College and Research Libraries


Unionization and Job Satisfaction 
among Professional Library Employees 
in Academic Research Institutions 
Tina Maragou Hovekamp 

Previous research pertaining mostly to blue-collar unionized workers indicated 
that the reported job satisfaction among these employees tends to be lower than 
among nonunionized workers. The present study concentrated on a professional 
group-professional librarians in academic research institutions-to reexam-
ine the issue. By comparing the survey results of union and nonunion partici-
pants, this research found that the presence of unions has a negative relationship 
with job satisfaction. However, the results of this study did not support the 
argument that such a relationship is a product of union culture, as some 
researchers have suggested. Salary was revealed as a more consistent predictor 
of job satisfaction. There was also the suggestion that part-time employment 
status might relate to the survey participants' happiness with their job. 

everal attempts to estimate 
the degree of job satisfaction 
among union workers have 
shown that this type of em-

ployee may report lower levels of satis-
faction compared to nonunion workers. 
Research in this area has mainly concen-
trated on the blue-collar or nonprofes-
sional worker. In addition, the few studies 
which have focused on professional em-
ployees have produced conflicting results, 
indicating that the relationship between 
unions and job satisfaction may be com-
plex and not so predictable. 

The present investigation was based 
on the survey results of a professional 
group of librarians in union and non-
union academic research institutions. The 
data received compared the reported lev-
els of job satisfaction between the union 
and nonunion participants. To examine 
any possible association between union 

culture and the employees' attitudes, 
this research also explored the relation-
ship between union membership and job 
satisfaction as well as the relationship 
between union loyalty and job satisfac-
tion. The researcher believed that if unions 
had an impact, it would be particularly 
evident among registered union members 
or those most committed to their union. 

The researcher analyzed the data us-
ing multiple regression. Several demo-
graphip variables which otherwise could 
affect the results of the research entered 
the regression equations as controls. This 
method also allowed the researcher to 
explore these variables and their possi-
ble relation to job satisfaction. 

THEORETICAL AND 
RESEARCH BACKGROUND 

Repeatedly dissatisfaction with em-
ployment conditions has been found as 

Tina Maragou Hovekamp is Library Instruction and Public Services Librarian at the Leslie J. Savage Library, 
Western State College of Colorado, Gunnison, Colorado 81231 . This article is based on the author's dissertation 
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The completion of this research was made possible with the 
help of a CLR/Kellogg grant. 

341 



342 College & Research Libraries 

a common explanation for the reason 
workers decide to unionize. As Charles 
Odewahn and M. Petty indicate, the lit-
erature for some time has supported the 
idea that economic and other job-related 
issues are a primary cause for union or-
ganizing.1 

Researchers continue to reaffirm the 
link between job satisfaction and unioni-
zation. For example, Julius Getman, 
Stephen Goldberg, and Jeanne Herman 
found that voting behavior during un-
ion elections is affected by the level of 
employee satisfaction.2 They indicated 
that the less satisfied employees were 
more prone to vote for union repre-
sentation than the more satisfied em-
ployees. In his study William Bigoness 
also found that there is a significant re-
lationship between employee attitudes 
toward unionism and job satisfaction 
with respect to work, pay, supervision, 
and opportunities for advancement.3 

Besides research findings on the rela-
tionship between job discontent and 
prounion behavior, a number of investiga-
tions have also shown that job satisfaction 
tends to be lower among union compared 
to nonunion employees after the estab-
lishment of bargaining relations. Both 
Richard Freeman and George Borjas were 
among the first to find that, on average, 
unionized workers report significantly 
lower levels of job satisfaction:t.s 

Whereas Freeman and Borjas used a 
single item to measure overall job satis-
faction, later studies ~xplored the same 
issue in a more detailed way by examin-
ing the relation between union presence 
and different facets of job satisfaction. 
Thomas Kochan and David Helfman, for 
example, reported that unions have a 
positive effect on wages and this in turn 
has a significant, positive influence on 
the members' satisfaction with bread-
and-butter issues (pay, fringe benefits, 
and job security).6 However, when it 
came to satisfaction with other job issues 
such as job content, resource adequacy, 
and promotions, the researchers found a 
significant, negative relationship with 
union presence after controlling for 
wage level. Based on data compiled 
from a national probability sample of 

