# Workers' Responses to CSR Decoupling in Garment Supply Chains: A Hirschmanian Perspective

Tra-my T. Le, Chikako Oka, Valentina Carbone, Aurélien Acquier

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Tra-my T. Le, Chikako Oka, Valentina Carbone, Aurélien Acquier. Workers' Responses to CSR Decoupling in Garment Supply Chains: A Hirschmanian Perspective. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 2025, 18 p. 10.1111/jscm.70001. hal-05295655

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

OPEN ACCESS

# Workers' Responses to CSR Decoupling in Garment Supply Chains: A Hirschmanian Perspective

Tra-My T. Le¹ | Chikako Oka² | Valentina Carbone³ | Aurélien Acquier³

¹ESCP Business School, Paris, France | ²Université Paris-Est Créteil, Institut de Recherche en Gestion (IRG), France | ³ESCP Business School, Sustainability Department, Paris, France

**Correspondence:** Tra-My T. Le (tra_my.le@edu escp.eu)

**Received:** 25 September 2023 | **Revised:** 9 August 2025 | **Accepted:** 13 August 2025

**Funding:** The authors received no specific funding for this work.

**Keywords:** CSR decoupling | exit, voice, and loyalty | garment industry | global supply chains | workers

## ABSTRACT

This study examines the paradoxical portrayal of supply chain workers in the literature as passive and obedient while complicit or rebellious in the face of substandard working conditions in supplier facilities. Specifically, it examines how workers respond to poor labor conditions caused by corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling, or the discrepancy between suppliers' formal policies and actual factory-floor practices. Drawing from 40 interviews in Vietnam's garment industry and building on Hirschman's exit, voice, and loyalty framework and its extensions, the authors develop a dynamic framework of when and how workers respond to decoupled practices. This article contributes to three key areas of research. First, it elucidates workers' role in both accepting and resisting CSR decoupling, advancing the literature on CSR decoupling in global supply chains, which has traditionally focused on buyers or suppliers. Second, it responds to calls for humanizing the sustainable supply chain management literature by emphasizing factory-level workers and the value of studying less powerful actors. Third, it adapts Hirschman's model to supply chain contexts and their unique dynamics. The findings also provide relevant guidance for policymakers and practitioners, demonstrating the need to strengthen worker voice through a multipronged approach.

## 1 | Introduction

With the rise of global supply chains came a host of social and environmental problems that continue to bypass regulatory oversight. Human disasters and crises—notably, the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh in 2013—led to reexaminations and changes in the industry and regulatory innovation, such as the Accord and Alliance on Fire and Building Safety (Reinecke and Donaghey 2015), the ACT on living wages (Ashwin et al. 2020), capacity building, and brand advocacy (Oka et al. 2020). However, violations of fundamental rights and substandard working conditions remain pervasive in global supply chains.

These violations and conditions unfold in a context that is characterized by many inconsistencies between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies set by multinational corporations (MNCs) and the actual practices in supplier facilities (Jamali et al. 2017; Talpur et al. 2023). Theoretically, such gaps have been studied through the lens of decoupling, in which formal policies do not translate into organizational practices (Boxenbaum and Jonsson 2017; Bromley and Powell 2012). Research has shown that CSR decoupling in global supply chains is a pervasive, institutionalized phenomenon, hampering the implementation of CSR policies and programs (Hasle and Vang 2021; Huq and Stevenson 2020). Indeed, a whole range of actors in supply chains is involved in producing and

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2025 The Author(s). *Journal of Supply Chain Management* published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
reproducing decoupling, which leads to “decoupling cascades” (Cao and Jayasinghe 2024).

Despite being directly targeted by CSR policies and impacted by CSR decoupling, factory-level workers remain the least examined stakeholders in global supply chains. This is surprising because factory workers are more likely to understand what CSR decoupling means for them and why CSR decoupling is likely to persist on the factory floor. Supply chain workers are often portrayed in a paradoxical manner; sometimes, they are powerless and obedient, silently enduring harsh working conditions (Marti and Mair 2009; Pagell and Wilhelm 2025) and even actively collaborating with managers to pass social audits (Hoang 2019), while at other times, they vocally resist unacceptable conditions through strikes (Anner and Liu 2016). These contrasting views lead to a central question: Under what circumstances and in which manner do workers respond to CSR decoupling in global supply chains?

To address this question, we draw on Hirschman's (1970) model of *exit, voice, and loyalty* (EVL) and its later extensions (Farrell 1983; Naus et al. 2007). A substantial body of literature has developed around Hirschman's EVL model to explore employees' responses to job dissatisfaction arising from deteriorating workplace conditions. While this theoretical framework is helpful for understanding when employees decide to stay, leave the organization, or attempt to address issues, it has rarely been applied to supply chain workers in the Global South. We thus seek to adapt this model to the particularities of supply chain contexts, using Vietnam's garment industry to open the black box of worker response. Vietnam typifies global garment supply chains—poor conditions, low wages, and restricted union freedom—yet stands out for its formal ban on independent unions (Anner 2018). Deprived of representation, workers have at times resorted to wildcat strikes (Anner and Liu 2016), making it a revealing site to study worker responses to CSR decoupling.

Through this research, we contribute to the decoupling discourse in several ways. First, we elucidate the role of workers in both accepting and resisting CSR decoupling, shifting the perspective in the literature on CSR decoupling in global supply chains, which has traditionally focused on buyers or suppliers (Jamali et al. 2017; Soundararajan et al. 2021). We demonstrate how workers exercise agency in deciding whether to respond to decoupled practices while considering their need for economic income. Second, we address the call to humanize the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature by focusing on factory-level workers and emphasizing the value of examining less powerful actors in global supply chains (Pagell and Wilhelm 2025; Soundararajan et al. 2021). Third, we apply Hirschman's extended model to supply chain workers and adapt it to the specific dynamics of supply chain contexts.

# 2 | CSR Decoupling in Global Supply Chains

## 2.1 | CSR Decoupling: An Institutionalized Practice in Global Supply Chains

The concept of decoupling helps explain why and how firms establish formal structures to appear compliant with social norms while shielding themselves from public scrutiny so that

they can continue their “business-as-usual” (Boxenbaum and Jonsson 2017). Originating from neoinstitutionalism, decoupling stems from the idea that organizations adopt rationalized myths to gain legitimacy (Meyer and Rowan 1977). By decoupling formal policies from actual practices, organizations can buffer tensions and manage contradictions. Importantly, Bromley and Powell (2012) distinguished between policy-practice decoupling and means-ends decoupling. Policy-practice decoupling refers to a disconnect between formal structures and daily practices, resulting in a failure to implement the stated policies. Means-ends decoupling, meanwhile, occurs when policies are implemented and evaluated, but the link between policy implementation, practice integration, and intended outcomes remains unclear.

CSR practices are often decoupled for several reasons. First, the CSR field is replete with tensions, such as short-term versus long-term orientation or individual versus organizational agendas (Hahn et al. 2015). Second, organizations are more prone to decoupling when they experience intense coercive pressure to adopt specific practices from stakeholders (Roth and Kostova 2003), and stakeholder scrutiny around CSR has only increased in recent decades. Third, decoupling is prevalent in highly opaque fields due to causal complexity, practice multiplicity, and behavioral invisibility, as exemplified by sustainability standards (Wijen 2014) and private labor regulation in global supply chains (Kuruvilla 2021).

