ABSTRACT
Unions can be an instrument of social change, but even when they play a larger role in society, their core activity remains in the workplace. Studies conducted in the early 1980s allow to examine union effects on a range of workplace and Human resource management (HRM) policies. In examining union impact, focus is on managerial practice rather than on employee or firm-level outcomes. For a better understanding of union impact on management, it is important to frame the shock effect within the context of a union’s monopoly and voice roles. The way to measure union impact is to directly compare union and nonunion workplaces after applying appropriate controls for effects of size, industry, etc. Unions tend to decrease management’s ability to structure workplace practices, and thus, as the role of unions has been diminishing over time, managements may be more active in structuring workplace climate and culture to their perceived operating needs.
