ABSTRACT
This chapter unifies seemingly disparate insights into the complex relationships between public unions, external environments, internal organizational characteristics, and union member attitudes and behaviors. Research on the psychological mechanisms that shape organizational behavior offers one useful avenue for understanding performance benefits and drawbacks related to public sector unions. A focus on emotional labor (EL) in the study of public unionization adds value by highlighting that there are critical emotional intermediaries between external demands influenced by unions and more specific employee behaviors. It focuses on an emotional and behavioral conceptualization of unionization in the public sector rooted in theories of organizational psychology. Perhaps most importantly, the more comprehensive and nuanced model presented offers practical advantages. Overall, unions are complex organizations with the capacity to shape external demands, internal organizational characteristics, and employee behavior.
