Gap Inc

Chapter four of the textbook titled Business and Society defines global corporate citizenship as “the process of identifying, analyzing, and responding to the company’s social, political, and economic responsibilities as defined through law and public policy, stakeholder expectations, and voluntary acts flowing from corporate values and business strategies. Corporate citizenship involves actual results and the processes through which they are achieved” (Lawrence p.68). By definition alone, I believe Gap Inc. has demonstrated global corporate citizenship. The following paragraphs will address the actions the company has chosen to embrace including identifying the problem concerning human rights violations, analyzing the issues through various studies both internally and by external, independent firms, and responding to the problem by refraining from doing business with offenders of their new policy and procedures as well as educating their business partners on their new stance (Lawrence p.83). The first example of Gap demonstrating global corporate citizenship is by identifying the problem. Gap understood the issue of the well being of workers by various sources including their own research coming from the Social Responsibility Report, and outside interests such as activist investors and the United States Against Sweatshops (USAS). In order to better understand the problem Gap had to complete an analysis of conditions to grasp the enormity of the problem (Lawrence p.83). Understanding the issue was primary dealt with through the factory monitoring system then the report mentioned earlier named the Social Responsibility Report. This report detailed Gap’s effort to correct any labor malfunctions through its vendors. This factory monitoring program aimed to eliminate any business interest with any company that violated the following standards, no discrimination in employment, support for human rights, protection of freedom of association and collective

Cited: Anonymous. Environmental Leader. Gap Releases Social Responsibility Report. Retrieved July 19th 2008. http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/08/16/gap-releases-social-responsibility-report/ Gap Website. Social Responsibility Section. Improving Factory Conditions. Retrieved July 18th 2008. http://www.gapinc.com/public/SocialResponsibility/sr_factories.shtml Gruner, J. Gap 's New Look: The See-Through USA Publishing on behalf of Fast Company Magazine Sep 2004 Retrieved July 19th 2008 http://proquest.umi.com.felix.albright.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=673154971&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1216777327&clientId=13773 Lawrence, Anne T. and Weber, James. Business And Society 12th Edition McGraw-Hill Irwin publishing. 2008