Looking for Loyalty in All the Wrong Places: A Study of Union and Organization Commitments

Abstract

Unionized public employees were divided into those who were (a) committed to the union, (b) committed to the organization, (c) committed to both the organization and the union, and (d) uncommitted. ANCOVA was used to assess the effect of differential impacts of commitment on organizational outcomes. It was found that two groups (the dually committed and the organizationally committed) generally had higher positive outcomes that the other two groups (the uncommitted and the unionists). For example, the dually committed and the organizationally committed report higher job satisfaction, supervisory effectiveness, occupational identity, and control over work as compared to the other two groups. However, when comparing those who were dually committed to those who were organizationally committed, it was found that there was only one significant positive outcome—enhanced union-management relations. In contrast, those who were dually committed compared to those who were unionists report higher job satisfaction, promotion satisfaction, occupational identity, community support, supervisory trust, supervisory effectiveness, enhanced control and improve morale. Therefore, from the organizational perspective, there may be some marginal value in fostering dual commitment. More importantly however, it would be counterproductive to use resources to compete against the union for employee loyalty. From the union perspective, it appears that their members would greatly benefit from being dually committed.