Previous research has suggested that CSR decoupling is widespread among multiple actors in global supply chains. Suppliers may comply with sensitive issues for Western customers, such as child labor, while neglecting other less visible issues (Jamali et al. 2017), or engage in “institutional evasion,” a cat-and-mouse game to bypass buyer pressures (Soundararajan, Spence, et al. 2018). Auditors may collude with suppliers to overlook noncompliance (Kuruvilla 2021). Workers may prioritize their pay and benefits over safety (Oka 2016) and help hide violations to secure overtime pay and jobs (Hoang 2019). Buyers also decouple by failing to reward improvements in suppliers' CSR performance (Amengual et al. 2020). In this “decoupling cascade,” where a range of actors serially decouple standards and policies, supplier workers remain the least understood, warranting further research (Cao and Jayasinghe 2024). Our study addresses this neglect by examining how workers engage with and influence CSR policy-practice decoupling, offering a better understanding of how institutions are sustained, altered, or dissolved through everyday actions (Cardinale 2018).

## 2.2 | Research on SSCM

The SSCM literature tends to emphasize synergies between sustainability and buyer firms' profits while overlooking trade-offs and the interests of other stakeholders (e.g., Pagell and Shevchenko 2014; Pagell and Wu 2009). The focus of the SSCM field has progressively expanded to include noninstrumental perspectives and nontraditional actors, marking a shift toward addressing broader sustainability challenges (Gold and Schleper 2017; Touboulic et al. 2020). Adopting the paradox perspective, for example, some scholars have explored the tensions among cost competitiveness, financial
objectives, and sustainability (Xiao et al. 2019). Other scholars have investigated the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in making global supply chains humane (Wilhelm et al. 2024).

While SSCM studies have tended to examine the effects of CSR decoupling on buyers, such as financial performance and legitimacy (Busse et al. 2016), there is a shift toward upstream dynamics in global supply chains, with a focus on suppliers located in developing countries (Huq et al. 2016; Wilhelm et al. 2016). Acosta et al. (2014) explore how first-tier supplier managers in Latin America selectively and partially comply with MNCs' demands, often as gestures without full integration. Similarly, Le (2022) identifies the stakeholder pressures that shape local supplier managers' selective decoupling practices in garment supply chains. Sauer and Seuring (2018) suggest that improving supplier compliance involves reducing institutional distance—differences in cognitive, normative, and regulatory elements—and managing uncertainties with tailored sustainability practices. Meanwhile, Pinnington and Meehan (2023) explore how managerial sense making is shaped by spatial and psychological distance from workers in supply chains, which in turn inhibits substantive action.

However, most research emphasizes powerful actors, such as managers, and pays limited attention to factory-level workers, who remain the least examined group in the SSCM literature and beyond. We argue that focusing on factory-level workers is crucial to understanding why, even within the same institutional context, local responses to CSR policies and decoupling can vary. This perspective may complement traditional buyer-supplier approaches, offering insights into how factory workers and local conditions influence the sustainability of global supply chains. In so doing, we also respond to Soundararajan, Wilhelm, et al. (2021) call to humanize SSCM research to build a path to decent work in global supply chains by treating workers as humans with agency and inalienable rights in context.

Scholars from other fields, notably industrial relations, have begun to make inroads into pathways for decent work with workers at the center. For example, Kuruvilla and Li (2021) propose a research agenda on freedom of association and collective bargaining, arguing that worker voice is the key to better working conditions in global supply chains. Similarly, Reinecke and Donaghey (2021) propose worker-driven supply chain governance on the basis of the democratic participation of workers at both the workplace and transnational levels. To focus on the worker perspective that has been overlooked in the SSCM literature, we turn to the seminal work of Hirschman (1970) on EVL and its later extensions.

## 2.3 | Workers and CSR Decoupling—Exit, Voice, or Loyalty?

Many studies have been developed around Hirschman's EVL model, with the goal of understanding employees' responses to job dissatisfaction caused by deteriorating working conditions. By examining how employees decide to stay or leave the organization or attempt to address the organization's problems, this

literature offers a valuable approach to examining supply chain workers' responses to poor working conditions arising from CSR decoupling.

Hirschman (1970) examined the options available to customers or organizational members who are facing declining product quality or deteriorating working conditions. They may choose to exit by leaving the organization or discontinuing use, voice their concerns to seek improvement, or remain loyal because of a special attachment, enduring the situation in the hope that “things will soon get better” (p. 38). While scholars later interpreted loyalty as the third option, Hirschman viewed loyalty as a moderator that restrains exit and activates voice (p. 78).

Building on Hirschman's work, other scholars have extended the EVL model to include neglect (Farrell 1983; Rusbult et al. 1982), making it EVLN. Neglect in a work context refers to lax and disregardful behavior among workers. Workers may respond to workplace dissatisfaction through “temporary abandonment” and “psychological inattention,” manifested by lateness, absenteeism, and error rates, for example (Farrell 1983, p. 598). Such behavior is likely rare in labor-intensive global supply chains, where actions negatively affecting production are harshly penalized by management. Given the severe consequences of neglect, workers in global supply chains are more inclined to express workplace dissatisfaction in a less overt manner.

Naus et al. (2007) added cynicism to the EVLN model, arguing that it constitutes a distinct response, making it EVLNC.¹ Organizational cynicism is defined as “a negative attitude toward one’s employing organization,” consisting of a negative belief, negative affect, and critical behavior toward the organization (Dean et al. 1998, p. 345). Thus, cynicism is a form of self-defense or a coping mechanism in the face of unpleasant situations and feelings of disappointment about the workplace. Although cynicism is associated with “a host of negative effects, such as apathy, resignation, alienation, hopelessness, distrust of others, suspicion, contempt, disillusionment, and scorn” (Naus et al. 2007, p. 690), it is not related to negative work performance or increased absence. For this reason, cynicism is a less risky worker response than neglect, which leads us to suppose that it is more prevalent in labor-intensive global supply chains.

Hirschman's EVL model and its extensions have rarely been applied to supply chain workers. Mellahi et al. (2010) used the EVLN framework in the Indian context but focused on the link between organizational commitment and EVLN options based on manager surveys. Existing studies on worker voice in supply chains often explore the nature of voice rather than the conditions shaping responses. For example, Gunawardana (2014) used ethnographic data to examine how workers in Sri Lanka's export-processing zone navigate formal, informal, and external voice channels.

Overall, CSR decoupling is an institutionalized practice in global supply chains involving multiple actors, but few studies address how workers respond to decoupling or why they choose to ignore, resist, or accept it. Elucidating this often neglected
role of workers can provide valuable insights into pathways for decent work in global supply chains. We seek to advance our understanding by employing Hirschman's extended EVLNC model to explore workers' responses to CSR decoupling in Vietnam's garment supplier factories.

# 3 | Methodology: A Qualitative and Interpretive Approach

Just as supply chain management research has seen a broadening of interest to encompass noninstrumental perspectives and nontraditional actors, the field has been opening up to various qualitative approaches (Grimm et al. 2024; Wieland et al. 2024). This is based on the understanding that traditional supply chain management methods have been limited by their static, reductionist, and objectivist thinking (Wieland 2021). Indeed, social challenges that emerge in today's supply chains are highly context dependent, requiring a different perspective from the context-free, positivist traditions that have tended to prevail historically in supply chain management research (Darby et al. 2019). For this reason, different voices call for more qualitative and interpretive approaches that enables a “deep exploration of human experiences that would otherwise be overlooked” (Wieland et al. 2024, p. 6).

To open the black box of supply chain workers' responses to CSR decoupling, we have followed an interpretive approach. This approach is based on the premise that the social world is shaped by subjective processes. In this perspective, meanings and knowledge do not exist in a vacuum; they are rather constructed through experience and social interactions (Mees-Buss et al. 2022; Yanow 2015). At the heart of interpretive research is the hermeneutic circle or the “part-to-whole process,” where the parts (or texts) need to be understood in relation to the whole (or context) (Prasad 2017). This emphasis on individuals' lived experiences in their own context is in line with our task of exploring

how supply chain workers perceive and respond to the context in which they find themselves.

