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Antecedents of Union Commitment: The Impact of Union Membership Differences in Vertical Dyads and Work Group Relationships

Department of Management and Industrial Relations, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia; r.iverson{at}ecomfac.unimelb.edu.au

Donna M. Buttigieg

Department of Management and Industrial Relations, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.

Relational demography has recently been employed to investigate the influence of workplace diversity on organizational outcomes, such as organizational commitment, turnover, and performance (O'Reilly, Caldwell, & Barnett, 1989; Tsui & O'Reilly, 1989; Tsui, Egan, & O'Reilly, 1992; Tsui, Egan, & Porter, 1994). In the present study, we utilize the techniques and theoretical framework employed in the relational demography literature to examine the impact of heterogeneous union membership status within work groups and vertical dyads, and the effect of these differences on union commitment. A composite dataset was created from two Australian hospitals. Analyses of the data were confined to 460 nursing staff who could be identified within 43 specific work groups (hospital wards). The results indicate that while no relationship was found between differences in membership status among co-workers in work groups on commitment, differences between members and their supervisors served to decrease union loyalty and belief in unionism (controlling for other union and organizational factors). Importantly, we found support for an interaction effect between work groups and vertical dyads. Differences in membership status among co-workers were observed to lower union loyalty and willingness to work for the union when supervisors were nonunion members. The implications of such findings for union policy are addressed.

Key Words: relational demography • union commitment • work-groups • leader-member exchange • social identity theory

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