The application of social exchange to commitment bonds of pro-union employees: cognitive calculations of reciprocity

Abstract

Relying on the concept of commitment bonds proposed by Klein, Molloy, and Brinfield (2012), the model presented herein suggests that, due to changes in the union's power status, pro-union employees will have to re-calculate their cognitive equations of reciprocity with the union and organization when the union is decertified, or right-to-work legislation is passed, or pro-union employees are unsuccessful in winning a union certification election. The norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) provides the basis for understanding social exchange in the workplace, suggesting that with a diminution or absence of union power, the union's ability to provide support is reduced, resulting in a lowering of felt obligation to the union. The model suggests that exchange ideology will mediate the relationship between felt obligation and commitment bond to explain how employees' relationships to the union and organization change as a union's power status declines.