Wise III, J B (1999) Multiple commitment in a multi-employer work environment. DBA thesis, Nova Southeastern University, USA.
Abstract
Commitment of union workers to both their employing organizations and their unions has been an area of study among behavioral scientists since the 1950's (Dean, 1954; Purcell, 1954; Stagner, 1954), when this country saw a rapid increase in the number of workers that were being unionized. Management concern during this time was that workers belonging to a union would not be as committed to their employing organizations as they would be to their union. This concern brought on a stream of research in the area of dual allegiance (commitment) in unionized environments. Commitment to these organizations has its theoretical foundations in three theories: exchange theory, side-bet theory, and cognitive consistency theory. Though dual commitment has been studied in a unionized environment, it has never been studied in a multi-employer environment. A multi-employer environment is prevalent in the unionized construction industry. Typically, in this environment workers are hired to work for an employing company directly out of a union hiring hall. The sample population of construction workers chosen for this study consisted of five construction unions in Louisville, Kentucky. Such workers may work for numerous employers in any given year, generating several implications for commitment in this type of environment. Perhaps most importantly, commitment under multi-employer conditions has never been tested. The purpose of this study was to extend the research on commitment to a multi-employer environment. The results of the research indicated that commitment to the union is not affected by the number of contractors that a union construction workers is employed by in a given year. However, the research did show evidence that organizational commitment is higher in workers that work for a single contractor. Research also provided evidence that continuance commitment to employing organization is lower than affective commitment and normative commitment. The correlation scales between union commitment and organizational commitment indicated that dual commitment did not exist in this environment. However, a cluster analysis did prove that 23 per cent of the population did display dual commitment.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Spalding, J |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cluster analysis; employer; foundations; population |
| Index terms: | work environment, construction industry, construction worker, foundations, organizational commitment, stream, population, cluster analysis, evidence, commitment |
| Subjects: | water management, management, industry analysis, sociology, data analysis and analytics, structural engineering, demography, practitioner, evaluation and assessment methods, psychology |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Urban Studies, Roles and Professions, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here