Using online platforms to engage employees in unionism. The case of IBM

Abstract

To date, there is a paucity of studies that looked into the way unions can use social media platforms to increase employee engagement in activism. Understanding the most effective ways in which unions can make use of online communication to increase membership and raise awareness becomes of paramount importance in light of the decline in union participation that occurred during the last decades and that deepened wage inequality. In addition, union efforts were shown in past studies to be hampered by upper management. Online platforms become an important means that unions can use to eschew managerial control and indirectly increase their membership.The current study used the predictors for online engagement to analyze the online interaction of IBM’s union and assessed the extent to which it was effective in engendering increased employee participation. IBM represents a unique case study as a result of the company’s current focus on offshoring and restructuring. The results of this study showed that the union engaged in an informative and one-way communication style which failed to increase employee activism. The results and their implications are discussed for theorists and practitioners.