July 1995 

employed adults, Chris Berger, Craig Ol-
son, and John Boudeau indicated that 
the relationship between union presence 
and different facets of job satisfaction 
might be indirect. 7 Specifically, quite 
similarly to Kochan and Helfman, those 
researchers showed that unions are posi-
tively related to pay satisfaction because 
of higher pay rewards and pay values 
among workers. However, a negative re-
lation was found between union pres-
ence and other job aspects, such as job 
content, supervision, or opportunities 
for promotion. The. study tried to ex-
plain that such a negative relationship 
existed because of the employees' less 
favorable perceptions and lower values 
related to these issues. Berger et al. also 
indicated that when considering the 
overall job satisfaction, union workers 
tend to be less satisfied than workers in 
nonunionized environments. 

It is believed that in an effort to 
attract and maintain membership, 
unions emphasize the shortcomings 
of a work situation, which then 
acquire a greater importance for the 
employees. 

In 1987 Susan Schwochau again at-
tempted to investigate the issue with 
data she collected from a national prob-
ability sample.8 Consistent with pre-
vious research, her analysis confirmed 
that union members report lower levels 
of job satisfaction than nonmembers in 
all job facets but pay. In a very similar 
study Ronald Meng found the same dif-
ferences in job satisfaction among Cana-
dian union and nonunion workers.9 

In an effort to explain the above find-
ings, researchers such as Russell Smith 
and Anne Hopkins argue that the politi-
cization of the work force by the pres-
ence of the union is one possible cause of 
decreased job satisfaction. 10 It is believed 
that in an effort to attract and maintain 
membership, unions emphasize the short-
comings of a work situation, which then 
acquire a greater importance for the em-
ployees. 



Another frequently cited rationaliza-
tion of the reasons why union workers 
report lower job satisfaction was dis-
cussed by Richard Freeman. 11 According 
to his "exit-voice" concept, unionism 
creates mechanisms that enable workers 
to "voice," rather than suppress, their 
dissatisfaction. By doing this, members 
become more aware and more expres-
sive of the possible problems associated 
with their jobs. It is for this very reason, 
Freeman says, that unionized employees 
respond more negatively to questions of 
job satisfaction than nonunionized em-
ployees. The advantage of this situation 
is that despite their dissatisfaction, 
employees have more opportunities ac-
tually to resolve problems in their employ-
ment relations. For instance, the grievance 
and arbitration system, or even the proc-
ess of negotiations, allows employees to 
express openly their feelings and per-
haps find a solution. In contrast, dissat-
isfied employees in nonunion facilities 
who do not suppress their emotions 
often view quitting their jobs as the only 
alternative. 

Still, the relationship between unioni-
zation and job satisfaction is rather com-
plex and still not fully understoodP 
Furthermore, there have been findings 
from studies of unionized professional 
employees which contradict the idea of a 
negative relationship between unions and 
job satisfaction. For example, Luis Gomez-
Mejia and David Balkin studied the rela-
tionship between faculty organization and 
satisfaction with pay and other job dimen-
sions.13 Their survey showed that union 
presence was associated positively with 
faculty pay satisfaction. In addition, they 
found no evidence of any association with 
satisfaction on issues such as promotion, 
supervision, job content, job context, or 
resource adequacy. 

In a similar study of 260 Canadian 
university faculty, Bernadette Schell and 
Andrew Loed concluded that unionized 
faculty report the same high level of job 
satisfaction as nonunionized faculty. 14 

Furthermore, according to their analy-
sis, "work itself was a major contributor 
to faculty members' satisfaction."15 Such 
results imply that the predictive rela-

Unionization and Job Satisfaction 343 

tionship between job satisfaction and 
unionism may not always be consistent. 
This may also mean that the relationship 
could be different for unionized profes-
sional employees as opposed to nonpro-
fessional or blue-collar workers. 

Michael Gordon, Laura Beauvais, and 
Robert Ladd confirmed this idea by find-
ing that whereas job satisfaction was re-
lated significantly to union satisfaction 
and loyalty among a group of unionized 
technicians, these variables were hardly 
correlated in a sample of unionized en-
gineers.16 The researcher speculated that 
"engineers [might] perceive their mem-
bership in the engineering profession, 
rather than in the union, as responsible 
for the rewards associated with their over-
all employment situation."17 The character 
of a professional occupation, in other 
words, might play an important role in the 
way individuals approach their job and 
what they expect to derive from it. 

