IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v11y2022i12p570-d992316.html

Applying Work and Organizational Psychology in the Field of Labor Relations: Exploratory Study in Trade Unions in the Basque Country

Author

Listed:
  • Imanol Ulacia

    (Department of Social Psychology, College of Psychology, University of the Basque Country, 20018 San Sebastian, Spain)

  • Klara Smith-Etxeberria

    (Department of Basic Psychological Processes and Their Development, College of Psychology, University of the Basque Country, 20018 San Sebastian, Spain)

  • Angel Beldarrain-Durandegui

    (Department of Social Psychology, College of Psychology, University of the Basque Country, 20018 San Sebastian, Spain)

Abstract

Historically, the relationship between work and organizational psychology and trade union organizations has been one of mutual indifference and neglect. The aim of this study is to explore whether trade union members’ social representations of organizational psychology affect their organizations’ engagement with this discipline, conditioning their ability to derive benefit from its findings. In a sample of 448 members of the four main trade unions of the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain, social representations of six concepts relating to Psychology or Trade Union Activity were explored using the free association technique. Forty-five categories were created and their frequency and percentages were calculated. In addition, the means of the categories shared by the representations of two different concepts were crossed and statistically tested. Although some associations were found between the representations of the two sets of concepts, most were non-significant. These results highlight that the structure of the representations of Psychology gives only a partial explanation for this lack of connection. The implications of the study and its limitations are discussed, and some recommendations for future research are proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Imanol Ulacia & Klara Smith-Etxeberria & Angel Beldarrain-Durandegui, 2022. "Applying Work and Organizational Psychology in the Field of Labor Relations: Exploratory Study in Trade Unions in the Basque Country," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:12:p:570-:d:992316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/12/570/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/12/570/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Logan, 2006. "The Union Avoidance Industry in the United States," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(4), pages 651-675, December.
    2. Bergman, Mindy E. & Jean, Vanessa A., 2016. "Where Have All the “Workers” Gone? A Critical Analysis of the Unrepresentativeness of Our Samples Relative to the Labor Market in the Industrial–Organizational Psychology Literature," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 84-113, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. John Logan, 2008. "The End of the Road for American Labour, or a Blueprint for Union Revival?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(1), pages 193-199, March.
    2. Mark Harcourt & Gregor Gall & Margaret Wilson & Korey Rubenstein & Sudong Shang, 2022. "Public support for a union default: Predicting factors and implications for public policy," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(3), pages 1095-1118, August.
    3. Andrey Shevchuk & Denis Strebkov & Dieter Bögenhold, 2024. "Work values and hybrid careers in the gig economy: The evidence from an online labor market," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(1), pages 138-163, February.
    4. Janet Druker, 2016. "Blacklisting and its legacy in the UK construction industry: employment relations in the aftermath of exposure of the Consulting Association," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 220-237, May.
    5. Jirjahn, Uwe, 2024. "Corporate Globalization and Worker Representation," IZA Discussion Papers 16727, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Alex Bryson & Richard Freeman & Rafael Gomez & Paul Willman, 2017. "The Twin Track Model of Employee Voice: An Anglo-American Perspective on Union Decline and the Rise of Alternative Forms of Voice," DoQSS Working Papers 17-13, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    7. Nilanjan Banik & Milind Padalkar, 2021. "The Spread of Gig Economy: Trends and Effects," Foresight and STI Governance, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 15(1), pages 19-29.
    8. Uwe Jirjahn, 2025. "Political Spillovers of Worker Representation: With or Without Workplace Democracy?," Research Papers in Economics 2025-02, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    9. John Godard, 2009. "The Exceptional Decline of the American Labor Movement," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 63(1), pages 82-108, October.
    10. Ni Huang & Gordon Burtch & Yili Hong & Paul A. Pavlou, 2020. "Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from an Online Labor Market," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 431-448, June.
    11. Parisa Dashtipour & Nathan Gerard & Duarte Rolo, 2025. "Toward an Ethics of Ambiguity in Critical Work and Organizational Psychology: From ‘Blank’ to ‘Troubled’ Subjectivity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 197(2), pages 219-230, March.
    12. Mark Harcourt & Gregor Gall & Margaret Wilson, 2024. "Employee beliefs about the consequences of a union default: Implications for support and intention to remain in union membership," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1272-1293, November.
    13. Lance Compa, 2014. "When in Rome: the exercise of power by foreign multinational companies in the United States1," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 20(2), pages 271-293, May.
    14. Barry T. Hirsch, 2008. "Sluggish Institutions in a Dynamic World: Can Unions and Industrial Competition Coexist?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 153-176, Winter.
    15. Biyun Hu & Crystal M. Harold & Dayoung Kim, 2023. "Stealing Time on the Company’s Dime: Examining the Indirect Effect of Laissez-Faire Leadership on Employee Time Theft," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(2), pages 475-493, March.
    16. Daina Bellido de Luna, 2022. "Management, the state and union-weakening practices in Chile: A case study approach of the dual and ambivalent role of the state in a process of democratisation," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(3), pages 1143-1163, August.
    17. Lorenzo Frangi & Sinisa Hadziabdic & Anthony C. Masi, 2022. "In the interest of everyone? Support for social movement unionism among union officials in Quebec (Canada)," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 446-465, September.
    18. Ruth Milkman, 2013. "Back to the Future? US Labour in the New Gilded Age," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 645-665, December.
    19. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser, 2013. "Active Owners and the Failure of Newly Adopted Works Councils," Research Papers in Economics 2013-04, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    20. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser, 2016. "Owner-Managers and the Failure of Newly Adopted Works Councils," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 815-845, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:12:p:570-:d:992316. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.