Employee Involvement: The Implications of Noninvolvement by Unions

Abstract

Using a survey of workers in a large unionized manufacturing plant in which quality circles had been introduced without the involvement of the union, the authors test several hypotheses about the profiles of workers who volunteered to join the program and of workers who participated in it. They find that volunteers were less active in the union, more eager for a “say” in decisions, and more attracted to group and voluntary activities than were nonvolunteers. Continued participation in the program, however, apparently did not affect these characteristics of volunteers. On the other hand, participation in the program appears to have increased workers' identification with the company and its goals, even after controlling for differences in pre-program individual characteristics.