As depicted in Figure 1, in conducting the research process, we combined a hermeneutic approach with abductive reasoning, leading us through two “hermeneutic loops” (Darby et al. 2019). In the first stage, we began with CSR decoupling as our general orienting frame. Through a hermeneutic approach (Darby et al. 2019), recurrent emic themes emerged—such as workers describing leaving the company without complaining, or expressing difficulties in being heard when raising concerns with management. This led us, in a second abductive stage, to adopt Hirschman's EVL as a more precise orienting frame for the subsequent phase of data collection and analysis. As shown in Figure 1, this phase involved a second hermeneutic loop, combining further data collection with interpretive textual analysis.

## 3.1 | Context and Data Collection

Context selection in interpretive research is driven by its potential to maximize insights and understanding as opposed to generalizability under the positivist tradition (Darby et al. 2019). Vietnam's garment industry, in spite of unfavorable institutional conditions, has experienced waves of strikes in the past decade. This makes it an ideal context for exploring the paradoxical nature of worker responses to substandard working conditions.

It is notoriously difficult to collect uninhibited views of supply chain workers about their working conditions, as managers often coach workers to prevent any negative comments and threaten them with job losses (Huq and Stevenson 2020). To capture a wide range of worker reactions, we took care to select workers with different characteristics (e.g., age, skills, gender) and to reach them independently from management

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 1 | Overview of the research process.</figcaption></figure>
or union channels. The lead author, who is a former program officer at the International Labour Organization (ILO), leveraged her network and gained access to garment workers through NGOs supporting them. She conducted worker interviews in workers' living quarters or NGO training centers, where informants felt comfortable sharing their experiences and emotions. The lead author tried to encourage a dialog with informants, bearing in mind that the researcher does not necessarily have a better understanding than organizational members (Darby et al. 2019).

The lead author conducted a total of 40 interviews, of which 25 were with workers and 15 with stakeholders and experts, such as representatives from NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs), unions, and CSR managers of MNCs, all of which are based in Vietnam. All the interviews, which lasted 50 min on average, were conducted face-to-face in Vietnamese, recorded and transcribed verbatim, and subsequently translated into English. Sixteen percent of the worker interviewees were male, and 84% were female, reflecting the typical gender ratio in garment factories. The average age of workers was in their early 30s. In the first round of interviews, the lead author interviewed 13 workers and three stakeholders, with questions centered on substandard conditions in garment factories and workers' perceptions. To supplement the interview data, secondary data (such as codes of conduct [CoCs] and sustainability reports of MNCs sourcing from factories) were also collected. Table 1 summarizes the details of the informant characteristics and data sources.

It is imperative to respect research ethics and be transparent with informants, particularly when the field of research includes marginalized, vulnerable, or less powerful groups in society (Martí and Mair 2009). The lead author informed all of the interviewees about the research objectives, mentioning that anonymized quotes might be used in academic publications. Verbal consent was obtained for each interview, and no incentives were offered during the fieldwork. As the lead author and most workers shared the same gender, language, culture, as well as age cohort, it helped create rapport and trust between them. In interpretive research, it is important not to assume that the meanings of various concepts are shared across different sites or populations. The lead author took care to share our own understanding of concepts and terms that could be variably interpreted. For example, “freedom of association” was an alien and confusing term for workers who only knew about the party union, if at all. This required a lengthy conversation about the fact that unionists *could be* democratically elected.

## 3.2 | Data Analysis

The interpretive hermeneutic approach does not require a formal coding process or a template to make sense of the phenomenon under study (Mees-Buss et al. 2022). The first stage of interpretive analysis is intratextual analysis, where each informant's story is captured in its context (Prasad 2017). We read and reread each transcript to understand each informant, paying attention to their personal characteristics, such as age, skills, and family situation. This was followed by intertextual analysis, where we searched for commonalities across lived

experiences and identified the underlying narratives and sto rylines (Prasad 2017). We looked for similarities and differences across narratives and identified numerous decoupling practices at work, such as “excessive overtime” or “double bookkeeping” Then, we tried to understand the workers’ various reactions and emic accounts and labeled them “resignation” “active support” “quiet quitting” “collective protest” and so forth.

Our contextualized thematic analysis revealed patterns in worker behavior that evoked Hirschman's EVL framework. For example, as one worker remarked, “After a while they [workers] often quit if there are no constraints. They go to another company ... [The problem] is never fixed” (Worker 22, female, 40s). We interpreted this account as illustrative of a silent exit, which emphasizes the contextual subtlety of the worker's experience. Another worker described the following episode: “In my company, many people (workers) want higher insurance premiums, as it would be better when they get old. They went to ask the HR manager” (Worker 18, male, 27 years old). We associated this quote with voice. Some workers rationalized labor standard violations in their factory, stating that “in other companies, things are much worse. It's fortunate that we work in this company” (Worker 21, female, 41 years old). We understood this as loyalty, recognizing that such worker narratives express complex alignments with organizational practices. Thus, this analytical phase led us to choose Hirschman's model and its extensions as the new orienting frame of reference.

In the second round of data collection, the lead author conducted 19 interviews (12 with workers, seven with stakeholders such as unionists, staff at the ILO, MSIs, and NGOs), supplemented by field observations and secondary data collection. The questions focused on patterns of worker responses (to substandard practices) and their driving factors. We conducted intra- and intertextual analysis, and iterated between the data and Hirschman's extended (Exit Voice Loyalty Neglect) model through an abductive approach. Through this iterative process, we also sought to contextualize the framework. For example, the iterative process revealed the prevalence of certain responses. Workers frequently manifested cynicism: “All the social stuff like a union, my company just sets them up on paper. Nothing works. Worker rights are marginal. We can't raise our voice” (Worker 21, female, 41 years old). Conversely, manifestations of neglect were less frequent in the field. This prompted us to adopt the EVLNC (Exit Voice Loyalty Neglect and Cynicism) model over EVLN. This iterative process resulted in the following set of worker response: silent exit, loyalty, cynicism, neglect, voice, and vocal exit.

At the same time, we employed intra- and intertextual analysis to identify the drivers that shaped workers' responses. Seven themes emerged through this process: *need for income, reaching endurance limits, low-hanging fruit, prevailing local norms, labor market competitiveness, worker awareness, and perceived workplace solidarity*. Workers' sheer need for income, as exemplified by quotes such as “I have to work for my income” (Worker 16, female, 36 years old), was a recurrent theme underpinning most worker responses. Combined with one or several factors, this ever-present need for income was associated with different worker responses. For example, many workers reach endurance limits under harsh working conditions: “it's too much, and
<table><caption>TABLE 1 | Data sources.</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Methodological approach</th><th rowspan="2">Referential Code</th><th colspan="3">Professional role</th><th colspan="3">Organizations</th><th rowspan="2">Location</th></tr><tr><th>Gender</th><th>Age</th><th>Gender</th><th>Age</th><th>Organizations</th><th>Location</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td colspan="9"><strong>PHASE 1 AUG-SEP 2019 IN VIETNAM</strong></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">3 Qualitative exploratory interviews with researcher, unionists and CSR officer</td><td>Stakeholder 1</td><td>Lead researcher</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td rowspan="3">CRC Center for Employment Relations—Social enterprise<br>CCR-CSR—Third-party on CSR<br>Hai Phong Industrial Zone<br>Trade Union—Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL)</td><td rowspan="3">CRC Center for Employment Relations—Social enterprise<br>CCR-CSR—Third-party on CSR<br>Hai Phong<br>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 2</td><td>Senior project manager</td><td>Male</td><td>NA</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 3</td><td>Unionist</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="12">13 Qualitative exploratory interviews with factory-level workers employed in 5 garment companies.</td><td>Worker 1</td><td>Line leader</td><td>Female</td><td>26 years old</td><td>T1 Company 01</td><td>Nam Dinh</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 2</td><td>Line leader</td><td>Female</td><td>40s</td><td>T1 Company 02</td><td>Hung Yen</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 3</td><td>Quality control worker</td><td>Female</td><td>30s</td><td>T1 Company 03</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 4</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>18 years old</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 5</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>18 years old</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 6</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>19 years old</td><td>T1 Company 05</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 7</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Male</td><td>23 years old</td><td>T1 Company 05</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 8</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Male</td><td>30s</td><td>T1 Company 05</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 9</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>23 years old</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 10</td><td>Quality control worker</td><td>Female</td><td>40s</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 11</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>20s</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 12</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>20s</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 13</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>30s</td><td>T1 Company 04</td><td>Hai Phong</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td colspan="9"><strong>PHASE 2 OCT-DEC 2019 IN VIETNAM</strong></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="6">12 Qualitative semistructured interviews with factory-level workers employing in 7 garment companies</td><td>Worker 14</td><td>Line leader</td><td>Female</td><td>39 years old</td><td>T1 Company 06</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 15</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Male</td><td>44 years old</td><td>T1 Company 06</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 16</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>36 years old</td><td>T2 Company 07</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 17</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>25 years old</td><td>T2 Company 08</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 18</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Male</td><td>27 years old</td><td>T2 Company 08</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 19</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>30s</td><td>T1 Company 09</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr></tbody></table>

