Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Although prior research on union satisfaction emphasized the importance of workplace issues, such as wages, hours, and working conditions for union member satisfaction, some research has suggested satisfaction with union representation is more nuanced. Specifically, because unions extend their activities beyond the workplace to include all working people and societal issues, these activities also affect the experience of union members. This two-sample study uses a 2018 Qualtrics panel and a 2003 telephone survey to uncover additional aspects of union satisfaction determinants. Despite the prominence of the business union philosophy and its focus on union workplace instrumentality, results show prosocial unionism also is a significant predictor of union satisfaction.

Keywords

Prosocial unionism satisfaction with union representation social unionism union satisfaction workplace instrumentality

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aguinis

Lawal

(2012) Conducting field experiments using eLancing’s natural environment. Journal of Business Venturing 27(4): 493–505.

Angle

Perry

(1986) Dual commitment and labor–management relationship climates. Academy of Management Journal 29(1): 31–50.

Ashenfelter

Pencavel

(1969) American trade union growth: 1900–1960. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 83(3): 434–448.

Bamberger

Kluger

Suchard

(1999) The antecedents and consequences of union commitment: A meta-analysis. Academy of Management Journal 42(3): 304–318.

Booth

Lup

Williams

(2017) Union membership and charitable giving in the United States. ILR Review 70(4): 835–864.

Brief

Motowidlo

(1986) Prosocial organizational behaviors. Academy of Management Review 11(4): 710–725.

Budd

(2021) Labor Relations: Striking A Balance, 6th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020) Union members – 2019. Available at: www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf (accessed 26 May 2020).

Carter

(2006) Trade union organizing and renewal: A response to de Turberville. Work, Employment and Society 20(2): 415–426.

10.

Cha

Mijin

Yon

(2018) Emergent cultures of activism: Young people and the building of alliances between unions and other social movements. Work and Occupations 45(4): 451–474.

11.

Chacko

(1985) Member participation in union activities: Perceptions of union priorities, performance, and satisfaction. Journal of Labor Research 6(4): 363–373.

12.

Change to Win: Our Campaigns (n.d.) Available at: www.changetowin.org/our-campaigns/ (accessed 24 November 2019).

13.

Conell

Voss

(1990) Formal organization and the fate of social movements: Craft association and class alliance in the Knights of Labor. American Sociological Review 55(2): 255–269.

14.

Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit (n.d.) Fit statistics commonly reported for CFA and SEM. Available at: www.cscu.cornell.edu/news/handouts.php (accessed December 2020).

15.

Dean

(1954) Union activity and dual loyalty. ILR Review 7(4): 526–536.

16.

De Turberville

(2004) Does the ‘organizing model’ represent a credible union renewal strategy? Work, Employment and Society 18(4): 775–794.

17.

De Turberville

(2007) Union organizing: A response to Carter. Work, Employment and Society 21(3): 565–576.

18.

Dubofsky

McCartin

(2017) A precarious moment. Labor in America: A History, 7th edn. New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 430–450.

19.

Fairbrother

(2008) Social movement unionism or trade unions as social movements. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 20(3): 213–220.

20.

Fiorito

(1992) Unionism and altruism. Labor Studies Journal 17(Fall): 19–34.

21.

Fiorito

Padavic

(2022a) Not so exceptional? Prosocial influences on union support among US workers. Economic and Industrial Democracy 43(3): 1305–1318.

22.

Fiorito

Padavic

(2022b) What do workers and the public want? Unions’ social value. ILR Review 75(2): 295–320.

23.

Fiorito

Gallagher

Fukami

(1988) Satisfaction with union representation. ILR Review 41(2): 294–307.

24.

Fiorito

Padavic

Russell

(2018) Pro-social and self-interest motivations for unionism and implications for unions as institutions. In: Lewin

Gollan

(eds) Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, 2017: Shifts in Workplace Voice, Justice, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Workplaces. Bingley: Emerald Publishing, pp. 185–211.

25.

Flanders

(1970) Management and Unions: The Theory and Reform of Industrial Relations. London: Faber.

26.

Frangi

Zhang

Hebdon

(2020) Tweeting and retweeting for Fight for $15: Unions as dinosaur opinion leaders? British Journal of Industrial Relations 58(2): 301–335.

27.

Freeman

(2007) Do workers still want unions? More than ever. Briefing Paper No. 182. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

28.

Frege

Kelly

(2003) Union revitalization strategies in comparative perspective. European Journal of Industrial Relations 9(1): 7–24.

29.

Gallagher

Strauss

(1991) Union membership attitudes and participation. In: Strauss

Gallagher

Fiorito

(eds) The State of the Unions. Madison, WI: Industrial Relations Research Association, pp. 139–174.

30.

Glick

Mirvis

Harder

(1977) Union satisfaction and participation. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 16(2): 145–151.

31.

Gumbrell-McCormick

Hyman

(2019) Democracy in trade unions, democracy through trade unions. Economic and Industrial Democracy 40(1): 91–110.

32.

Hertel-Fernandez

Kimball

Kochan

(2022) What forms of representation do American workers want? Implications for theory, policy, and practice. ILR Review 75(2): 267–294.

33.

Hodder

Edwards

(2015) The essence of trade unions: Understanding identity, ideology, and purpose. Work, Employment and Society 29(5): 843–854.

34.

Holgate

Simms

Tapia

(2018) The limitations of the theory and practice of mobilization in trade union organizing. Economic and Industrial Democracy 39(4): 599–616.