The present research concentrated on 
a particular professional group, profes-
sional library employees in academic 
research institutions. The researcher 
wanted to examine whether indeed these 
types of union employees have a differ-
ent degree of job satisfaction than their 
nonunion colleagues. 

Specifically, the hypotheses tested in 
this research examined differences in 
job satisfaction between professional li-
brarians in unionized versus nonunion-
ized institutions. Besides overall job 
satisfaction, this investigation looked at 
the relationship between unions and sat-
isfaction separately with bread-and-but-
ter, job content or growth, and work 
environment issues. To explore whether 
union culture may affect the way indi-
viduals perceive their jobs, this study 
also analyzed the variables of member-
ship status and union loyalty as predic-
tors of job satisfaction among unionized 
employees. The researcher believed that if 
unions related to job satisfaction, such an 
association could be best reflected in the 
sentiments of registered members or those 
most committed to their union. 

The four hypotheses of this investiga-
tion explored the following research 
questions: 



344 College & Research Libraries 

• Is there a significant relationship be-
tween the presence of unions (unioni-
zation) and professional librarians' 
degree of overall job satisfaction? 

• Is there a significant relationship be-
tween the presence of unions and pro-
fessional librarians' satisfaction with 
bread and butter, job content or growth, 
and work environment issues? 

• Is there a significant relationship be-
tween union membership status (whe-
ther an employee is a registered union 
member or a nonregistered union mem-
ber) and professional librarians' job 
satisfaction? 

• Is there a significant relationship be-
tween union commitment and profes-
sional librarians' job satisfaction? 

METHOD 
Subjects and Setting of Study 18 

The participants in the study were 
full-time or part-time employees with an 
M. L.S. or equivalent degree and profes-
sional appointments (academic or fac-
ulty) in academic research library 
institutions which were members of the 
American Research Library Association 
(ARL). The reason for selecting aca-
demic research libraries as the setting for 
this study was the relative availability of 
data on unionization among these insti-
tutions compared to smaller college li-
braries, as well as the fact that research 
libraries because of their complex, bu-
reaucratic structure are more likely to be 
unionized than smaller libraries. 

In August 1991 the researcher mailed 
requests for participation in the study 
to twenty-six research libraries in the 
United States, which at the time did not 
have union representation for either pro-
fessional or paraprofessional staff. They 
selected these libraries by eliminating 
from a list of ARL academic libraries those 
which had union representation for pro-
fessional and/ or paraprofessional library 
staff. The final sample included twenty-six 
libraries drawn randomly from the re-
maining population. 

Seventeen American research libraries 
which at the time had collective bargain-
ing agreements for their professional li-
brary employees also received a similar 

July 1995 

mailing. Since most of the ARL libraries 
were not unionized, the sample of non-
union institutions was larger than that of 
union libraries. In this way the research 
samples represented more accurately 
the population of the study. 

Library directors in both union and 
nonunion libraries received a letter de-
scribing the purpose of the study accom-
panied by a request for their institution's 
participation. As a result, nineteen non-
union (i.e., 73 percent of the originally 
selected nonunion libraries) and thirteen 
union libraries (i.e., 76 percent of the origi-
nal number of unionized research librar-
ies) agreed to participate in the study. 

The reason for selecting academic 
research libraries as the setting for 
this study was the relative availability 
of data on unionization among these 
institutions compared to smaller 
college libraries, as well as the fact 
that research libraries because of 
their complex, bureaucratic structure 
are more likely to be unionized than 
smaller libraries. 

Participating libraries provided lists 
of employee names. Using these lists and 
the percentages calculated for each insti-
tution, the researcher selected randomly 
two hundred individuals for each of the 
two groups of the study, union and non-
union. Law and health library profes-
sionals as well as librarians at regional 
campuses were not included in the sam-
ples. This exclusion was necessary be-
cause among the campuses, law, health, 
or regional campus libraries were not 
always part of the central research li-
brary system (in some cases they oper-
ated independently from it). In addition, 
since higher administrative staff (i.e., di-
rectors, assistant directors, and person-
nel administrators) are not represented 
by the union, this type of employee was 
not part of the union sample. 