(Continues)
<table><caption>TABLE 1 | (Continued)</caption><thead><tr><th colspan="7">Informant demographic</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Worker 20</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>36 years old</td><td>T2 Company 10</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 21</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>41 years old</td><td>T2 Company 11</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 22</td><td>Line leader</td><td>Female</td><td>40s</td><td>T2 Company 12</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 23</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>30s</td><td>T2 Company 12</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 24</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>20s</td><td>T1 Company 06</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 25</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Female</td><td>32 years old</td><td>T2 Company 11</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 4</td><td>Unionist</td><td>Male</td><td>NA</td><td>Dong Nai Union Legal Advisory Centre—VGCL</td><td>Dong Nai</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 5</td><td>Lead enterprise advisor</td><td>Male</td><td>NA</td><td>BetterWork Vietnam— Third-party on CSR</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 6</td><td>Country manager</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td>Industrial MSI</td><td>HCMC</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 7</td><td>Union researcher</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td>Institute of Workers and Trade Union—VGCL</td><td>Hanoi</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 8</td><td>Labor rights activist</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td>Freelancer—NGO</td><td>Hanoi</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 9</td><td>Unionist</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td>Economic-Zone Trade Union—VGCL</td><td>Hanoi</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 10</td><td>Vice director</td><td>Female</td><td>NA</td><td>Centre for Development and Integration—NGO</td><td>Hanoi</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td colspan="7">SUPPLEMENTARY TELE-INTERVIEWS AND SECONDARY DATA COLLECTION (2019–2023)</td></tr><tr><td>Supplementary interviews 01 unionist, 02 workers and 02 industry actors</td><td>Stakeholder 11</td><td>Unionist</td><td>Inditex project</td><td>NA</td><td>VGCL</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 2 (supplementary)</td><td>Line leader</td><td>Female</td><td>40s</td><td>Tier-1 company</td><td>Hanoi</td><td>Hanoi</td></tr><tr><td>Worker 15 (supplementary)</td><td>Rank-and-file worker</td><td>Male</td><td>44 years old</td><td>T1 Company 07</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 12</td><td>Lead auditor</td><td>Male</td><td>NA</td><td>International brand—Industry actor</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Stakeholder 13</td><td>Country manager</td><td>Male</td><td>NA</td><td>Third-party Company</td><td>HCMC</td><td>HCMC</td></tr><tr><td>Secondary data</td><td colspan="6">Information on code of conduct, CSR/sustainability report, and CSR activities/projects extracted from the MNC websites.</td></tr></tbody></table>
over my limits, it's unbearable" (Worker 15, male, 44 years old). However, only those with job prospects (labor market competitiveness) can exit, while others continue to toil in resignation (cynicism). Workers tolerate or even support decoupled practices (loyalty) because some practices are consistent with socially accepted norms (prevailing local norms) or because workers obtain something in return (low-hanging fruit): "My company has a double bookkeeping system. I know. I prefer to have that system because the income that I receive is higher" (Worker 17, female, 25 years old).

Finally, the lead author conducted five supplementary interviews to verify whether the identified themes captured the full breadth and depth of the phenomenon under study. In interpretive research, thematic saturation rather than theoretical saturation matters (Thornton et al. 2024). We reached thematic saturation in the sense that additional interviews and analysis revealed no new themes and that the data collected were rich enough to contextualize our orienting frame of reference to yield new insights.

## 4 | Empirical Context

CSR policies and initiatives in the global garment industry have proliferated, especially since the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 (Oka et al. 2020). These include buyers' CoCs, social audits, MSIs (e.g., the Ethical Trading Initiative) and union-inclusive instruments such as international framework agreements (e.g., H&M with IndustriALL) or binding agreements (e.g., the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh) (Ashwin et al. 2020). The combination of mounting stakeholder pressure to improve conditions and intense pricing squeezes from buyers (Pinnington and Meehan 2023) makes garment supply chains particularly prone to CSR decoupling.

Vietnam, the world's third-largest garment exporter, provides a unique setting in which to explore CSR decoupling given its institutional particularities.² Vietnam formally restricts freedom of association, permitting only one party-controlled, government-aligned union, similar to the situation in China. This leaves workers with a single promanagement union option (Buckley 2021), which runs counter to the international fundamental labor rights and core commitments in some buyers' CoCs (Kuruvilla and Li 2021).

The absence of these enabling rights has resulted in the widespread occurrence of “wildcat strikes”³ in Vietnam. While buying firms often require suppliers to create “worker participation committees” as alternative worker voice channels, they have proven ineffective in addressing sensitive issues such as wages and working hours (Anner 2018). Since 2005, Vietnam has experienced significant strike activity, with a peak of 857 strikes recorded in 2011 alone (Siu and Chan 2015). Although the frequency of strikes has declined, they remain common, with over 150 reported in 2022, driven by demands for wages, allowances, and better working conditions (Buckley 2021; U.S. Department of State 2024).

Hence, Vietnam's restrictions on freedom of association create significant gaps between buyer policies and supplier practices,

amplifying CSR decoupling. The prevalence of wildcat strikes reveals a surprisingly rebellious side of Vietnamese workers, in contrast to the typical portrayal of docile workers enduring substandard conditions. These dynamics make Vietnam's garment industry an ideal setting to explore worker responses to the disconnect between CSR policy and on-the-ground realities. While previous studies have focused on specific aspects, such as wildcat strikes (Anner and Liu 2016) or worker-management collaboration (Hoang 2019), this study is unique because it examines the full spectrum of worker responses and their drivers.

## 5 | Findings

### 5.1 | Policy-Practice CSR Decoupling on the Factory Floor

Through interviews with workers and other stakeholders, we identified numerous cases of CSR policy-practice decoupling on the factory floor, as summarized in Table 2.⁴

### 5.2 | Accepting CSR Decoupling: Loyalty and Cynicism

Faced with such gaps, workers may accept CSR decoupling via loyalty or cynicism. We identify below a set of drivers that underlie workers' reactions. Importantly, by “accepting,” workers neither endorse the situation nor take action to change it.

#### 5.2.1 | A Common Underlying Driver: The Need for Income

The primary reason why workers accept the substandard conditions resulting from CSR decoupling lies in their overriding needs to earn a livelihood and support their families. The need further intensifies when the worker is the sole breadwinner.

