The effects of culture and leadership behaviour on ethical practices in managing labour within the UK and Bangladesh- readymade garment industry

During the 21st century there has been a rapid globalization. Consequently, numbers of multinational companies in developed countries are outsourcing many industrial production and services to developing countries. In the clothing sector of UK, businesses source textile products from Bangladesh due to lower material and labour costs in this country. Cultures and leaders’ leadership behaviour of these countries are not same. For that reason, both countries have different labour management system in their readymade garment industry. In UK, rules and regulations are very strict, employee safety is very important, and employees get a fixed national minimum wage or more in every sector including textile industry. But records from last few decades show in Bangladesh who supplies a huge amount of readymade garment product to UK, thousands of garment workers have been killed in unsafe workplace. In 2012 there was a fire in a clothing factory and a building collapsed in the year 2013, in Bangladesh. This led to number of deaths of the people who worked in these factories. These workers were actually producing clothings for retailers those who are from countries such as U.S., Canada and Europe. Eighty percent of the workers were young women, 18-20 years of age, toiling 90 to 100 hours a week with just two days off a month and their monthly salary is not more than £60. From these incidents, ethical practices in managing labour and the total HRM issues need to be focused on. Also, there is an effect of cross-culture and leadership behaviour in RMG industry of UK and Bangladesh. Therefore, this study intends to investigate whether there are effects of culture and leadership behaviour on ethical labour management in the readymade garment industry of Bangladesh and UK. This research will analyse and compare the interrelationships between UK and Bangladesh, their cultures and leaders’ leadership behaviour and consider how they influence businesses (Readymade Garment sector’s) in terms of ethical practices in managing labour. The study carried out with a mixed method research design considering pragmatism philosophical view and has taken case study research strategy. To construct the research questions and develop the hypotheses, both countries’ culture and leadership behaviour of leaders in the readymade garment industries are observed, as well as staff and leaders have been interviewed which also led to set up the case studies and questionnaire to collect quantitative data. The studied clothing retails from UK include Arcadia, F&F-Tesco, George-Asda, M&S, Next, Primark, and River Island. Studied factories from Bangladesh include Sailor Moon Sweater Ltd, Trims Zone Ltd, Aviator, Epyllion Group, Palmall Group, Hannan Fashions, New Age Ltd, Jeans Express Ltd, Devine Garments, Fahim Fashion World. Bangladesh case studies also include, Rana Plaza incident, Fire in Tazreen Fashions, and Fire in Smart Export Garment. Collected empirical data were analysed statistically, graphically and narratively to compare HR practices, leadership behaviour, the cultural differences and perceptions of organizations with regard to ethical labour management in RMG industry of Bangladesh and UK