Managing Workplace Job Attitudes and Performance in Organizations with Labor Unions

Abstract

Abstract While union membership has been in decline in recent decades, still 11% of the US workforce belong to unions. The job attitudes of both union and non-union employees are important to organizational success. Various studies suggest that union employees are as satisfied as non-union employees with benefits, wages, and job security. Non-union employees have more favorable attitudes toward the type of work they’re asked to do, autonomy, opportunities for advancement, and supervision. But job attitudes for both union and non-union employees vary widely by the team they are on, according to a summary of Gallup’s employee engagement global database. In this chapter, the authors summarize opinions from within highly unionized organizations, including 239,459 union-member and 42,053 non-union-member employees. They outline key challenges in engaging unionized employees and practical advice compiled from the study of successful organizations across industries.