What is it about?
This research aims to understand whether labor unions positively or negatively impact companies that invest significantly in their employees through various human resource (HR) practices. Making significant investments in employees through HR practices often leads to two distinct interpretations among workers. They interpret it as a sign of their employer's care and support and an implicit expectation for exceptional performance. The first interpretation is believed to enhance organizational performance and employee well-being. In contrast, the second interpretation is thought to lead to increased organizational performance at the expense of employee well-being. Building on this understanding, we explored how labor unions influence workers' perceptions of their workplaces based on their companies' investments in HR practices. Analyzing data from 287 companies, we discovered that employees in unionized companies perceived a more cooperative work environment due to these HR investments than their counterparts in non-unionized companies. This reflects that employees in unionized companies more strongly saw their employers' investments as a sign of care and support. Additionally, we found that employees in unionized and non-unionized companies recognized an emphasis on exceptional performance stemming from these investments to a similar degree. This reflects that workers viewed such investments as an implicit expectation for outstanding performance to a similar degree, regardless of their company's union status. Consequently, the outcomes of investing in employees through HR practices were more favorable for both employers and employees in unionized companies. Employers experienced more significant improvements in company performance, while employees reported relatively more positive well-being outcomes.
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Why is it important?
Our research provides employers with timely implications on how they should approach the recent resurgence of unionization efforts in the workplace since the pandemic, as seen in the unionization cases at Google and Starbucks. While some managers may consider union-busting strategies, our findings suggest that unions positively affect companies that invest significantly in their employees through HR practices. In this regard, employers could alternatively take advantage of the recent uptick in unionization efforts by investing extensively in HR practices.
Perspectives
Labor unions are complex entities that can positively and negatively impact companies. However, the potential benefits of labor unions seem to have largely gone unnoticed by the public, overshadowed by their potential drawbacks. I hope this research helps increase the public's awareness of the positive contributions that labor unions can make to organizations.
David Chung
University of Texas at Tyler
How do labor unions affect corporate culture? While some argue that unions foster cooperation among workers, others contend that their emphasis on worker protection may make them less performance-oriented. This research suggests that when organizations make significant investments in their workforce, the positive effects of unions in promoting a cooperative culture generally outweigh their potential drawbacks on performance culture, ultimately leading to favorable organizational outcomes, including enhanced financial performance and employee well-being.
Tae-Youn Park
Sungkyunkwan University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Are unions friends or foes of high-performance work systems?, Journal of Applied Psychology, January 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/apl0001266.
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