Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 7

2008) Due to scarcity of workplace safety (De Koster et al., 2011), the limited studies of Organizational Health and Safety (OHS) focuses on the safety environment and safety culture in organizations (Baer and Frese, 2003; Das et al., 2008; Hofmann and Stetzer, 1998; Katz-Navon et al., 1988; Naveh et al., 2005; Smith- Crowe et al., 2003; Zohar, 1980), where the worker’s safety observation is a vital interpreter of the safety performance for the organization(s). The common thread that explicitly or implicitly runs through these studies is the argument that there is a need for “surrogate accountability” in developing countries with fragile institutions, high corruption levels, and the incompetence of governments to implement code of practice (cf. Belal et al., 2015; Rubenstein, 2007). From this point of view, corporations and factory owners are characterized as “power wielders” who repeatedly disrupt laws, protocols, and agreements. Accountability holders such as workers and local communities are incapable to avoid the breaches of laws and/or social standards due to substantial power asymmetry and other disadvantaging factors such as extreme poverty and vulnerability, lack of education, etc. Any accountability system needs to be defined by the following six dimensions: “who, to whom, about what, through what processes, by what standards and with what effect” (Mashaw, 2005, p. 17). In cases where accountability and auditing practices are externally enacted on developing country suppliers, the pressure between transparency, and responsibility may be further intensified. This is because, by pressurizing the suppliers to obey with codes or standards, one enforces on the corporation the role of a surrogate accountability holder. However, given the distance between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their suppliers (both geographical and psychic), the former most likely lack enough understandings of the context-dependent socially grounded requirements of the workers (cf. Belal and Roberts, 2010; Lund-Thomsen, 2008; Sinkovics et al., 2014). However, investigations display that the effect of social upgrading is rather unevenly distributed between different groups of workers, such as skilled and unskilled (e.g. Barrientos et al., 2011), regular and irregular (e.g. Barrientos and Kritzinger, 2004; Rossi, 2011), and male and female (e.g. Barrientos et al., 2005). Most suppliers tend to be unwilling to permit rights that encounter deeply embedded labor relations or social means, hoping to avoid interference to the production process. As a result, concerns such as gender discrimination, freedom of speech, and workers’ skills development are still mostly abandoned. The accountability of the corporations and factory holders in the developing countries are breached frequently, and due to the fragile institutions, high exploitation levels, the incompetence of governments to implement regulations, it has been made difficult to prevent the breaches of laws and/or social customs for the power asymmetry and other factors like poverty, vulnerability, etc. (Belal et al., 2015; Rubenstein, 2007) Despite increasing and imposing the accountability and auditing practices on the developing country suppliers, the tension between transparency and responsibility might get intensified since they are pressurized to fulfill with codes or standards but the buyers get to go without having deeper insights on the necessity of more prices to be paid to acquire funds to comply with the required codes and standards existing thoroughly. (Belal and Roberts, 2010; Lund-Thomsen, 2008; Sinkovics et al., 2014). The analysis yielded two key findings (Sinkovics et al., 2016). First, external pressures on the firms to implement the measurable/tangible measurements of the BSCI and the Accord accomplished their projected purpose, that is, the establishment of a safer, better equipped, and more comfortable working environment. Nevertheless, there have been several unintended consequences. Due to the high cost of compliance, the case companies were required to dismiss initiatives that had furnished to some of the socially grounded necessities and urgencies of workers. A closer examination of these initiatives through the lens of social value conception (Sinkovics et al., 2015) directed to the following reflection: while certain compliance initiatives can be categorized as social improvement and thus fulfill their intended resolution, they may at the same time abolish prevailing social value and lead to the damage of certain social, economic, and cultural rights. Second, to protect the substantial cost of compliance and to guarantee the survival of their companies, the owners have invested in technological upgrading. At the same time, they have augmented the pressure on the workforce to further enrich the efficiency of production. Despite this economic elevation, there has been no development in workers’ skills. Rather, it has caused an increase in the power discrepancy and the elimination of unskilled workers from the job market. (Sinkovics et al., 2016) As a result of the high cost of compliance, the case firms had also been forced to withdraw services such as free cooked lunches and prayer facilities that had been highly appreciated by the workers. These are all examples of the demolition of previously existing social value, resulting in the loss of social, economic, and cultural rights (Sinkovics et al., 2015). The cases also aid as an illustration of the prioritization of suggested needs over felt needs by compliance mechanisms (cf. Goldewijk and De Gaay Fortman, 1999). The firms have to develop themselves financially and managerially with their limited resources by properly adapting to the diverse range of regulations along with the costs of compliances acquired. Volume XXII Issue VII Version I 80 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals E Exploration of Barriers and Success Factors of Sustainability of the Bangladeshi Textile Industry at Various Stakeholders’ Level from Social, Environmental and Economical Concern