Corporate Codes of Labour Practice and Employment Relations in Sports Shoe Contractor Factories in South Korea

We examine the way a leading US‐based, global athletic shoe and sports apparel firm applies its labour code of practice to four prime contractors located in South Korea. The content of the code, the mechanisms used in implementing the code, and employment relations behaviour associated with the code are investigated. We find evidence for arrangements resembling relational contracting and high compliance by the four Korean contractor plants in regard to the global firm's code of labour practices. Employment relations patterns in the plants are similar and related to implementation of the global firm's labour practices code. However, there are some noteworthy differences that are explained by variations in workplace dependence on the global corporation and the history and current approaches of contractor management.