Sustainability as Social Contract: Textile and Apparel Professionals’ Value Conflicts within the Corporate Moral Responsibility Spectrum

LoMonaco-Benzing, Rachel; Ha-Brookshire, Jung

doi:10.3390/su8121278

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Sustainability as Social Contract: Textile and Apparel Professionals’ Value Conflicts within the Corporate Moral Responsibility Spectrum

Rachel LoMonaco-Benzing

and

Jung Ha-Brookshire

Department of Textile and Apparel Management, University of Missouri, 137 Stanley Hall, Columbia 65211, MO, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Bin Shen

Sustainability 2016, 8(12), 1278; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121278

Received: 27 September 2016 / Revised: 20 November 2016 / Accepted: 1 December 2016 / Published: 7 December 2016

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Issues in the Textile and Apparel Supply Chains)

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Abstract

Current discussions of sustainability in the textile and apparel (T&A) supply chain tend to focus on consumer behavior or methods of production. Few studies investigate how T&A supply chain members experience corporate sustainability initiatives within their own moral value spectrum. This study was designed to describe the gaps that might exist between personal and corporate moral values of T&A supply chain members, and how individuals manage such gaps to align personal and corporate identities. The researchers investigated the views of ten T&A supply chain members residing in the United States, both as employees and consumers of T&A companies, through semi-structured interviews. Dunfee’s extant social contracts and Schwartz’s theory of basic values were used as theoretical frameworks to better understand the participants’ lived experiences in negotiating personal and corporate expectations. The findings revealed three themes: (a) nature of the value gap; (b) frustration due to the value gap; and (c) strategies to manage the value gap. The strategies used to realign values split into either those that held sustainability as their responsibility and worked to move corporate values toward their personal values; or those that shifted the blame to others so that their values could remain untouched. View Full-Text

Keywords: corporate sustainability; textile and apparel industry; moral values; social contract; value gap; employee and consumer identities

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MDPI and ACS Style

LoMonaco-Benzing, R.; Ha-Brookshire, J. Sustainability as Social Contract: Textile and Apparel Professionals’ Value Conflicts within the Corporate Moral Responsibility Spectrum. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121278

AMA Style

LoMonaco-Benzing R, Ha-Brookshire J. Sustainability as Social Contract: Textile and Apparel Professionals’ Value Conflicts within the Corporate Moral Responsibility Spectrum. Sustainability. 2016; 8(12):1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121278

Chicago/Turabian Style

LoMonaco-Benzing, Rachel, and Jung Ha-Brookshire. 2016. "Sustainability as Social Contract: Textile and Apparel Professionals’ Value Conflicts within the Corporate Moral Responsibility Spectrum" Sustainability 8, no. 12: 1278. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121278

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Sustainability as Social Contract: Textile and Apparel Professionals’ Value Conflicts within the Corporate Moral Responsibility Spectrum

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