were unaware of the conditions under which their footballs were being stitched due to the prevalence of homework and reliance on piece work.

(taken from http://human-rights.unglobalcompact.org)

CASE 8

NEW POSITION

Characters: Alison Fowler, a team leader

Members of her team

Alison Fowler was appointed to a new position as a team leader during management restructuring and obtained the position in competition with her previous manager, who she effectively “leap-frogged” in the hierarchy by gaining the new position. She encountered resistance to change in her new team, along with a lack of cooperation and loyalty. Some members of the team maintained their loyalty to their previous manager and resented the promotion of the new team leader. Several team members engaged in a variety of increasingly hostile behaviours towards Alison including:

· failing to accord common courtesies;

· failing to provide assistance during busy periods;

· constantly whispering and making vindictive comments about their team leader;

· disobeying requests;

· making offensive comments; and behaving rudely.

Ultimately, one of the team members gatherd a team meeting to which Alison was not invited and drew up a list of complaints about the worker which they presented to her boss. Alison’s boss approved this meeting and accepted the document.

Alison experienced this behaviour as harassing and undermining and felt humiliated. In the face of bullying behaviour she frequently became very emotional and withdrew from the immediate situation. As the behaviour escalated she became agitated, anxious, depressed and withdrawn. Finally she was unable to continue working for the organisation due to the development of a psychiatric condition.

CASE 9

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16