An Analysis of Regional Sustainable Development with Emphasis on Introducing Barriers to Decent Work (Case Study of Yazd Industry Sector)
Subject Areas : Regional PlanningHossein Askaripoor Geluyake 1 , Gholamreza Bordbar 2 , Mehdi Sabokro 3 , Ali Morovati Sharifabadi 4
1 - PhD in Business Management, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran,
2 - Associate Professor, Business Administration Department, Yazd University, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Business Administration Department, Yazd University, Iran.
4 - Associate Professor, Industrial Management Department, Yazd University, Iran.
Keywords: "Sustainable Development", "Regional Sustainable Development", "Decent Work", "Barriers to Decent Work",
Abstract :
Decent Work is one of the key factors in achieving sustainable development at the national and regional levels, and its implementation will have desirable consequences, but so far decent work in our country has remained only at the level of political discourse and announcement. Therefore, due to the increasing importance of decent work and its lack of real implementation in Iran, it seems necessary to identify the barriers that are in the way of its implementation. Hence, the main aim of this study is to help achieve sustainable regional development by identify and prioritize the barriers to the implementation of decent work in Yazd province. In this regard, based on trilateralism, 45 (n = 45) employers, workers' representatives and government representatives were Judgmental selected as statistical samples. In order to data gathering, in the first step, barriers to the decent work were identified based on library studies and in-depth initial interviews. In the second step, though, using the Delphi-Fuzzy method and the opinion of some of the experts in the industry sector, the identified barriers in the first step were analyzed and summarized. Finally, in the third step, with using the Fuzzy Best-Worst method, the barriers to decent work were prioritized and finalized. The final results and conclusions of this study indicate that the lack of trust atmosphere in dialogues with definite weight of 0.1999, budgetary problems with definite weight of 0.2840, government-owned structure industry with definite weight of 0.2755 and distrust of other members with definite weight of 0.2766, were the most difficult barriers in the implementation of decent work and, consequently, sustainable development in Yazd province.
Extended Abstract
Introduction:
Sustainable Development seeks to unite contemporary and future generations, regional and global needs, temporal and spatial trends, environment and development, and efficiency and justice (Yan et al., 2018: 67) And decent work, according to its indicators, is one of the most important infrastructures needed to achieve sustainable development at the national and regional levels (Mallett et al., 2017; ILO, 2018؛Rai et al., 2019), As can be seen from the researches carried out (Etaat and Shojaee Nasab, 2013: 13, etc.), it can be concluded that many of the indicators brought up in the field of decent work are the same as those of sustainable development. Decent work has attractive, widespread, complex, and somewhat hard to achieve indicators. Fortunately, Iran is one of the pioneer countries in the acceptance of decent work. As an example, in the Multi-sectorial Employment Development Document, adopted in 2005, paragraph B, decent work and its development was emphasized explicitly. In the Third Economic Development Plan, attention was paid to decent work and its indexes indirectly and directly, respectively. However, in the Fourth Economic Development Plan (Article 101), the Fifth Economic Development Plan (Article 25) and Sixth Economic Development Plan (Articles 4 and 120), decent work and the necessity of its implementation were mentioned directly. However, as stated above, given the medium and long-term benefits of decent work and the future necessity to implement it, the questions that arise here are: why Iran, despite accepting decent work, didn't take any real action? Why do we always have delays and procrastination in implementing decent work? Are there barriers to implementation decent work? What are these barriers and how can they be identified and their degree of importance identified? In order to answer these key questions, the most important questions in this research are as follows:
-What are the most important barriers to the social dialogue component of decent work and how are they prioritized?
-What are the most important barriers to the social protection component of decent work and how are they prioritized?
-What are the most important barriers to the decent employment component of decent work and how are they prioritized?
-What are the main barriers to the component of the fundamental rights at work of decent work and how are they prioritized?
Methodology:
The present research is practical in terms of purpose and is survey-based and descriptive in terms of data collection.In the current research, in the first step, library method (books, articles, texts, and the Internet), semi-structured and in-depth interviews were used to identify the barriers.These semi-structured interviews have been done with some experienced members of the labour unions, employers, and government representatives in the industry sector of Yazd Province in Iran which had sufficient knowledge of decent work and were aware of industrial relations(n=15). In the second step, the identified barriers were refined, summarized and finalized by fuzzy Delphi based on expert opinion (n = 45).In the third step the special questionnaire of the fuzzy best-worst method was used to prioritize the barriers. Subsequently, the questionnaire compiled by the fuzzy best-worst method for rating the identified barriers was provided to the sample group members and all of the 45 questionnaires were completed and returned and the data which is referred to in the current study were extracted from the questionnaire completed by these experts and then analyzed using the fuzzy best-worst method and Lingo Software.
Results and Discussion:
By relying on field and library methods for data collection, new methods of analysis and ranking such as fuzzy Delphi and fuzzy best-worst methods, and the experts' society in the industrial relations in Yazd Province, the data of the current research was collected and analyzed. The output of identifying the barriers and summarizing them with the help of the experts and using the fuzzy Delphi method led to the introduction of 64 barriers to decent work and its components. The weighting and ranking of these barriers in terms of the four components of decent work by fuzzy best worst method led to identification of the most important barriers of decent work.
Conclusion:
In summary, after analyzing the outputs of analyzes in this study, the most important results obtained are as follows:
In the field of social dialogue, from the experts' point of view, barriers such as the lack of trust in dialogues with a definite weight of 0.1999, the conflict between the interests of the worker and the employer and withdrawal of the game from the win-win situation with a definite weight of 0.0982 and an Emphasis on the personal interests of each party and neglecting the collective interests with definite weight of 0.0865 have been identified as the most important barriers in this area. The results of the research conducted by Hossein Abadi et al. (2015) and Etebarian and Bagheri Khorasgani (2015) confirm the results obtained in the present study.
In the area of social protection development, barriers such as insufficient budget allocation for social support in macro-level with a definite weight of 0.2840, the intervention of the government and the parliament in the executive affairs of funds with a definite weight of 0.0760, and adopting laws without regarding the insurance calculations with definite weight 0.0753 was identified by experts as the most important barriers. The results obtained in the study by Sobhanian et al. (2016) have also indirectly emphasized these barriers.
In terms of barriers to decent employment, the most significant barriers were identified by experts, such as government-owned industries with a definite weight of 0.2755, administrative corruption with a definite weight of 0.0624, and inadequate training and skills with a definite weight of 0.0622. The results of the present research on these barriers are in line with the research by Entezarian and Tahmasebi (2011), Zare Bidoki and Zare Bidoki (2018) and Bircan (2109).
In the area of barriers to the fundamental rights at work, experts identified as the most important barriers, such as lack of trust in other members (workers, employers, government) with a definite weight of 0.2766, economic feasibility of child labor with a definite weight of 0.0639, and high labor supply with a definite weight of 0.0617. The results of the study by Bordbar et al. (2014) are in line with the results of the present study.
