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What Leads Organizational Members to Collectivize? Injustice and Identification as Precursors of Union Certification

Stern School of Business, New York University, 40 West 4th Street, Room 7-18, New York, New York 10012
sblader{at}stern.nyu.edu

This paper presents the results of two studies that examine the impact of both social psychological and economic concerns on organizational members’ decisions to support or oppose union formation. The studies test the predictions that procedural justice judgments and social identification—two social psychological factors that shape the nature of how people relate to their organizations—have a significant influence on people’s support for union certification and on the votes they cast in a union certification election. Importantly, it was predicted that these effects would emerge even after accounting for the influence of people’s economic concerns, which have been the primary focus of previous efforts to understand whether people support union formation. The results confirm these predictions and demonstrate that respondents’ positions on the unionization issue are shaped by procedural justice (Studies 1 and 2) and social identity (Study 2) even after accounting for economic factors. Furthermore, Study 2 shows that the impact of procedural justice judgments on union certification was partially mediated by social identity. More generally, the results highlight the importance of integrating both social psychological and economic concerns in models designed to explain organizational phenomena such as the formation of unions.

Key Words: organizational justice; social identity; unionization

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