Survey Instrument 

In order to measure employee job satis-
faction, the researcher based questions, 



with a few modifications, on the short 
form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Ques-
tionnaire or MSQ.19 This questionnaire 
measured job satisfaction in regard to 
bread and butter, job content, or growth 
issues, as well as work environment. 

The MSQ was appropriate to use in 
this study because it covered job facets 
relevant to the characteristics of the spe-
cific population and to the scope of this 
study. Moreover, previous tests on the 
reliability of the MSQ had already pro-
vided evidence that this instrument was 
quite reliable and consequently rela-
tively safe to use.2° For each of the items 
in the job satisfaction questionnaire, re-
searchers asked the subjects to respond 
using a 5-point Likert-type scale. 

To explore the relationship between 
job satisfaction and union commitment, 
the survey also included eleven items 
adapted from Porter's Organizational 
Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), 
which measured the union participants' 
loyalty to their bargaining association. 
Chester Schriesheim and Anne Tsui, Dan 
Dalton and William Todor, and Edward 
Conlon and Daniel Gallagher used a 
similar instrument in their previous un-
ion studies.21 This measure previously 
showed high levels of internal reliability 
and agreed with the definition of union 
commitment in the present study. The 
items of this measure were included 
only in the survey of the union sample. 
The response format for this measure 
also employed a 5-point Likert scale. 

In addition to the survey items dis-
cussed above, those questionnaires sent 
to participants in the union sample 
asked them to identify whether or not 
they were registered union members. 
The survey instrument also requested 
that all respondents indicate their sex, 
age, total years of work as a library em-
ployee, employment status (full-time or 
part-time), and total annual salary. 
These variables were entered as "con-
trols" in the data analysis. In this way it 
was also possible to explore any rela-
tionship these variables might have with 
job satisfaction. 

The researcher collected most of the 
data for this study by the end of Decem-

Unionization and Job Satisfaction 345 

ber 1991. The response rate reached 91 
percent including six (6) refusals to par-
ticipate and thirteen (13) invalid re-
sponses. Within the nonunion group, 189 
or 94.5 percent of the sample responded to 
the survey. From the union group, 17 4 or 
87 percent returned responses. 

RESULTS 

Table 1 provides the population pro-
file of this survey based on an analysis 
of the demographic characteristics of the 
respondents. 

The results from table 1 show that the 
most distinct difference in the demo-
graphic characteristics of the nonunion 
versus the union group is in the area of 
salary, with the majority of union librari-
ans placed in the upper salary scales. 
That might relate to the fact that within 
the nonunion group there was a larger 
percentage of younger and less experi-
enced professionals. In addition, re-
searchers observed that the distribution 
of the · population regarding employ-
ment status (full-time versus part-time) 
was quite uneven for both groups. De-
spite that, it was the researcher's deci-
sion to include this control variable in 
the analysis of data. 

The researcher also used regression 
analysis to test each of the four hypothe-
ses. All regression equations included 
gender, age, years of library experience, 
employment status (full-time versus 
part-time), and salary as control vari-
ables. By including these variables, it 
was also possible to examine their con-
tribution to job satisfaction. 

The means of overall job satisfaction 
for the union and nonunion group were 
3.555 and 3.687, respectively, based on 
the Likert scale with 1 as the lowest 
value and 5 as the highest value. Conse-
quently, the overall tone of the partici-
pants' feelings toward their job in both 
groups was somewhere between neutral 
and satisfied. 

The regression analysis of the first hy-
pothesis of the study revealed that union 
presence had a significant, negative rela-
tion to overall job satisfaction; the re-
gression coefficient for the variable of 
union presence was equal to -3.914, p < .01. 



