What Helps Organizing Work? The Indicators and the Facilitators of Organizing

Abstract

This article examines the adoption of the organizing model at three Australian union branches. It disentangles key conceptual dimensions of organizing, in particular the indicators and facilitators of organizing. Subsequently, these dimensions are explored through the views of Australian union officials actively engaged in the struggle of organizing. Findings suggest the critical supporting role of four facilitators: use of crisis, visionary and distributed leadership, branch cohesiveness and financial resources. However, in the process of union change, constraining factors such as internal conflict and industry restructure may prevent the adoption of the organizing strategy. Our findings may help to explain unions’ current limited adoption of the organizing model of revitalization.