> "I just work and work, you know, I have my family to feed. It will be so hard if I lose this job, so whatever they (managers) do, sometimes it is not truly good, I don't mind. I just work." (Worker 15, male, 44 years old)

Given such immediate financial needs, workers often accept substandard conditions arising from CSR decoupling, as long as wages and benefits meet their expectations. For example, they may tolerate irregularities such as the absence of a formal contract, as required by the labor law or buyer CoCs:

> "I am working without a labor contract, but the company still pays for my insurance. It's alright; I don't have the intention to change anything." (Worker 1, female, 26 years old)

While workers rarely challenge decoupled practices if they feel adequately compensated for their work, other drivers may lead workers to accept situations of CSR decoupling.
<table><caption>TABLE 2 | CSR decoupling issues in the workplace.</caption><thead><tr><th>Policy</th><th>Practice</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Freedom of association</strong><br>Buyers' Codes of Conduct (CoCs) emphasize workers' rights to form and join independent unions.</td><td><ul><li>Only state-controlled unions are allowed</li><li>Worker participation committees, where implemented, are largely ineffective.</li><li>Collective bargaining agreements are unilaterally drafted by HR managers without worker involvement.</li><li>Excessive overtime is common, often exceeding the established limits</li><li>Workers must complete their production quotas without proper pay.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Collective bargaining agreement</strong><br>CoCs require suppliers to negotiate fairly with worker representatives.</td><td><ul><li>Underage workers (14–17) are employed without contracts or protections, often for seasonal work.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Working hours—overtime</strong><br>Buyers' CoCs refer to ILO's standards, or applicable labor laws, or collective bargaining agreements applicable in the sector. Overtime must be voluntary and capped at 12 h per week. Maximum 48 working hours per week.</td><td><ul><li>Workers purchase PPE on their own, or experience wage deductions.</li><li>Safety measures (e.g., needle shields) are temporarily installed for audits only.</li><li>Employers deduct worker contributions for social security payments but fail to transfer them to the Social Security Agency.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Child labor</strong><br>CoCs adopt a zero tolerance policy for child labor; young workers (15–17) are allowed but must receive specific protections (no overtime, no night shift, exclusion from hazardous work).</td><td><ul><li>Verbal abuse and age/pregnancy discrimination are rampant.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Occupational safety and health</strong><br>Buyers' CoCs require employers to provide employees with personal protective equipment (PPE) for free, and ensure safe working environments.</td><td><ul><li>Minimum wages cover only 75% of living costs (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor)</li><li>Workers face retaliation risks</li><li>Suggestion boxes are monitored (placed under CCTV cameras)</li><li>Hotlines are often inaccessible (in English only).</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Social security</strong><br>CoCs and local labor laws require mandatory contributions for worker benefits (health, pension, unemployment).</td><td><ul><li>CoCs prohibit discrimination (based on race, gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or political affiliation) and harassment.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Discrimination</strong><br>CoCs prohibit discrimination (based on race, gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or political affiliation) and harassment.</td><td><ul><li>Minimum wages cover only 75% of living costs (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor)</li><li>Workers face retaliation risks</li><li>Suggestion boxes are monitored (placed under CCTV cameras)</li><li>Hotlines are often inaccessible (in English only).</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Wage and remuneration</strong><br>CoCs require compliance with minimum wage laws; living wages encouraged.</td><td><ul><li>CoCs require compliance with minimum wage laws; living wages encouraged.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Grievance mechanisms/reporting concerns</strong><br>CoCs require anonymous, accessible, transparent channels for complaints, ensuring that workers can report grievances without fear of retaliation.</td><td><ul><li>CoCs require anonymous, accessible, transparent channels for complaints, ensuring that workers can report grievances without fear of retaliation.</li><li>Double bookkeeping systems conceal noncompliance (e.g., unpaid overtime, underreported wages).</li><li>Safety measures (e.g., needle shields) are temporarily installed for audits and removed afterward.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Transparency and compliance with CoCs</strong><br>Buyers mandate transparency, on-site information and compliance with CoCs. They also impose social audits, either managed internally or by third parties.</td><td><ul><li>CoCs require compliance with minimum wage laws; living wages encouraged.</li><li>Workers are coached to provide scripted answers during audits.</li><li>CoC information is displayed only during audits and removed afterward.</li><li>Workers are coached to provide scripted answers during audits.</li><li>Double bookkeeping systems conceal noncompliance (e.g., unpaid overtime, underreported wages).</li><li>Safety measures (e.g., needle shields) are temporarily installed for audits and removed afterward.</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>
### 5.2.2 | Loyalty (Drivers: Low-Hanging Fruits and Prevailing Norms)

As conceived in Hirschman's original work, an individual's attachment to the organization and reluctance to exit despite disagreements with its practices are at the core of loyalty. Similarly, our findings show that factors such as humane treatment by managers and workers' emotional attachment play a role in enabling workers to tolerate degrading workplace conditions:

> "The wage is getting worse, less of the benefits ... But I still want to work here. I feel comfortable and my boss is pleasant. Every day she visits the shop floor and chats with us, asking about our kids ... So even though the working conditions are not good, the salary is low, it is still ok ..." (Worker 17, female, 25 years old)

However, closer scrutiny reveals that workers often accept substandard conditions in exchange for a “low-hanging fruit,” such as financial or nonfinancial benefits or promises of job security. Such benefits can facilitate workers’ tolerance of and support for CSR decoupling. For example, they may condone a double bookkeeping system—prevalent in the industry—if savings from unreported hours and wages benefit them directly:

> "I know we have a double bookkeeping system: one book is to show our clients (brands/auditors) and the authorities, and the other is for real wage payments. The latter states that our wages are much higher and shows our payment for overtime. It's good since the company pays less or no social insurance; my wage deduction will be less. In the end, I earn more! It's good. They do the right thing, I guess." (Worker 16, female, 36 years old)

Moreover, workers may perceive certain types of CSR decoupling as acceptable or even legitimate, given prevailing local norms and practices. For example, the presence of underage workers on the factory floor was often considered unproblematic. As one worker explained,

> "There are juveniles in the factory, I know ... They don't have contracts, no insurance. It's ok, actually. If they work, they are paid." (Worker 16, female, 36 years old)

As these quotes illustrate, workers remain loyal despite substandard conditions not only because of personal attachment but also because of inducements and prevailing norms.

### 5.2.3 | Cynicism (Driver: Reaching Personal Endurance Limits)

When there is no low-hanging fruit, workers facing substandard conditions and reaching their endurance limits tend to

exhibit cynicism, which is characterized by negative beliefs, negative affect, and critical behavior. Workers' testimonials distinctly illustrate their limits of endurance and their sense of hopelessness and disillusionment, a clear manifestation of cynicism.

> "They do not let us take a break at noon and force us to work 30 more minutes. I really hate it. It's exhausting. But it keeps going on." (Worker 23, female, 30s)

Workers' endurance limits vary by individual, time, and space: overtime pay may be a welcome source of additional income for young and healthy workers. However, for others (particularly older workers with caregiving responsibilities), it is a source of physical and mental exhaustion. As we will discuss next, workers' active responses are largely shaped by their collective perceptions of the conditions on the factory floor.

## 5.3 | Resisting CSR Decoupling via Neglect, Voice, and Exit

Workers may seek to change the situation caused by CSR decoupling via neglect, voice, or exit. In fact, we find the dividing line between acceptance and resistance to be blurred, fluid, and dynamic. Workers tend to combine neglect with voice, whereas voice is compatible with exit, with one encouraging the other. Moreover, resistance can quickly revert to acceptance, or vice versa, if workers find that their demands are (not) met.

### 5.3.1 | Neglect (Driver: Perceived Workplace Solidarity)

Workers who individually reach their endurance limits tend to exhibit cynicism but rarely engage in neglect on their own. Neglect materializes through lax and disregardful behavior, leading to negative performance at work. Such strategies are rare in a context where lateness, slowness, and errors are severely penalized by deduction from bonuses, for example. Nonetheless, our data indicate that workers may opt for riskier strategies such as neglect and voice when they develop a shared understanding of the problem and perceive a sense of workplace solidarity among coworkers. In addition, social media make it easier to connect with other workers and share problems they experience on the factory floor.