35.

Horovitz

Alcindor

(2015) Fast-food strikes widen into social-justice movement. USA Today. Available at: www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/04/15/fast-food-strike-fight-for-15-service-employees-international-union/25787045/ (accessed 18 April 2020).

36.

Hoxie

(1914) Trade unionism in the United States. Journal of Political Economy 22(3): 201–217.

37.

Hoxie

(1923) Trade Unionism in the United States. New York: Appleton and Company.

38.

Hurd

Rouse

(1989) Progressive union organizing: The SEIU Justice for Janitors campaign. Review of Radical Political Economics 21(3): 70–75.

39.

Hyman

(2001) Understanding European Trade Unionism: Between Market, Class and Society. London: Sage.

40.

Hyman

Gumbrell-McCormick

(2010) Trade unions, politics and parties: Is a new configuration possible? Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 16(3): 315–331.

41.

Jarley

Kuruvilla

Casteel

(1990) Member–union relations and union satisfaction. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 29(1): 128–134.

42.

Kalnins

(2018) Multicollinearity: How common factors cause Type 1 errors in multivariate regression. Strategic Management Journal 39(8): 2362–2385.

43.

Kelly

(1998) Rethinking Industrial Relations. London: LSE/Routledge.

44.

Kelly

(2005) Social movement theory and union revitalization in Britain. In: Fernie

Metcalf

(eds) Trade Unions: Resurgence or Demise? London: Routledge, pp. 62–82.

45.

Klandermans

(1986) Psychology and trade union participation: Joining, acting, quitting. Journal of Occupational Psychology 59(3): 189–204.

46.

Kline

(2005) Principles and Practices of Structural Equation Modeling. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

47.

Kochan

(1979) How American workers view labor unions. Monthly Labor Review 102(April): 23–31.

48.

Lawler

III (1973) Motivation in Work Organizations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.

49.

Lévesque

Murray

(2002) Local versus global: Activating local union power in the global economy. Labor Studies Journal 27(3): 39–65.

50.

Locke

(1976) The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In: Dunette

(ed.) Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally, pp. 1297–1349.

51.

McCartin

Sneiderman

BP-Weeks

(2020) Combustible convergence: Bargaining for the common good and the #RedforEd uprisings of 2018. Labor Studies Journal 45(1): 97–113.

52.

Montgomery

(1989) The influence of attitudes and normative pressures on voting decisions in a union certification election. ILR Review 42(2): 262–279.

53.

National Labor Relations Act of 1935, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169.

54.

Neufeld

(1982) The persistence of ideas in the American labor movement: The heritage of the 1830s. ILR Review 35(2): 207–220.

55.

Nunnally

(1978) Psychometric Theory, 2nd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

56.

Rosenfeld

(2014) What Unions No Longer Do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

57.

Ross

(2007) Varieties of social unionism: Towards a framework for comparison. Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society 11(Autumn): 16–34.

58.

Schenk

(2003) Social movement unionism: Beyond the organizing model. In: Fairbrother

Yates

(eds) Trade Unions in Renewal: A Comparative Study. London: Routledge, pp. 244–262.

59.

Schwab

(1980) Construct validity in organization behavior. In: Staw

Cummings

(eds) Research in Organizational Behavior. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 3–43.

60.

Simms

Holgate

(2010) Organizing for what? Where is the debate on the politics of organizing? Work, Employment and Society 24(1): 157–168.

61.

Snape

Redman

(2004) Exchange or covenant? The nature of the member–union relationship. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 43(4): 855–873.

62.

Sturmthal

(1973) Industrial relations strategies. In: Sturmthal

Scoville

(eds) The International Labor Movement in Transition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 1–33.

63.

Tapia

Turner

(2018) Renewed activism for the labor movement: The urgency of young worker engagement. Work and Occupations 45(4): 391–419.

64.

Tapia

Lee

Filipovitch

(2017) Supra-union and intersectional organizing: An examination of two prominent cases in the low-wage US restaurant industry. Journal of Industrial Relations 59(4): 487–509.

65.

Tetrick

Shore

McClurg

Vandenberg

(2007) A model of union participation: The impact of perceived union support, union instrumentality, and union loyalty. Journal of Applied Psychology 92(3): 820–828.

66.

Van de Vall

(1963) De Vakbeweging in een Welvaartsstaat. Meppel: Boom.

67.

Voss

Sherman

(2003) You just can’t do it automatically: The transition to social movement unionism in the United States. In: Fairbrother

Yates

CAB

(eds) Trade Unions in Renewal: A Comparative Study. New York: Routledge, pp. 51–77.

68.

Waddington

(2006) Why do members leave? The importance of retention to trade union growth. Labor Studies Journal 31(3): 15–38.

69.

Waddington

Kerr

(2009) Transforming a trade union? An assessment of the introduction of an organizing initiative. British Journal of Industrial Relations 47(1): 27–54.

70.

Wanous

Reichers

Hudy

(1997) Overall job satisfaction: How good are single-item measures? Journal of Applied Psychology 82(2): 247–252.

71.

Watt

(2010) Farm Workers and the Churches: The Movement in California and Texas. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

72.

Zullo

(2011) Labor unions and charity. ILR Review 64(4): 699–711.

73.

Zullo

(2012) The evolving demographics of the union movement. Labor Studies Journal 37(2): 145–162.

The union experience: Workplace instrumentality,prosocial unionism,and union satisfaction

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References