Exit and Voice: Organizational Loyalty and Dispute Resolution Strategies

Abstract

This study compares workplace dispute resolution strategies (exit, and toleration) in matched pairs of conventional and worker-owned cooperative organizations operating in three industries - coal mining, taxicab driving and organic food distribution. Building on Hirschman's classic and thesis, this research demonstrates how the degree of that workers hold affects how they approach workplace problems. I find that workers with greater are more likely to embrace voice as a way to address their problems. Although the patterns do not mirror the classic exit-voice framework, the data support Hirschman's broader thesis, which incorporates examination of emotional involvement, and entry and exit costs. While previous scholars have studied Hirschman's and thesis in the workplace, few have explored workplace as an orientation that affects and exit as Hirschman envisioned it (Dowding, John, Mergoupis, and Vugt 2000). Hirschman asserted that, when confronting workplace problems, people's two courses of action were to (1) leave the organization, exit, or (2) stay and express their displeasure, Some scholars read Hirschman as offering loyalty as a third option, while others see as a contingency that shapes whether people will exit or voice. This paper takes the latter definition. Whereas both exit and behaviors can send a similar message to the organization, causing it to improve, is the more difficult option (Hirschman 1970). When will people stay and fight, and when will they cut bait and leave? Hirschman says the key to understanding this decision is the of the members. Those with greater are more likely to stay and try to change the organization from within. This is particularly true if they believe that their efforts have the power to influence the organization (Hodson 2001). Entry costs further heighten the likelihood of choosing rather than exit; those who have endured difficulty in joining the organization will be less likely to discard their membership lightly (Hirschman 1970). Some research suggests that members of worker cooperatives - businesses that are co- managed and co-owned by their workers - will have greater than workers in conventional businesses (e.g., Cornforth, Thomas, Lewis and Spear 1988; Rothschild and Whitt 1986). Members of worker cooperatives often have ideological attachments to their workplace. Sometimes they specifically sought jobs in worker cooperatives; other times they simply happened upon these jobs and became converted to the cooperative workplace ideology. Moreover, some worker cooperatives require that their members pay an amount of money to buy into the cooperative before they may begin working. Thus, members of worker