Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of a focusing event, the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse, on garment lead firms’ labor standards policies in the light of new governance approaches, particularly the path-breaking Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (‘Accord’). Based on a sample of 20 Australian and German garment firms, we find that firms with low prior baseline standards revised their supply chain and sourcing policies and signed the Accord. Firms with medium and high baseline standards responded variously, from making no changes to revising their policies and signing the Accord. Differences in firm responses are explained by variations in stakeholder pressure occurring in different national industrial and institutional contexts following the Rana Plaza focusing event. These results suggest the wider applicability of the focusing event framework for industrial relations scholarship and highlight some of the mechanisms driving changes in industrial relations institutions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 552–579 |
| Number of pages | 38 |
| Journal | ILR Review |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Fields of science
- 502 Economics
- 502014 Innovation research
- 502026 Human resource management
- 502030 Project management
- 502015 Innovation management
- 502029 Product management
- 502036 Risk management
- 502043 Business consultancy
- 502044 Business management
- 506009 Organisation theory
JKU Focus areas
- Sustainable Development: Responsible Technologies and Management