346 College & Research Libraries July 1995 

TABLE 1 
SUMMARY OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR RESPONDENTS 

Demographic No. of Nonunion 
Characteristics Respondents 

Gender 
Male 34.8 
Female 65.2 

Age 
20-30 6.7 
31-40 30.2 
41-50 41.3 
51-60 15.1 
Over 61 6.7 

Years of library experience 
1-5 15.5 
6-10 19.9 

11-15 18.8 
16-20 17.7 
21-25 14.3 
26-30 6.1 
Over31 7.7 

Employment status 
Full-time 93.9 
Part-time 6.1 

Annual salary 
Less than $20,000 4.5 
$20,000 to 24,999 10.6 
25,000 to 29,999 22.9 
30,000 to 34,999 21.2 
35,000 to 39,999 14.0 
40,000 to 44,999 14.5 

Over $45,000 12.3 

Additionally, among the demographic 
variables of this study, part-time em-
ployment and salary were also signifi-
cant and related positively to overall job 
satisfaction; their regression coefficients 
were equal, respectively, to 12.232 and 
2.331, p < .001. The regression model for 
the determination of overall job satisfac-
tion by union presence and demographic 
characteristics had a squared multiple 
correlation coefficient (R2) equal to 0.086 
(p < .001); in other words, union presence 
along with the demographic control vari-
ables explained 8.6 percent of the variance 
of overall job satisfaction. 

In addition to examining overall job 
satisfaction, this study took a more de-

%of Union %of Total 
Respondents Respondents 

38.0 36.3 
62.0 63.7 

3.7 5.3 
29.0 29.6 
42.0 41.6 
14.8 15.0 
10.5 8.5 

9.9 12.8 
16.2 18.1 
18.6 18.7 
23.0 20.2 
17.4 15.8 
8.1 7.0 
6.8 7.4 

93.9 93.9 
6.1 6.1 

1.8 3.2 
3.7 7.3 

16.6 19.8 
13.4 17.5 
21.0 17.3 
20.2 17.3 
23.3 17.6 

tailed look at the participants' satisfac-
tion with several job aspects. To be more 
specific, the researcher divided partici-
pant responses to the 19-item job satisfac-
tion questionnaire into three categories 
based on conceptual relationships among 
the questionnaire items. These included 
satisfaction with: 
• Bread-and-butter issues (3 items). The 

job dimensions included in this cate-
gory were: employee benefits, job se-
curity, and salary. 

• Job content or growth issues (10 
items). The job dimensions included 
in this category were: degree of job in-
dependence, variety of work, opportu-
nity to render service, use of one's 



Unionization and Job Satisfaction 347 

TABLE2 
REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS AND t' s FOR THE DETERMINATION 

OF DEGREE OF SATISFACTION WITH DIFFERENT JOB FACETS 
UNDER UNION AND NONUNION CONDITIONS (N = 344) 

Variables Bread and Butter Job Content/Growth Work Environment 

Union -0.026 -2.408 -1.717 

(-0.118)* (-2.930)t (-3.345):1: 
-·-·-···-·--·--····-·-··--·----···----··-···---··----------·-·-·-···--····-----·--·-·-··-----·----------·---··-·-·····-·--····· 
Gender 0.160 0.054 0.116 

(0.709) (0.066) (0.225) 

Age 0.019 -0.119 0.203 

(0.120) (-0.206) (0.555) 

Years of library experience -0.051 -0.484 -0.386 

(-0.513) (-1.313) (-1.669) 
------

Part-time versus full-time 2.332 6.216 4.645 

(4.602):1: (3.373):1: (3.881):1: 
............................................................................................................................................................. -........................ ______ ........ _,, ........................ _,, _________ ....... --........ ,, ______ ,,_,,, .............. _, , , .................... _,,, ....... _ 
Salary 

R2 

Constant 

,. t's appear in parentheses; t p < .01; t p < .001 

0.533 

(6.321):1: 

0.158:1: 

8.738 

abilities, advancement opportunities, 
degree of job responsibility, opportunity 
for creativity, recognition received, feel-
ing of achievement, opportunities for 
educational advancement. 

• Work environment issues (6 items). 
The job dimensions included in this 
category were: social status in the 
campus community, decision-making 
oompetence of supervisor, relation of 
supervision to supervised employees, 
workplace policies, working condi-
tions, relations among coworkers. 
Table 2 presents the regression results 

of the analysis of job satisfaction with 
the above job facets by union presence 
and demographic characteristics. 

