A new conceptualization of union commitment: Development and test of an integrated theory

An introductory conceptual and empirical review stresses the need for a stable theoretical basis for union commitment research. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new conceptualization of union commitment based on the integration of two theories (the theory of reasoned action and the rationalistic approach to commitment). The integrated theory suggests that union commitment is composed of two dimensions, one based on instrumentality and one based on ideology, which are causally related to prounion behavioral intentions and, in turn, to union participation. Propositions derived from the integrated theory are tested using data on 1486 blue-collar workers in Sweden. Results of linear structural equation modelling with latent variables and of multiple regression analyses provide strong support for the construct validity of the commitment dimensions and the overall applicability of the integrated theory. The central findings, their conceptual implications for the understanding of union commitment, and their practical implications for unions are discussed.     

Union commitment: Conceptual changes in the German context

This study examined the concept of union commitment in a German sample utilizing research predominantly developed and tested in Anglo-American countries (U.S.A., Canada, South Africa). Due to cultural and structural differences in the context of German unions it was assumed that the structure and level of commitment should also be different from those in the countries tested and that the instrument may have to be adjusted. Gordon and Ladd's Union Commitment scale was translated and tested on 194 West-German trade union members. Five major structural differences between German, Canadian, U.S.-American and South African unions were identified. Those are, for example, in Germany closed-shop agreements are forbidden, a high degree of centralization exists, the existence and form of labor courts and legally binding participation, the influence of workers council and the well protected situation of German workers. The data were factor-analyzed and revealed four factors. A comparison of the item structures showed that the German sample put a much stronger emphasis on the factor 1: Union Instrumentality and less emphasis on factor 4: Union Loyalty than the previously examined samples where union loyalty always emerged as the strongest factor. The other factors were identified as: factor 2: Prounion Behavioral Intentions and factor 3: Union Trust. The results are discussed in relation to structural differences that may have led to findings in the German sample.     

A contingency model of union commitment and participation: Meta‐analysis of the antecedents of militant and nonmilitant activities

Correlation estimates from a meta‐analysis of 108 studies including 126 independent samples and nearly 70 000 participants were used to test multiple path models of the antecedents of militant and nonmilitant union participation. Variables moderating the relationship between union commitment and participation were examined. The magnitude of the relationship between commitment and militant participation was moderated by status‐based group membership (i.e., white collar versus blue collar), supporting a contingency model of union participation. Results updated and further developed an integrative model of union participation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A model of the antecedents of early union commitment: The role of socialization experiences and steward characteristics

The present study aimed at investigating the influence of shop steward characteristics and early union socialization experiences on new members' attitudes toward unions and their affective commitment to the union. Two thousand surveys were mailed to the most recent members of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Of these, 658 (33 per cent) were returned. Focusing on those individuals who had joined the union within the past 12 months yielded a usable sample of 585. A two-stage, structural equation modeling approach indicated a satisfactory goodness-of-fit for both the measurement and structural models. Individual socialization experiences significantly affected union attitudes. The latter variable was a significant predictor of union commitment. These results are discussed in the context of the organizational socialization literature and union commitment research.     

Differentiating antecedents of organizational commitment: a test of March and Simon's model

Recent theory regarding the nature of organizational commitment suggests that viewing it as comprised of two dimensions, value commitment and continuance commitment, is of theoretical and practical value. This field study found the differential antecedents of these two commitment dimensions to be consistent with the March and Simon (1958) framework using the two-dimensional organizational commitment questionnaire from Mayer and Schoorman (1992). Organizational tenure, retirement benefits, education, and age were more highly correlated with continuance commitment, while felt participation, perceived prestige, job involvement, and role ambiguity were more highly correlated with value commitment. Analysis using LISREL 7 supported the pattern of relationships between the antecedents and the two commitment dimensions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic approach

PROBLEM: Given the lack of a consistent factor structure of safety climate, this study tested the stability of a factor structure of a safety climate scale developed through an extensive literature review using confirmatory factor analytic approach and cross-validation. METHODS: A cross-sectional sample of 722 U.S. grain industry workers participated in the questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The safety climate scale developed through the generation of an item pool based on a table of specifications, subsequent scientific item reduction procedures, reviews from experts, and pilot test yielded adequate reliabilities for each dimension. Each item showed proper discriminative power based on both internal and external criteria. Criterion validity was manifested by the significant positive correlation of the scale with five criteria. Evidence of construct validity was provided by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Both calibration and validation samples supported a consistent factor structure. Management commitment and supervisor support were found to influence other dimensions of safety climate. DISCUSSION: This study provides an insight into the primary reason why previous attempts have failed to find a consistent factor structure of safety climate: No specification of the influence of management commitment and supervisor support on other dimensions of safety in their models. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The findings of this study provide a framework upon which accident prevention efforts can be effectively organized and underscore the importance of management commitment and supervisor support as they affect employee safety perceptions.     

