Abstract
The present paper includes insights on trade union members’ perceptions of job dissatisfaction related to inequalities at a Scottish university. Research spanning more than five decades has consistently shown that trade union member employees report higher levels of job dissatisfaction than non-union employees, although industrial relations scholars have been unable to agree on as to why that is the case. Prior research of trade union membership and its link to job dissatisfaction has largely been quantitative. The present study therefore added much needed, individual-level insights to the industrial relations literature through its use of a qualitative approach that included interviews with 23 individuals. This research is part of a wider project in which trade union membership and job dissatisfaction were explored, and that led to the author being awarded a PhD from the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom.
Highlights
Research of trade unions has long shown that trade union members report higher levels of job dissatisfaction than nonunion employees
Phenomenology is relevant to this research, as each trade union member interview has an interpretation of job dissatisfaction that is unique to them
Because this study identified themes related to job dissatisfaction and not trade unions themselves, efforts were not made to differentiate between the trade unions themselves beyond a superficial level
Summary
Research of trade unions has long shown that trade union members report higher levels of job dissatisfaction than nonunion employees. Findings that suggest as much are in the works of Borjas (1979), Freeman (1980), Odwahn and Petty (1980), Freeman and Medoff (1984), Hersch and Stone (1990), Meng (1990), Miller (1990), Lincoln and Boothe (1993), Bender and Sloane (1998), Clark (1996), Heywood et al (2002), Renaud (2002), Bryson et al (2004), Guest and Conway (2004), Jones and Sloane (2009), Green and Heywood (2015), Haile (2015), Laroche (2016), and Laroch (2017), all of which used quantitative methods. There is still no consensus across these works on why trade union members express such seemingly high levels of dissatisfaction with their jobs. The present study, contributes qualitative insights towards understanding an issue that previous quantitative studies have been unable to explain
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