This can create tension. In most organisations Procurement's performance continues to be measured primarily by cost savings achieved.
The Chairman may make forceful statements about the company's new social accounting but the odds are that at the coalface a different value set gets rewarded. Bonus and appraisal systems are the first things that have to be rethought if behaviours are really to be changed.
Even then how far is it actually ethical to impose your own value set on your supply chain? Insisting on minimum standards for safety in a supplier's manufacturing processes may seem reasonable, but if you insisted on a minimum percentage of their recruits being from the long-term unemployed or disabled, is that ethics or interference? Even on seemingly safe ground, such as child labour, a failure to understand the culture and economic realities of a third world country from which you draw supplies can lead to consequences much less desirable than those originally envisaged in the Board Room. Ethical colonialism is dangerous territory.
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