How do union membership, union density and institutionalization affect perceptions of conflict between management and workers?

Josef Ringqvist

doi:10.1177/0959680120963546

Abstract

This article contributes to debates about trade unions and conflict by studying how individuals’ perceptions of conflicts between management and workers relate to trade union membership, country-level trade union density and institutionalization (collective bargaining coverage, centralization and policy concertation). Hierarchical multi-level models are fitted to data from the International Social Survey Programme from 2009. The results show that union members tend to be more likely than non-members to perceive management–worker conflicts and that this appears not to vary substantially between countries. However, regardless of union membership, individuals in countries with higher trade union density and with policy concertation tend to be significantly less likely to perceive conflicts. These findings highlight the risk of atomic fallacies in research limited to the individual-level effects of union membership. Contrary to an argument often raised by pluralists, neither bargaining coverage nor centralization has significant effects. Overall, the results question depictions of trade unions as divisive organizations.

Highlights

A long-standing debate in politics, economics and sociology concerns the influence of trade unions on employment relations; do unions fundamentally tend to foster or reduce management–worker conflicts? This article illuminates an aspect of this debate by studying individuals’ perceptions of conflicts between management and workers, and how these relate to union membership, union density and the institutionalization of European Journal of Industrial Relations 27(2)employment relations
Whereas union members are more likely than non-members to perceive management–worker conflicts (H1a), a finding which appears consistent across countries, both members and non-members in countries with higher union density are less likely to perceive such conflicts (H2c)
While union members tend to be slightly more likely than non-members to perceive conflicts, differences between countries depending on the level of trade union density are quite substantial; individuals – regardless of whether being union members or not – in countries with higher union density tend to be significantly less likely to perceive management–worker conflicts

Summary

Introduction

A long-standing debate in politics, economics and sociology concerns the influence of trade unions on employment relations; do unions fundamentally tend to foster or reduce management–worker conflicts? This article illuminates an aspect of this debate by studying individuals’ perceptions of conflicts between management and workers, and how these relate to union membership, union density and the institutionalization of European Journal of Industrial Relations 27(2)employment relations. Policy concertation is strongly associated with conflict perceptions: individuals in countries where unions are routinely involved in the formulation of social and economic policy are significantly less likely to perceive management–worker conflicts.

Results

Conclusion