Company or Trade Union: Which Wins Workers' Allegiance? A Study of Commitment in the UK Electronics Industry
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1991.tb00229.x |
| Author | Philip Dewe,David E. Guest |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
British Journal of
Industrial
Relations
29:l
March
1991
0007-1080
$3.00
Company or Trade Union: Which Wins
Workers' Allegiance?
A
Study
of
Commitment in the
UK
Electronics Industry
David
E.
Guest"
and
Philip
Dewe""
Final version accepted
11
September
1990.
Abstract
A
particular dimension of organisational commitment, namely identity
of
workers with the values and decisions
of
an organisation
was
explored with
716
employees in three electronics plants;
46
per cent belonged to trade
unions. The study examined the extent, the causes
and
the consequences of
dual allegiance to company and union, single allegiance to one
or
allegiance to
neither. Less
than
10
per cent displayed dual allegiance and
a
majority
displayed allegiance to neither organisation. The best predictors of allegiance
were perceptions of trade union performance and job satisfaction. Those
showing dual allegiance also indicated lowest propensity to leave the
company. These results, from
a
key sector of manufacturing industry, show
little evidence of high employee involvement. The most typical response
would appear to be:
'a
plague on both your houses'.
1.
Introduction
Throughout the
1980s
the trade unions in Britain were on the defensive.
Government legislation restricted and regulated some
of
their traditional
activities and in
so
doing may have adversely affected membership levels
(Freeman and Pelletier
1990).
Persisting high unemployment also took its
toll
on membership and on union power
in
the market-place (Bailey and
Kelly
1990).
Furthermore, an increasing number of companies have been
pursuing policies of employee involvement (Millward and Stevens
1986),
sometimes competing with the trade unions
for
the allegiance
of
the work-
force.
*
Birkbeck College, University
of
London
**
Massey University,
NZ
76
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
The challenge to the unions
of
a coherent human resource management
strategy designed to gain work-force allegiance is illustrated by Foulkes
(1980),
who found that in the USA it reduced any felt need among
employees for a union. There is evidence that, where similar policies are
pursued by American companies in Britain, more particularly at greenfield
sites, they often result in the absence of a union (Guest
1989).
On the other
hand,
in
established plants it has proved much more difficult to achieve the
same results by introducing such policies. One reason may be the entren-
ched loyalty to their union of workers in these plants. However, we have
very little detailed knowledge about the identities and loyalties of workers in
British industry, or of the factors that explain variations in identification
with company or union. Without a better understanding of these loyalties, it
is difficult to predict
or
interpret the impact
of
government and company
policies on workers’ attitudes and behaviour.
This paper begins to shed some light on these issues. It presents the results
of a survey of the levels of identity with trade union and company among a
sample of workers from
a
key industrial sector. It examines the variables
associated with differing degrees of identification with company and/or
union and explores the consequences of variations in identity.
To
anticipate
the findings, the study reveals low levels of identity with both company and
union. Evidence is presented to show that this is a particularly British
phenomenon and that, if these findings can be generalised, both companies
and unions have much to do in order to win the hearts and minds of workers.
The following section reviews relevant theory and research on commit-
ment and identity and analyses the shift from a pluralist to a unitarist
perspective implied in company attempts to increase worker commitment.
Section
3
describes the research setting, the sample and the methods
employed. Section
4
presents the results, and Section
5
considers their
implications for theory and practice.
2.
Commitment and Identity
Fox (1985) identifies three different perspectives from which worker-
management relations may be viewed.
A
unitary perspective
assumes an
underlying identity of interest between management and worker: industrial
conflict is therefore unnecessary and often irrational;
so
too are competing
commitments, since everyone should share the same loyalties. It is this
perspective that dominated government thinking throughout the1980s and
which was reflected in the advocacy of employee involvement, reflected
perhaps most notably in employee share-ownership schemes. In marked
contrast, a
radical perspective
looks beyond industry to deep-seated
inequalities in society which limit the scope for effective representation in
the work-place. From this perspective, workers should owe their allegiance
to those within the trade union movement and in the wider political system
who seek to redress these imbalances.
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