Recognizing that other workers face similar workplace issues is often a critical first step for individual workers to move from cynicism to more active responses. For example, an individual worker initially downplayed excessive overtime, avoiding action despite physical exhaustion and feelings of exploitation. However, when her coworkers shared similar fatigue and sentiments, her dissatisfaction coalesced into something larger, transforming individual cynicism into a bolder collective response.

> "If it's only me finding excessive overtime troublesome, I'd never raise that problem to the manager, even though I'm exhausted after a working
day. But if my colleagues feel the same, we all react to
such problems.” (Worker 22, female, 40s)

Although we found no evidence of workers engaging in ne-
glect individually, we observed instances of collective work
stoppages or temporary abandonment to demand action from
management, an example of collective neglect combined
with voice.

"The more we ask for things, the more hopeless we get. Everything is decided by the management, I feel like we have no rights at all ... Our group (4-5 persons) stops working. We are there but not sewing." (Worker 21, female, 41 years old)

**5.3.2 | Voice (Drivers: Worker Awareness, Perceived Workplace Solidarity, and Support of External Stakeholders)**

Solidarity among workers facilitates voice strategies, either in-
ternally or externally. Internal voice can take the form of ad hoc,
issue-specific negotiations, or in-house strikes. Encouraged by
the recent waves of wildcat strikes, workers increasingly con-
front management collectively to demand what they are enti-
tled to.

"Without hesitating, they [workers] will ask the manager why they haven't received salary, why their salary is deducted, why the factory doesn't keep its promise to pay salary on the 10th of each month." (Stakeholder 8, female, local labor rights activist)

When workers learn about their entitlements and identify a gap
between policy and practice that directly affects them, they may
engage in ad hoc collective negotiations with management.

"The company hasn't paid for social insurance since August until now. [...] They didn't inform us, but we know ... We cross-checked through the social insurance's website ... Some of us questioned the managers about this issue. They told us to bring the bills, and that they would reimburse us." (Worker 16, female, 36 years old)

Here, workers emphasized decoupling in terms of social insur-
ance payments, and management responded by reimbursing
individual medical bills. This addressed workers' immediate fi-
nancial needs but did not lead to recoupling. This passage shows
how offering small, immediate benefits can restore workers'
"loyalty" without addressing the underlying decoupling. When
management fails to respond, however, workers may escalate
the issue through in-house strikes.

"We have about 20 requests, they [the employer] respond to only 10 of them. If the company doesn't answer or bargain, we go on in-house strike, we just

come but don't work anymore, until they deal with
our requests.” (Worker 25, female, 32 years old)

In-house strikes, confined within the factory compound, can quickly escalate into full-blown strikes. Aware of the recent waves of wildcat strikes, factory management often seeks to appease workers to avoid public confrontation.

> "... so now, they go on in-house strike and force the employers ... the boss doesn't want to make a fuss in public ... to let it explode is to let more people know, which might affect their reputation, and brands would rush to the factories." (Stakeholder 9, unionist)

Workers may also seek external channels for support, such as buyers, MSIs, or state authorities. For example, worker 16 (female, 36 years old) confided that she and her coworkers approached the Department of Labor⁵ to address issues in their factory. Others reported management misconduct to the trade union office. Here, distinguishing between factory-level unions, which are typically management-led, on the one hand, and upper-level unions, which are state-led and viewed as relatively more impartial mediators, on the other hand, is crucial.

> "When we didn't see improvement, we went to the [trade union] office in the industrial zone office to denounce him [the director]. We have done that before, and everything is solved. The director got fined!" (Worker 18, male, 27 years old)

Workers may also use the grievance mechanisms provided by buyers or MSIs. Training programs that raise awareness about worker entitlements and available grievance channels have been effective in encouraging workers' voice.

> "After we conducted training for workers about the Fair Wear Foundation hotline and numerous issues related to benefits, the hotline received 152 calls from workers because it is systematically wrong [in that factory]." (Stakeholder 10, female, vice director of a local NGO)

**5.3.3 | Vocal or Silent Exit (Drivers: Fear of Managerial Sanctions and Labor Market Competitiveness)**

Informed workers who perceive the existence of workplace soli-
darity may become bolder, but raising their voice remains risky,
particularly for strike leaders. If identified, they face dismissal
and blacklisting as disruptive workers.

> "Most of the time, when workers go on strike ... they are not led by unionists. The leaders are called 'black leaders' ... when they are identified, they are blacklisted by the company and other adjacent companies as well. The identified black leaders often have a slim chance of getting a job in the area ..." (Stakeholder 11, unionist)
Employers often use the tactic of blacklisting to eliminate disruptive elements and discourage voice in the sector. Many interviewees mentioned the existence of such blacklists circulating among local managers, who regularly exchange information via employer associations. Given the high cost of voice, which may lead to sanctions or layoffs, workers who choose to speak out individually are both rare and ready to leave the company:

> "If a worker decides to voice herself about the problem, then for sure that she decides to leave that company."
> (Worker 22, female, 40s).

Voice and exit often go hand in hand in the context of this study. Aware of the high cost of voice, workers often opt for silent exit, quitting their jobs without raising complaints about substandard conditions, as one worker explained:

> "I suffered from serious morning sickness, and they [the company] did not want to pay for my (medical) insurance ... So, I quit." (Worker 13, female, 30s).

Even without specific grievances, workers frequently seek better pay and conditions, comparing nearby factories and changing employers when opportunities arise. However, not all workers have equal opportunities to find alternative jobs. Age

discrimination in the sector makes it particularly challenging for older female workers (over 35) to switch jobs, as emphasized by this 39-year-old female worker:

> "Most workers do not complain. If they are young and feel bored, they will seek better work with better pay. Now I am old, where can I go? In my company, the majority of workers are old and cannot go elsewhere. We are forced to stay here." (Worker 14, female, 39 years old)

This quote highlights the dual labor market and sorting effect, where competitive workers exit factories with poor conditions in search of better opportunities, whereas those with limited prospects remain and endure substandard conditions. In the absence of enforcement mechanisms, CSR decoupling persists as long as factories retain enough workers ready to endure such conditions.

## 5.4 | A Dynamic Model of Worker Response to CSR Decoupling

We summarize the findings and introduce a dynamic model of worker response to CSR decoupling on the basis of the EVLNC framework, as illustrated in Figure 2. Our model

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**FIGURE 2** | A dynamic model of workers' response to CSR decoupling.</figcaption></figure>
draws inspiration from the model of responses to worker dissatisfaction developed by Farrell (1983). Their original model categorizes four responses (exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect) along two dimensions: active-positive (impact on the problem) and constructive-destructive (impact on employee-organization relationships). However, we modify this framework to better suit the features of the supply chain context, as outlined below.

First, we moved away from categorizing EVLN as distinct, mutually exclusive responses, as our data revealed mixed and dynamic patterns (e.g., neglect combined with voice and vocal exit). Second, we replaced the constructive-destructive dimension with an individual-collective dimension, given that the collective aspect was important for workers to shift from accepting CSR decoupling (via loyalty or cynicism) to resisting it (via neglect, voice and exit). Third, we introduced cynicism (Naus et al. 2007) as a more relevant response than neglect in the supply chain context. Finally, we identified the drivers and enablers behind each worker response.

The primary driver behind workers accepting CSR decoupling is their sheer need for income, with low-hanging fruit such as cash payments sustaining loyalty despite questionable practices such as double bookkeeping or unpaid social insurance. When endurance limits are reached, however, workers often display cynicism, expressed through resignation and hopelessness. The perception of workplace solidarity is pivotal in moving from passive individual acceptance to active collective resistance. In the absence of enabling rights, such as freedom of association, workers informally organize under influential workplace leaders to voice their demands and push for change.

