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Using data from a national sample of American workers, the authors develop measures for ‘‘prosocial unionism’’—the belief that unions contribute to the common good—and use regression analysis to determine its impact on public support for unions and on workers’ likelihood of supporting a union in a representation election in their workplace. Results show that the public’s support for unions is stronger when the public believes that unions act in the interests of all working people instead of just their members. The analyses also show that workers who believe unions have social benefits are significantly more likely to say they would vote ‘‘yes’’ in a union election than those who do not hold this belief. These findings imply that if unions address political and social justice goals that transcend the workplace, their legitimacy and their success in attracting public support and members may be enhanced and help stem the tide of shrinking union density.

This study analyzes U.S. union organizing activity and membership growth from 1990 to 2004, a period in which an overall pattern of union decline continued and in which organizing achieved renewed prominence as both a union policy and public policy issue. Models for organizing activity and membership growth were proposed and tested. Union decentralization and employer opposition were found to be key predictors of organizing activity differences among unions. These same factors, along with organizing activity, helped explain union differences in membership growth, as did a “Sweeney era” effect.

This article evaluates the phenomenon and dynamics of union organising. It neither presents a critique of variants of union organising nor a preferred version of union organising as the solution. Rather, it provides some of the intellectual resources needed to create theoretically informed practice. It examines critiques of union organising to foreground discussion of the two key hallmarks of union organising to date; namely, officer domination and externally-led organising. This opens out the argument to consider a number of under-explored areas for the more expansive and ambitious version of union organising. Thereafter, it examines cross-cutting issues between the two countries and the absence of class consideration from union organising.

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to give a critique of the extant literature on union commitment and participation in order to develop remedies to identified weaknessesDesign methodology approach - The paper uses a critical assessment of extant literature.Findings - A number of critical deficiencies exist in the literature to which remedies are proposed.Research limitations implications - The remedies need testing through empirical research.Practical implications - Future research needs to have different research foci and questions.Social implications - With a reorientation of future research on union commitment, participation and leadership, unions may be better able to benefit from academic research in the area.Originality value - The paper suggests that a reorientation of future research on union commitment, participation and leadership will allow more incisive and more robust contributions to be made to understanding unions as complex social organisms.

Whether termed participation, organizational or union citizenship, extra-role behaviors, or activism, union members’ voluntary efforts on behalf of the union have received renewed academic and practitioner interest in recent years. The reason for the renewed interest is the terms’ close association with the organizing model of unionism, which some refer to as the “soul” of union representation–at a time when unions are doing much soul-searching. What predicts union activism? We find that the effects of a variable indicating perceived behavioral control to be as or more important in predicting activism and activism intentions than more conventional predictors. We also find evidence supporting the conclusion of some prior research that attitudes, i.e., covenantal beliefs, are relatively more important for activism—or at least for future union activism intentions—than are union instrumentality beliefs.

A host of factors have been cited in efforts to explain union decline in the US and elsewhere. Principle suspects in this \"whodunit\" have included structural changes in the economy, changes in worker attitudes or values, government provision of benefits once obtained largely from unions, internal union problems, and union suppression and union substitution by employers. All of these suspects have probably played at least some role in union decline, although there is often substantial disagreement about their relative importance. This article focuses on the union substitution effects of employers' HR practices. Both union suppression and union substitution effects may stem from employer opposition to unions, although practices that have union substitution effects can also be motivated by efficiency and other factors unrelated to unionization.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test hypotheses concerning the influences of human resource (HR) practices and organizational characteristics on organizational commitment.Using data obtained from a nationally diverse group of employers and employees (the National Organizations Survey: NOS), results showed that grievance resolution mechanisms and employee involvement indicators are positively related to organizational commitment, and compensation cuts are negatively related to organizational commitment. Results also showed that decentralization of decision making increased organizational commitment. Most HR practice measures were not significant predictors of organizational commitment. The discussion section considers alternative explanations.

Research on union renewal often cites a critical role for lay activism. This study examines determinants of activism and activism intentions among a broadly representative sample of U.S. union members. Hypotheses are developed from theory and previous research on union commitment and participation. Results for current activism are generally consistent with prior work. Extending the model to future intentions to help with organizing, an interesting contrast is that pro-union attitude influences appear much more important than do union instrumentality perceptions. This suggests that “covenant” rather than “exchange” concerns are more salient for this form of activism. Findings for ideological orientation support this interpretation.

The union voting intention literature shows that many nonunion employees who indicate that they think unions are instrumental in increasing wages, benefits, and working conditions would vote against forming a union. Although American workers have often been characterized as pragmatic with regard to their support for unions, the “disconnect” between union beliefs and union voting intentions just described suggests that more subtle forces are at work. In this paper, it is shown empirically that union instrumentality is a limited predictor of union voting intentions for a recent national cross-section of workers. Rather, more general feelings toward unions and employers are primary. These accounted for a large portion of the variance in union voting intentions, with general feelings towards unions by far the most critical predictor. A concluding section discusses whether the results may reflect changes in union power and changes in employee views of unions. Areas for future research are discussed.