Intentions to engage in forest law enforcement in Romania: An application of the theory of planned behavior

• Published in: Forest policy and economics Vol. 100; pp. 33 - 43
• Main Authors: Popa, Bogdan, Niță, Mihai Daniel, Hălălișan, Aureliu Florin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-03-2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavior; Effectiveness; Employee attitude; Employees; Expectations; Forest law enforcement; Forestry laws; Forests; Law; Law enforcement; Legislation; Management; Motivation; Planning; Predictive control; Reforms; Romania; Socio-psychological theory; Training; Work; Attitudes; Socio-psychological theory; Romania; Forest law enforcement
• ISSN: 1389-9341; 1872-7050
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2018.11.005

Despite numerous positive achievements, the institutional reforms in the forest sector in Central and Eastern European countries are still facing numerous problems. In Romanian case, the relatively new created Forest Inspectorates (FI) have not reached the initial expectations of applying and monitoring the forest-specific regulations. Theory of Planned Behavior was used in this context. FIs employees' intention to engage in forest law enforcement effort was investigated using a questionnaire-based survey including all the FIs employees and having a 77% rate of response. The intention to engage in forest law enforcement was predicted from employees' attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control factors. A rather neutral FIs employees' intention to engage in forest law enforcement was satisfactory explained according to the theory of planned behavior. Particularly, the limited perceived power to affect factors like unsuited training, FIs improper planning & management and unsuited legislation influenced the behavioral intention. Because the effectiveness of new institutions is affected by the engagement of their employees, the conclusions of the study are useful for formulating recommendations on how effectiveness of FIs can be improved by supporting the employees to perform the required engagement in their work. The main recommendations of the study are: to build the capacity of FIs through training and improved management arrangements and to reform the legislation to make it more stable, predictable and easy to implement and monitor.
•TPB used to assess factors affecting the behavioral intentions of public employees.•Positive attitude towards engagement but neutral behavioral intention to perform.•PBC directly influenced forest law enforcement engagement intention.•PBC influenced by unsuited training, improper planning, unsuited legislation.•Recommendations on how to support employees to perform the required engagement.