Union Commitment: Implications for Union Participation and Exit-voice

Abstract

This paper is a partial replication of Kelloway and Barling's (1993) model of union commitment and participation. It examines the causal relationship between three factors of union commitment (loyalty to the union, willingness to work for the union, and responsibility to the union), union participation and two exit-voice outcomes, job satisfaction and intention to quit. The results confirm Fishbein and Ajezen;'s (1975) theory that attitudinal components of commitment precede behavioural intentions and that the latter is a significant determinant of higher order forms of participation in the union. Lower order forms of participation are found to differ in terms of antecedents and outcomes to higher order forms of participation. The findings for higher order participation are found to partially support the exit-voice model. Implications of those results for unions are discussed.