The mediating role of psychological capital between perceived management commitment and safety behavior

Introduction: Among attempts that address high incidences of fatalities and injuries in coal mines, increasing attention has been paid to management commitment to complement the traditional focus on technological advances in safety management. However, more research is needed to explain the influence of perceived management commitment, with extant research drawing commonly on Griffin and Neal (2000) to focus on safety knowledge, skills, and motivation. This study draws on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) to investigate psychological capital as a link between thought process and safety behavior. Method: This study uses survey data from 400 frontline workers in China’s coal mines to test hypotheses. Result: Results suggest that perceived management commitment to safety correlates positively with workers’ safety compliance and participation, and four constituents of psychological capital—self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience—explain the influence of perceived management commitment on safety compliance and participation. Practical Applications: Findings offer both researchers and practitioners an explanation of how perceived management commitment influences safety behaviors, and clarify the roles psychological capital constituents play in explaining the influence of perceived management commitment on safety compliance and safety participation.     

Safety leadership and safety behavior in container terminal operations

IntroductionThe importance of leadership for effective safety management has been the focus of research attention in industry for a few years. However, safety leadership in relation to self-reported safety behavior has rarely been examined. This research empirically evaluates the crucial dimensions of safety leadership in the context of container terminal operations.MethodUsing survey data collected from 336 respondents working for five major container terminal companies in Taiwan engaged in container terminal operation, tally, and stevedore activities at international ports on the island. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the effects of safety leadership dimensions on self-reported safety behavior.ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis identified three main dimensions of safety leadership, as measured on a safety leadership scale: safety motivation, safety policy, and safety concern. The results suggest that safety motivation and safety concern positively affect self-reported safety behavior, such as safety compliance and safety participation, and the safety policy dimension has a positive influence on safety participation. The study findings also reveal positive associations between safety training and self-reported safety behavior. The findings implications for increasing safety in container terminal operations and their contribution to the development of safety leadership are discussed.     

The influence of organizational democracy on employees' socio‐moral climate and prosocial behavioral orientations

This study investigates the effects of workers' perceived participation in democratic decision‐making on their prosocial behavioral orientations, democratic values, commitment to the firm, and perceptions of socio‐moral climate. The sample consists of 325 German‐speaking employees from 22 companies in Austria, North Italy, and Southern Germany that vary in their level of organizational democracy (social partnership enterprises, workers' co‐operatives, democratic reform enterprises, and employee‐owned self‐governed firms). The findings suggest that the extent employees participate in democratic forms of organizational decision‐making is positively related to the firm's socio‐moral climate as well as to their own organizational commitment and prosocial and community‐related behavioral orientations. The results also indicate that socio‐moral climate is positively related to employees' organizational commitment. The effect of participation in decision‐making on organizational commitment is partially mediated by socio‐moral climate. Implications for promoting societal and organizational civic virtues among individuals are described. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developing and maintaining union commitment: A theoretical framework

This article presents a dynamic model of the process in which union commitment is developed and maintained. Central to the model is the fact that commitment occurs in a context of organizational rights which are provided by the union as well as organizational responsibilities or citizenship behaviors on the part of union members. Based on an integration of the literature on organizational citizenship behaviors, psychological contracts, and organizational socialization, specific hypotheses are proposed.     

What does safety commitment mean to leaders? A multi-method investigation

Introduction: Perceived management safety commitment as an aspect of safety climate or culture is a key influence on safety outcomes in organizations. What is unclear is how perceptions of management commitment are created by leaders. Method: To address this gap in the literature, we position safety commitment as a leadership construct viewed from the perspectives of the leaders who experience and demonstrate it. In this paper, an established multidimensional commitment framework is applied to leaders' safety commitment (consisting of affective, normative, and calculative commitment). Via an exploratory sequential mixed methods design combining interviews (n = 40) and surveys (n = 89), we investigate the applicability of this theoretical conceptualization to safety commitment. Results: The results indicate the multiple dimensions captured leaders' safety commitment well, safety commitment can be demonstrated via a range of behaviors, and the dimensions' association with behavioral demonstrations aligned with those of other types of commitment reported in the literature. Only affective safety commitment was consistently associated with demonstrations of safety commitment. The link between high levels of affective and normative safety commitment and demonstrations was more pronounced when participants perceived their company's safety climate more positively. Conclusions: Adopting a focus on leaders' experience of safety commitment offers opportunities for new research into the way in which safety commitment perceptions are shaped by leaders. Practical application: The findings can support leaders' reflection about their personal mindset around safety and support them in fostering strong safety climates and cultures. It further encourages organizations in creating work environments that in particular foster affective and normative safety commitments in leaders.     