Voice, whether internal or external, is often triggered by workers' awareness of their entitlements and recognition of gaps between policy and practice. Internal voice can include issue-specific negotiations and in-house strikes, bypassing factory-level unions. When internal efforts fail, workers may turn to external grievance mechanisms provided by brands, MSIs, or upper-level unions. If their demands remain unmet, they may escalate to wildcat strikes. An interesting pattern is vocal exit, where voice is often followed by forced exit as disruptive workers face management sanctions unless workers deliberately quit for a better position. However, silent exit, in which workers with labor market competitiveness quietly leave without raising complaints, is more common than vocal exit.

While the EVLNC model explains workers' responses to dissatisfaction, it does not account for situations where workers perceive decoupled practices as unproblematic and willingly accept them. We observed instances in which workers showed no interest in resisting CSR decoupling, which helps explain why such practices persist. Workers may perceive certain types of CSR decoupling as acceptable or even legitimate in light of prevailing local norms, as in the case of underage workers. Workers tend to accept decoupled practices (e.g., lack of formal contracts) if they do not feel directly disadvantaged.

Similarly, workers may accept informal solutions, such as ad hoc reimbursement for unpaid social security contributions, rather than seeking fundamental solutions. In some cases, workers

may view certain decoupled practices favorably, such as with double bookkeeping, if they gain personal benefits. These examples reveal a disconnect between CSR decoupling and workers' primary concerns, which are largely driven by a need for income. While workers may turn a blind eye to certain decoupled practices, they can vocally demand better pay and conditions (beyond the legal minimum wage, which often falls short of a living wage). Indeed, the demand for higher wages has been the primary driver behind the waves of wildcat strikes in Vietnam.

# 6 | Discussion

This study explored factory workers' responses to CSR decoupling (or a lack thereof) in garment supply chains in Vietnam, building on Hirschman's extended model. Our findings and analysis contribute to three sets of literature and present practical implications for regulating global supply chains.

## 6.1 | Workers' Role in CSR Decoupling

CSR decoupling is an institutionalized practice in global supply chains, as a range of actors collectively contribute to a series of decoupling patterns, creating decoupling cascades (Cao and Jayasinghe 2024). In this ecosystem, the least known actor is factory-level workers, as research on CSR decoupling tends to focus on the role of buyers and suppliers (Jamali et al. 2017) or unions and NGOs (Bartley and Egels-Zandén 2016). Moreover, supply chain workers are often portrayed as passive and obedient yet at times complicit or openly rebellious. Our research explores this paradox and provides insights into why and how workers respond to CSR decoupling in different situations.

The Vietnamese case points to the agency, power, and courage of workers who go on strikes without unions or external assistance. This contrasts with existing research that emphasizes the need to leverage external actors such as buyers, global union federations, or NGOs to combat decoupling and bring about positive change on the factory floor (Bartley and Egels-Zandén 2016). Nonetheless, workers are unlikely to resist CSR decoupling if they feel alone in enduring the problem or do not find it problematic owing to prevailing norms or incentives. A combination of worker awareness, workplace solidarity, and support enables active responses such as neglect and voice. Our findings thus defy the portrayal of docile and powerless workers and underscore the importance of the collective dimension, providing a nuanced picture of workers' willingness and capacity to overcome CSR decoupling in global supply chains.

Our study demonstrates that rank-and-file workers, far from being powerless, exercise their agency and make context-specific choices to respond (or not) to various decoupled practices. Selective and ambivalent responses by workers to decoupled practices mean that workers can also contribute to decoupling (Hoang 2019; Oka 2016). Moreover, the gaps between CSR policies and workers' actual needs suggest that examining CSR decoupling alone is not sufficient to achieve decent work in global supply chains. Notably, workers' pressing demand for living wages underscores the need to reform buyers' purchasing practices, beyond squeezing suppliers and toward
sharing value (Anner 2020). The findings thus encourage us to look beyond CSR decoupling, as we seek to build a path for decent work.

## 6.2 | Amplifying Workers' Voice in SSCM Research

Understanding workers' reactions (or lack thereof) to CSR decoupling at supplier factories is crucial to building a path to decent work, one of the most pressing issues in SSCM. We respond to the call to humanize the SSCM research (Touboulic et al. 2020; Soundararajan et al. 2021) and complement recent critiques of the dominant top-down, compliance-based approaches to SSCM (Rogerson et al. 2025; Wilhelm et al. 2024). By foregrounding workers' lived experiences, we show how their agency, needs, and perceptions are often misaligned with buyer-driven CSR instruments (Nath et al. 2021), thereby reinforcing CSR decoupling. The resulting paradox is that these governance mechanisms, meant to protect workers, ultimately fail them (Reinecke and Donaghey 2021).

In this study, we demonstrate that workers are not merely victims or rebels, but agentic actors who make context-specific decisions based on awareness, solidarity, and support. This has important implications for SSCM research: ensuring decent work in supply chains requires social and cultural proximity to workers, not just a contractual relationship with suppliers. Focal firms need to have a direct channel with workers or worker-supporting organizations (e.g., unions, NGOs) to understand issues that matter to them and to design worker-centered governance mechanisms (Wilhelm et al. 2024). Although the behavioral SCM field is expanding (Kaufmann et al. 2017), it has rarely addressed how supply chain workers experience and respond to their realities on the factory floor.

By opening the black box of factory-level worker response, we demonstrate the importance of examining less powerful actors and call for better integration of intraorganizational dynamics centered on workers into the interorganizational and mainly hierarchical, top-down processes that dominate the SSCM literature (Nath et al. 2021). Our study builds on prior work that explores the distance between buyers, suppliers, and workers (Sauer and Seuring 2018; Pinnington and Meehan 2023). We shift the focus to workers themselves, making their responses visible and heard. Like Pinnington and Meehan (2023), we adopt an individual-level perspective to illuminate systemic gaps in SSCM, but from the standpoint of those at the receiving end of governance failures. In doing so, we challenge the invisibility of supply chain workers and show how agency at the margins can shape, resist, or reinforce broader interorganizational dynamics.

A related contribution is to illuminate the factory as a local arena of CSR decoupling in global supply chains. We show how factories function as spaces for contestation and negotiation between workers and managers and how variation in worker characteristics and behavior helps explain heterogeneous patterns of decoupling across factories, even within the same country, leading to heterogeneous adoption and selective decoupling (Jamali et al. 2017). While directly linking worker actions to buyer behavior remains complex, our findings suggest that worker

agency indirectly shapes the (in)effectiveness of compliance-based SSCM approaches.

Ultimately, our findings reinforce critical perspectives on codes of conduct and social audits, long scrutinized in SSCM (LeBaron 2021; Soundararajan et al. 2021; Soundararajan et al., 2025). Such “ill-equipped instruments” (Wijen 2014) based on buyer-driven and hierarchical approaches to sustainability often decouple in practice—sometimes through the forced or unwitting involvement of workers themselves. This underscores the need to redesign supply chain strategies, such as long-term monitoring systems (Shevchenko et al. 2018), supplier development programs (Hasle and Vang 2021), and mechanisms to protect worker voice (Reinecke and Donaghey 2021). We join ongoing calls to move beyond traditional dyadic governance and toward alternative systemic approaches better suited to improving working conditions in global supply chains (LeBaron 2021; Soundararajan et al. 2025).

