Worker participation in union activities: a conceptual review
| Date | 05 February 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2016-0253 |
| Published date | 05 February 2018 |
| Pages | 206-226 |
| Author | Ginni Chawla,Tripti Singh,Rupali Singh,Sonal Agarwal |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Worker participation in union
activities: a conceptual review
Ginni Chawla
Department of Human Resource, College of Management and Economic Studies,
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India
Tripti Singh
School of Management Studies, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology,
Allahabad, India
Rupali Singh
Faculty of Business Administration, NRIBA, GLS University, Ahmedabad, India, and
Sonal Agarwal
School of Management Studies, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology,
Allahabad, India
Abstract
Purpose –Viewed in the context of liberalization, privatization and globalization, the socio-economic and
legal environment facing the unions have changed, throwing them into clutches of adversity and destitution.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons (i.e. antecedents) behind workers’participation in union
activities (such as strikes, rallies, demonstrations) in today’s scenario, and to understand how these
participation tactics influence workers’performance (i.e. worker behavior effectiveness) at work.
Design/methodology/approach –A range of published sources is drawn on, including quantitative,
survey based and qualitative, case-study and other evidence for building the conceptual review.
Findings –The investigation clearly indicates that contemporary challenges facing unions in the present
scenario prompt industrial actions. Only specific and genuine grievances and justifiable demands motivate
workers to form a strong emotional attachment to their unions and engage in union participation activities
such as strike activity (Darlington, 2006; Bean and Stoney, 1986).
Originality/value –Contrary to the traditional view, which sights unions as detrimental to worker
productivity, turnover, and attendance at work (via restrictive work rules, featherbedding and disruptive
strikes or other adversarial tactics), the investigation, through extensive review of literature proposes that
unions positively influence worker behavior at work. The model, however, requires empirical testing to
validate the proposed relationships.
Keywords Qualitative, Trade unions, Conceptual model, Antecedents of union participation,
Union participation, Worker behaviour effectiveness
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
“The trade union movement around the world remains in the throes of a prolonged and deep
decline, whether measured by membership and density, bargaining power in relation to
employers or political influence over the ubiquitous neoliberal narrative that underpins the
policies of many governments”(Kelly, 2015a, p. 526). Several reasons can be attributed to
the decline in union membership base, including: influence of politics; managerial endeavors
to reduce labor costs at the workplace; unfavorable socio-economic and legal climate facing
union organizers; and emerging managerial unionism.
Despite continual efforts, the union decline has not been arrested or reversed by the
many strategic initiatives such as organizing campaigns (Hodder and Edwards, 2015) or
coalition building, undertaken in recent years; yet, there is an apparent resurgence of
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 1, 2018
pp. 206-226
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-09-2016-0253
Received 27 September 2016
Revised 6 April 2017
11 August 2017
Accepted 12 October 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The authors are grateful to the journal editor and two anonymous referees for providing constructive
comments on an earlier version of this paper.
206
PR
47,1
interest in the subject (Akkerman et al., 2013; Green and Auer, 2013) owing to an upsurge in
the cases of prolonged strikes[1] (such as general strikes, wildcat strikes, national
public-service stoppages) across both developed and developing nations such as India,
Europe, Vietnam, and China.
Even though the social, economic and industrial environment in which unions operate
has changed beyond recognition, yet, in some respects the “concerns and aspirations of the
labor movement remain remarkably similar”(Nowak, 2015, p. 684). An extensive review of
the recent NEWS[2] reported items in this regard reveals that unions fall back on time-tested
issues relating to wages, salaries, job security and employment in the context of financial
constraints till date. In addition, workers resort to strikes to seek protection from employers
against unrightful suspensions and dismissals (Godard, 2011 as cited in Akkerman et al.,
2013), pay cuts, and intolerance by management toward any deviation in production plans
(Sen, 2011; Rose et al., 2011; Joseph, 2010). Instances have been reported where employers
have evaded laws (Sinha, 2001) by employing workers without a record of employment, or
not engaging workers for the required number of days as stipulated by the law (Johri, 1990).
In response, workers have resorted to violence and strikes against management over
perceived injustices (Sen, 2011; Joseph, 2010; Hill, 2009). Johnson and Jarley (2004) in their
empirical study also provided support for the idea that union participation is influenced by
perceived injustices associated with managerial actions.
While strike tactics cannot be separated from the character of the unions that employ
them, certain pre-conditions must be met for a strike to be successful and effective. Some
relevant questions would be: are members involved in the life and activities of the union?;
does the union have functioning committees or mechanisms for member involvement in a
democratic process?; does the union leadership have support of its members?; do members
identify with the ideology of the union or have positive attitude toward the union? When
members actively participate, unions tend to become democratic and more responsive to the
needs of its members –they gain more strength, become intensively organized and members
in turn are thus able to better bargain with the management (Gani, 1992). In the words of
International Labour Office (2009), “It is through participation that women and men can
achieve decent and productive work conditions of freedom, equity, security and, human
dignity”(as cited in Briskin, 2014, p. 210). Thus, our starting point in the paper is the
perspective that member participation in all its facets is the key part of the equation in
enhancing both union democracy and union representativeness.
The study mainly builds on the following premises: first, taking part in strikes, rallies,
demonstrations and union meetings (union participation) is an indicator of a union’s
democracy (Gall and Fiorito, 2012; Anderson, 1978; Strauss, 1977). In other words, union’s
strength, vigor and ability to survive are derived to a large extent from members’
willingness to become involved in union affairs. Second, workers participate in union
activities only if they perceive that union participation will help them achieve important
individual, expressive (emotional and representative) and instrumental goals (Chacko, 1985;
Anderson, 1978; Strauss, 1977; Blau, 1964). This means that certain antecedent conditions
exhort participation. Third, union participation as a mechanism of collective voice has a
direct effect on the way workers behave (their productivity, absenteeism, turnover) in an
organization (Peetz, 2012; Freeman and Medoff, 1984), i.e. participation in union activities
has a bearing on workers’effectiveness at the workplace.
Based on the abovepostulations, this paperrevisits the seminal worksof researchers in the
field of union participation in an attempt to reveal/understand the underlying patterns of
relationshipsamong the three constructs –union participation, antecedent conditions leading
to such participation and worker behavior effectiveness (WBE). More precisely, this paper
seeks to fully explicate the dynamic nature of unionparticipation and specificallyunderstand
what motivations underlie participation in union activities in the present scenario.
207
Worker
participation in
union activities
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