Management commitment to safety as organizational support: relationships with non-safety outcomes in wood manufacturing employees

INTRODUCTION: Employee perceptions of management commitment to safety are known to influence important safety-related outcomes. However, little work has been conducted to explore non-safety-related outcomes resulting from a commitment to safety. METHOD: Employee-level outcomes critical to the effective functioning of an organization, including attitudes such as job satisfaction and commitment to the organization, were included on surveys given to 641 hourly production employees at three wood products manufacturing facilities. Participants' were asked about perceptions of management commitment to safety and job-related variables such as perceived dangerousness of their position, organizational commitment, and withdrawal behaviors. Supervisors also rated the performance of each of their hourly subordinates. RESULTS: Results suggest that employee outcomes differ based on perceptions of management's commitment to safety. Specifically, management commitment to safety was positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job-related performance. We also found a negative relationship between commitment to safety and employee withdrawal behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increasing employee perceptions of management's personal concern for employee well-being through a dedication to safety will result in positive outcomes beyond improved safety performance. These results also imply that there is a type of social exchange between employees and management that may affect employees similarly to perceived organizational support. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Results further reinforce the value of a commitment to safety by a firm's management. Organizations with a strong commitment to safety may enjoy not only a reduction in safety-related events but also increases in desirable employee attitudes and behaviors.     

Stress and the union steward's role

This paper develops and tests hypotheses concerning some psychological correlates of role ambiguity and role conflict in a population that has not been extensively studied in relation to stress, union stewards. Survey data on role ambiguity and role conflict, the indicators of stress, were collected from 285 stewards at the local union steward meeting, with the stewards perceiving a moderate amount of role ambiguity and perceiving a lesser amount of role conflict. The stewards were also asked about their role expectations, their motivations for remaining a steward, their grievance handling strategies, and their affective commitment toward the union and employer. Each of those four sets of variables was hypothesized to be related to role ambiguity and role conflict and each was influential in explaining variance. As predicted, those stewards who were more motivated to remain stewards for personal reasons had both higher role ambiguity and higher role conflict. Further, the conditions of being more motivated to remain a steward to help the union and employees and having higher union commitment were associated with lower role conflict, but, opposite to the hypotheses, higher role ambiguity.     

Perceived support in a dual organizational environment: Union participation in a university setting

There is extensive research on employee attitudes regarding employers and unions, but these studies have underemphasized social and affective forces. Most studies also examine attitudes toward either the union or the employer without considering how these attitudes might relate to one another. The present study of faculty (N = 306) at a large public research university demonstrated that perceptions of union support were positively related to union participation and perceptions of administration support were negatively related to union participation. Subjective norms and general union attitudes were related to perceptions of union support, and subjective norms were related to perceived organizational support. Taken together, an individual's participation in a union recognition effort depends not only on union instrumentality, but also upon social relationships with the union and administration. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

不良安全文化的特征:事故报告再分析

通过对高风险组织安全管理及事故的研究,对事故报告进行文化意义上的编码分析,揭示导致事故发生的不良安全文化特征。该报告再分析的材料是厂内档案可查的事故报告61份,根据其中55份事故报告的专家编码分析结果,得到了不良安全文化的特征是较低水平的管理对安全的承诺、较差的安全遵守、缺乏应急管理的有效措施、沟通与协调障碍。通过聚类分析,安全文化的各因素可以进一步归为两大类安全促进因素与安全保健因素。从文化的角度来看,分别对应着对组织的承诺和对人的承诺两个维度。     

Etzioni's model of organizational involvement: A perspective for understanding commitment to organizations

