IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v9y1998i1p123-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why Join? Why Stay? Instrumentality, Beliefs, Satisfaction and Individual Decisions on Union Membership

Author

Listed:
  • David Peetz

Abstract

To understand individuals' union membership choices it is necessary to examine decisions both to join and to leave (exit) unions, observed when employees are in jobs where unions are available and there is freedom of choice on union membership (‘open’ jobs). Using multivariate analysis of survey data, it was found that sympathy towards unions was the most powerful influence upon union joining, but had little impact on union exit, which was more a function of the perceived instrumentality of membership. Employee perceptions on union in-fighting and cooperation with management influenced union membership, as did the outcome of involvement in industrial disputes. Satisfaction with union delegates was a key influence on attitudes and membership. Employee trust of management only influenced exit behaviour through its interaction with satisfaction with union delegates. Job satisfaction had a complex relationship with union membership that is disguised in aggregated studies.

Suggested Citation

  • David Peetz, 1998. "Why Join? Why Stay? Instrumentality, Beliefs, Satisfaction and Individual Decisions on Union Membership," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 123-148, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:9:y:1998:i:1:p:123-148
    DOI: 10.1177/103530469800900106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530469800900106
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530469800900106?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Guest & Philip Dewe, 1991. "Company or Trade Union: Which Wins Workers' Allegiance? A Study of Commitment in the UK Electronics Industry," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 75-96, March.
    2. Farber, Henry S, 1990. "The Decline of Unionization in the United States: What Can Be Learned from Recent Experience," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 75-105, January.
    3. Farber, Henry S & Saks, Daniel H, 1980. "Why Workers Want Unions: The Role of Relative Wages and Job Characteristics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 349-369, April.
    4. Green, Francis, 1990. "Trade Union Availability and Trade Union Membership in Britain," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 58(4), pages 378-394, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Patrice Laroche, 2016. "A Meta-Analysis of the Union–Job Satisfaction Relationship," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 709-741, December.
    2. Michael Dobbie & Daehoon Nahm, 2018. "The Determinants of Individual Union Membership in Australia: A Structural Approach Using Panel Data," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 37(1), pages 75-91, March.
    3. Dr Sukhan Jackson & Helen Higgs & Glenda Cooper, 2002. "Determinants Of Unionisation For Part-Time Women Employees In Australian Banks," Discussion Papers Series 317, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Magnani, Elisabetta & Prentice, David, 2003. "Did globalization reduce unionization? Evidence from US manufacturing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 705-726, December.
    2. Henry S. Farber, 2001. "Notes on the Economics of Labor Unions," Working Papers 2001-5, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    3. A Charlwood, 2001. "Why Do Non-Union Employees Want To Unionise? Evidence from Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0498, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Charlwood, Andy, 2001. "Why do non-union employees want to unionise? Evidence from Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20116, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Blanchflower, David G., 2006. "A Cross-Country Study of Union Membership," IZA Discussion Papers 2016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Schnabel, Claus, 2002. "Determinants of trade union membership," Discussion Papers 15, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    7. Sarkar, Santanu, 2012. "Determinants of employees’ attitudes toward union membership in India," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 240-250.
    8. Henry S. Farber, 2001. "Notes on the Economics of Labor Unions," Working Papers 831, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    9. Robin Naylor, 1995. "Unions in Decline?," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, pages 127-142.
    10. Henry S. Farber, 2001. "Notes on the Economics of Labor Unions," Working Papers 831, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. Ahn T. Le, 2003. "Female Labour Market Participation: Differences Between Primary and Tied Movers," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 03-17, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    12. Olivier Guillot & Magali Jaoul-Grammare & Isabelle Terraz, 2019. "Union Membership in France: An Empirical Study," Working Papers of BETA 2019-04, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    13. Behroz Baraghoshi & Cihan Bilginsoy, 2013. "Interstate Variations in Private Sector Union Density in the U.S," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 180-202, June.
    14. Thomas Kochan & Marc Weinstein, 1994. "Recent Developments in US Industrial Relations," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 483-504, December.
    15. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2001. "The Changing Distribution of Job Satisfaction," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(1), pages 1-30.
    16. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Christopher R. Bollinger, 2001. "Response Error and the Union Wage Differential," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(1), pages 60-76, July.
    18. Henrys Farber, 2001. "Union Success in Representation Elections: Why Does Unit Size Matter?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2), pages 329-348, January.
    19. Johan Stennek, 2020. "Why Unions Reduce Wage Inequality: A Theory of Domino Effects," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 1045-1072, July.
    20. C Green & J S Heywood, 2010. "Unions, Dissatisfied Workers and Sorting," Working Papers 615292, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    21. Henry S. Farber & Bruce Western, 2000. "Round Up The Usual Suspects: The Decline of Unions in The Private Sector, 1973-1998," Working Papers 816, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:9:y:1998:i:1:p:123-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.