## 6.3 | The Extended Hirschman Model in Supply Chain Contexts

As one of the first studies to apply Hirschman's extended model to supply chain workers, our research has yielded important insights into the model. Contrary to Hirschman's argument that voice and exit form a seesaw relationship, where one reduces the need for the other, we see a complementary relationship. While the lack of exit opportunity does not necessarily translate into voice (given the high cost of voice for workers), exit is likely to follow voice owing to the existence of managerial sanctions. Additionally, exit (high turnover) does not sap momentum for voice (e.g., waves of strikes) when pay and conditions in the sector remain unsatisfactory throughout. In fact, Hirschman (1970) did see such complementarity as he qualified strike as “a true hybrid of the two mechanisms” (p. 86) and “that the effectiveness of voice is strengthened by the possibility of exit” (p. 83), but complementarity is much more pronounced for supply chain workers. Meanwhile, Hirschman's argument that “loyalty holds exit at bay and activates voice” (p. 78) does not necessarily hold, as loyalty induced by low-hanging fruit helps to subdue worker voice, emphasizing the particularities of supply chain contexts.

Although Hirschman's extended model has been used to study different workplace contexts, our findings suggest that cynicism prevails over neglect among supply chain workers, due to risks of harsh repercussions for minor drops in productivity. However, with increased awareness and a perception of workplace solidarity, workers can engage in bolder action ranging from collective neglect and in-house strikes to full-blown strikes. In the absence of independent unions, the perception of workplace solidarity was crucial for workers to shift from accepting to resisting CSR decoupling.

Our study demonstrates the importance of the collective dimension of worker voice, which has been overlooked in the voice literature in the field of organizational behavior, which focuses mainly on individual voice with constructive intentions (Wilkinson et al. 2018). By realizing the importance of the collective aspect of voice in supply chain contexts, we have
introduced the individual–collective dimension and developed a model that explains when workers accept (via loyalty and cynicism) or resist (via neglect, voice, and exit) CSR decoupling. Our research thus calls for bringing the collective back into the literature on voice, exit, loyalty, and beyond.

## 6.4 | Implications for Policy and Practice

In addition to theoretical implications, our findings provide practical guidance for MNCs and policymakers to improve working conditions in global supply chains. Notably, our study emphasizes the importance of establishing mechanisms to amplify worker voice at both the factory and industry levels, particularly in contexts lacking freedom of association. For example, MNCs could adopt a hands-on approach (Ponte and Cheyns 2013) by helping raise worker awareness about their entitlements and promoting worker voice and grievance mechanisms that are accessible, safe, and effective. Here, in line with Rogerson et al. (2025), collaboration with local NGOs that are trusted by workers appears key, as exemplified by the inclusive labor monitoring network run by the ISSARA Institute to combat human trafficking and poor conditions in global supply chains. Strengthening worker voice mechanisms could substantially enhance MNCs' adherence to the third “remediation” pillar of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as well as the OECD Guidance for Multinational Enterprises for Responsible Business Conduct (OECD 2023).

While worker-driven supply chain governance is much needed (Reinecke and Donaghey 2021), our research also indicates possible limitations for supply chain workers—preoccupied with their need for income and overloaded at work and at home—to act as monitors and enforcers of labor standards themselves. A more promising alternative is to train and hire former workers as monitors of labor standards and defenders of workers' rights. The Fair Food Program developed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Southern Florida is one such model of (ex-)worker-led monitoring, backed by buying companies' commitment to source from supplier farms that respect standards (Rosile et al. 2021). Here, it is crucial for worker-led initiatives to be supported by buyers, suppliers, state actors, and international networks of unions and NGOs to tap into broader resources to amplify their impact (Soundararajan, et al. 2025; Shirgholami et al. 2024).

Governments also play a crucial role in reinforcing grievance resolution mechanisms. There is a pressing need to enhance protection mechanisms for workers, not only to facilitate voice/exit strategies but also to help them access and succeed in legal disputes against employers. Key measures include investing in safeguards against unfair labor practices, improving access to labor mediation services, and expediting grievance resolution processes to counter blacklisting practices. While the Vietnamese government has incorporated voice protection mechanisms into the Labor Code of 2019, as outlined in its free trade agreement with the European Union, effectively implementing them requires coordinated efforts on multiple fronts.

In addition to facilitating worker voice, state institutions must be revamped to enforce national laws. As our results show,

reinforcing the agency of workers does not help address all types of labor standard violations, not least safety and health issues. Thus, there is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of state enforcement agencies, which are currently acutely underfunded and understaffed in countries where upstream parts of global supply chains are located. Here, we argue that law—through the exercise of workers' rights—provides another form of voice. In line with previous work in the historical domain, we suggest that Hirschman's framework should be expanded to include “law in action” (Stanziani 2018). As laws can be placed on the statute book but can also easily become dead letters, we need to examine how the law is used in concrete situations, by whom and what impact it has on labor and working conditions. Enriching the Hirschmann framework with “law in action” may help assess the extent to which workers can access the means to enforce their legal rights when voice and exit mechanisms fail them.

## 7 | Limitations and Further Research

Decoupling in global supply chains is a complex, multiorganizational, and multilevel process involving numerous actors, ranging from buyers to multiple layers of suppliers and workers. While our study illuminates the often-overlooked worker perspective, it does not investigate the role of other actors. Future research should incorporate a broader range of actors—buyers and suppliers in addition to workers—and develop a multilevel model of decoupling across different stages of supply chains to explore the multilayered and dialectical interactions between these actors.

Our findings, which are based on Vietnam's garment industry, are necessarily limited by its context. Certainly, the goal of interpretive research is a deeper understanding of the phenomenon in question rather than generalizability as in positivist research (Darby et al. 2019). Nonetheless, countries where labor-intensive supply chains are located share certain institutional traits, such as limited freedom of association. With China and Vietnam accounting for 37.6% of global garment exports (Fibre2Fashion 2024) and other major exporters such as Bangladesh suppressing independent unions (Kuruvilla and Li 2021), these findings remain highly relevant.

Our research suggests that CSR decoupling is more damaging to vulnerable actors—older female workers—as they are less likely to resist decoupling and more likely to remain victims. Future research could build on this study and further explore the lived experiences of supply chain workers and their identity through ethnography, for example. Scholars could draw on recent research in related fields, such as that of Narayanan and Terris (2020), which explores ways to make manufacturing operations more inclusive.

## 8 | Conclusions

This study extends and enriches the literature on CSR decoupling and substandard conditions in global supply chains by focusing on the role of factory-level workers. Until now, inquiry into how workers perceive and respond to CSR decoupling has been severely
lacking, although workers hold the key to understanding why de-
coupling persists in global supply chains. Building on Hirschman's
extended model, we have developed a conceptual framework to
understand when and how supply chain workers respond to CSR
decoupling. In so doing, we have generated new understanding
and offered a fuller account of worker response. Importantly, we
have shown the multiple and complex realities of CSR decoupling
on the factory floor, as workers may ignore, tolerate, or embrace
certain decoupled practices while resisting others. This complex
picture defies the conventional understanding of CSR decoupling
in global supply chains and underscores the importance of in-
terpretive research, which, in our case, helps reveal how worker
perspectives on the issue may not always fit with buyer or NGO
priorities and expectations.

This study also presents important policy implications. On
the one hand, worker voice urgently needs to be promoted and
protected at all levels of supply chains, particularly in contexts
where worker representation is restricted. Given field observa-
tions, locally embedded and culturally sensitive interventions
seem more relevant than more technologically sophisticated
solutions that may be out of reach to workers. Buyers should
consider intensifying collaboration with local organizations
that support workers rather than pouring more resources into
auditing practices that have proven largely ineffective. On the
other hand, worker voice needs to be complemented by other
regulatory mechanisms. Here, governments, international or-
ganizations, NGOs, and other organizations promoting decent
work can play important roles.

Ethics Statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were
in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or na-
tional research committee.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Endnotes

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<footnote n="1">¹While other scholars have explored the dimension of *silence* (Birch 1975), we see it more as a process (that can be combined with exit, loyalty, neglect, and cynicism) than a distinct response.</footnote>

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## Supporting Information

Additional supporting information can be found online in the Supporting Information section. **Data S1:** Supplementary Information.