Professionals and Unionization

Abstract

This research surveyed 135 housestaff physicians in 1973 and a second cohort of 90 housestaff physicians in 1976 in order to study the relationship between their professional motivation and their advocacy of unionization. The findings indicated that for the 1973 cohort: (1) Respondents who hold higher attitudes toward patient care are greater in their advocacy of unionization, if they have professional fathers. (2) Respondents who hold lower attitudes toward patient care are weaker in their advocacy of unionization when only older respondents are considered. (3) Those who perceived themselves to be high in autonomy and whose fathers are nonprofessionals were lowest in their advocacy of unionization. For the 1976 cohort it was concluded that age was related to union advocacy, with older housestaff being highest in union advocacy. It was concluded that the union movement was not shown to be associated with deprofessionalizing motivation.