Predicting labour unrest though the lenses of theory of planned behavior: cases from BEPZA

Abstract

Industrial dispute has been touted as a major constraint in the economy of Bangladesh. While poor
management and inadequate institutional factors were widely blamed for the high propensity of
industrial dispute, formation of workers’ behavioural intention of industrial dispute has hardly been
studied in the context of Bangladesh. Based on three cases from Bangladesh Export Processing
Zone (BEPZ), we apply theory of planned behaviour to identify what are the factors that influence
the propensity of workers to engage in violent behaviour when an industrial dispute takes place.
Our findings show that, behavioural beliefs and attitude towards formal industrial dispute resolution
and perceived behavioural control strongly influence the behaviour of the workers, while subjective
norms also have an influencing power, albeit is a lesser capacity. Some alternative dispute
resolution techniques along with future directions for research were also provided towards the end
of the paper.