Collective Bargaining in Municipal Government: How Unionization Impacts Employee's Attitudes, Behaviors, and Values

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact of public sector labor unions on member attitudes, beliefs, and values. I expect that as union members commit to the values of labor organizations they will perceive lower levels of bureaucratic red tape, exhibit higher public service motivation (PSM), and become more satisfied with the nature of public sector work. I devise and test nine hypotheses by analyzing qualitative data generated from interviews with 40 randomly selected union members in two large Kansas cities, and quantitative data collected from a survey instrument distributed to over 300 municipal union members in a single Kansas municipality. The qualitative findings indicate that the union context significantly influences perceptions of bureaucratic red tape and the motives that give rise to PSM. The findings from a series of structural equation models suggest that commitment to union values decreases perceptions of bureaucratic red tape, enhances all four component dimensions of public service motivation, and indirectly increases public sector job satisfaction via bureaucratic red tape and PSM. While this study supports the assertion that labor unions significantly influence the public sector workplace, I rebut the argument that unions primarily decrease organizational performance. Rather unions could increase the performance of public sector organizations by encouraging members to more favorably perceive the work context, promoting member actions designed to benefit others, and facilitating member job satisfaction.