There are two predominant views of organizational commitment: instrumental and affective. The purpose of the paper is to explore the extent to which an adapted version of Etzioni's macro organizational model of involvement may serve as a single model of both affective and instrumental perspectives of organizational commitment. Moral commitment and alienative commitment are treated as affective forms of organizational attachment, and calculative commitment is treated as an instrumental form of organizational attachment. The paper employs five samples for the investigation. It develops scales for measuring each of the three dimensions of commitment. The paper concludes that organizational commitment is multidimensional. It also concludes that employees report a mixture of commitment types. Evidence is offered in support of the affective character of moral and alienative commitment. Although the evidence is equivocal, there is support for the independence of the two dimensions of affective commitment: moral and alienative. Evidence is also offered for the differential association of the three dimensions of organizational commitment with related aspects of organizational behavior. The paper extends our understanding of organizational commitment by providing a place for both instrumental and affective forms of psychological attachment to organizations. It offers scales which may be used for future research, and it suggests research which may extend the adapted model in this paper as well as provide direction for practising managers.     

Multiple dimensions of human resource development and organizational performance

Building on strategic human resource management literature, this study investigates the effects of various human resource development (HRD) dimensions on organizational performance. We identify four distinct dimensions of HRD that reflect either quantitative or qualitative approaches from either managerial or employee perspectives. Furthermore, we propose that HRD affects organizational performance by shaping employee outcomes, a prevailing but rarely tested assumption. Multi‐source data collected from 207 manufacturing companies at three time points over a 5‐year period largely support our theoretical propositions. A series of structural path analyses confirm that HRD improves employee commitment and competence, which in turn determine the financial performance of the organization. The quantitative dimensions of HRD (resource investment in HRD) predict only employee commitment. By contrast, the qualitative dimensions of HRD (management support for, and perceived benefits of, HRD) enhance both employee commitment and competence. Our analysis also demonstrates synergistic interactions between the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of HRD in predicting employee outcomes. This study elaborates the distinct values of different dimensions of HRD and highlights the significance of employee outcomes as the mediating mechanism between HRD and firm performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationship between employees' perceptions of safety and organizational culture

PROBLEM: With limited resources to help reduce occupational injuries, companies struggle with how to best focus these resources to achieve the greatest reduction in injuries for the optimal cost. Safety culture has been identified as a critical factor that sets the tone for importance of safety within an organization. METHOD: An employee safety perception survey was conducted, and injury data were collected over a 45-month period from a large ready-mix concrete producer located in the southwest region of the United States. RESULTS: The results of this preliminary study suggest that the reductions in injuries experienced at the company locations was strongly impacted by the positive employee perceptions on several key factors. Management's commitment to safety was the factor with the greatest positive perception by employees taking the survey. DISCUSSION: This study was set up as a pilot project and did not unitize an experimental design. That weakness reduces the strength of these findings but adds to the importance of expanding the pilot project with an appropriate experimental design. SUMMARY: Management leadership has been identified, along with several other factors, to influence employee perceptions of the safety management system. Those perceptions, in turn, appear to influence employee decisions that relate to at-risk behaviors and decisions on the job. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The results suggest that employee perceptions of the safety system are related to management's commitment to safety, which, in turn, appear to be related to injury rates. Management should focus on how to best leverage these key factors to more positively impact injury rates within their companies.     

Influence of trunk muscle activity and stability in front and back holding

Purpose. A tandem carrying style is often used in the workplace, but carrying approaches are different for two people because of the holding load in the tandem posture. To understand these carrying styles, this study aimed to investigate the patterns of muscle activity and stability of the trunk influenced by front and back holding of a heavy load. Methods. Electromyography data of eight trunk and two hip muscles, as well as displacements of the trunk, were recorded for analysis while subjects stood statically holding a handle in the front and back of the body with and without load. Results. Without load, muscle activities during front holding mirrored those during back holding. With load, greater muscle activities were observed in the dorsal muscles of the trunk and lesser activities were noted in the ventral muscles in the two holding styles. More frequencies of trunk oscillations occurred in front holding with and without load. Conclusions. The results revealed that back holding of load created more stability of the upper body, whereas front holding resulted in more instability of the trunk.     

Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia

The construction industry seems to suffer from a general inability to manage workplace health and safety to a level where an achieved improvement in safety performance by a way of pro-active measures can result in zero accidents. This paper investigates the effectiveness of safety management activities as currently adopted by Australian contracting organisations. A safety management survey has been conducted of contracting organisations operating in the State of Queensland, Australia. Based on a research model depicting statistical analysis techniques, a safety management index reflecting the intensity of level of safety management activities has been developed to provide a means whereby individual organisations can be assessed and graded on their safety management commitment and attitudes. The paper reports on a detailed empirical analysis carried out to examine the relationship between the intensity of safety management commitment and the overall safety performance, pro-activeness and record.