The results of table 2 indicate that un-
ion presence has a statistically significant 
negative relationship with satisfaction in 
regards to issues of job content or growth 
(p < .01) and work environment (p < .001). 
On the other hand, the relationship be-
tween satisfaction with bread-and-butter 
issues and union presence was nonsignifi-
cant. Once again, among the control vari-
ables, part-time employment and salary 

1.451 0.524 

(4.617):1: (2.744)t 

0.078:1: o.ont 
33.975 19.069 

turned out to be highly significant posi-
tive predictors of job satisfaction with all 
three job dimensions (p < .001). 

The third hypothesis of this study in-
vestigated the issue of job satisfaction 
within the union group . Specifically, it 
tested the significance of any possible 
differences between professional librari-
ans who were registered union members 
at the time, and those who were not reg-
istered as official members but were cov-
ered by the bargaining agreement at 
their campus. The purpose of such an 
analysis was to determine whether un-
ion culture may affect the way registered 
members approach their jobs. Regres-
sion analysis showed that the variable of 
union membership was not a predictor 
of job satisfaction among unionized li-
brary employees; the regression coeffi-
cient for the variable of union membership 
was 2.264, p > .05. The demographic vari-
ables, however, of part-time employ-
ment and salary level turned out to be 
fairly powerful predictors of job satis-
faction among the union participants 
with regression coefficients respectively 



348 College & Research Libraries 

of 13.592, p < .01 and 3.901, p < .001. The 
R2 (= 0.196) of this regression model 
indicated that 19.6 percent of the vari-
ance of overall job satisfaction among 
unionized library employees was ac-
counted for mainly by the variable of 
part-time status and salary regardless of 
union membership status. 

The final hypothesis of this study ex-
plored the relationship between job sat-
isfaction and union commitment. The 
researcher believed that those individu-
als most committed to their bargaining 
organization would reflect best the 
sentiments of the union group in this 
study. The results of the regression 
analysis indicated that the relationship 
between these two variables was nonsig-
nificant. The regression coefficient for 
the independent variable of union com-
mitment was 0.086, p > .05. As expected, 
part-time status and salary level were the 
only statistically significant variables in 
the regression equation for the prediction 
of overall job satisfaction (p < .001). 

DISCUSSION 

Previous theoretical speculations and 
research findings tried to explain the in-
fluence of interest groups such as unions 
on their membership. Some theorists 
suggest that employee satisfaction is 
often affected by the unions' deliberate 
effort to stress the negative aspects of a 
workplace in order to attract and retain 
their membership. Other researchers 
propose that union mechanisms tend to 
generate a stronger expression of discon-
tent among workers and, consequently, 
lower their reported level of job satisfac-
tion. Past research concentrated mainly 
on blue-collar workers in an effort to 
investigate the relationship between un-
ions and job satisfaction. The present 
study, however, looked at a specific pro-
fessional group, professional librarians, 
in order to reexamine the issue. 

Similar to previous findings, this 
study provides evidence that union 
presence is indeed a negative predictor 
of overall satisfaction among profes-
sionallibrary employees. The data show 
that unionization along with demo-
graphic characteristics is a statistically 

July 1995 

significant, negative predictor of satis-
faction, specifically with issues of job 
content or growth and work environ-
ment. To further explore the issue, the 
researcher tested the likelihood of a 
link between union membership status 
and job satisfaction; however, it was 
discovered that registered and nonreg-
istered union members reported com-
parable levels of satisfaction. Similar 
results indicate that the relationship be-
tween union commitment and job satis-
faction is also not significant. Union 
employees reported similar levels of job 
satisfaction regardless of their degree 
of union loyalty. 

Based on the above findings, the re-
searcher suggests that even though un-
ionized professional librarians tend to 
report lower levels of job satisfaction 
than their nonunion colleagues, there is 
no clear evidence that such attitudes are 
a product of union culture. Neither the 
registered membership nor those most 
loyal to the union seem to have a 
stronger awareness or feelings of work 
injustice than nonregistered or less loyal 
union members. The mere presence of 
unions may encourage "exit-voice" be-
havior among union workers, as Free-
man suggests; yet one might wonder 
whether job satisfaction is actually more 
strongly affected by other variables, 
typical of unionized environments but 
independent of union influences. 22 For 
instance, it might be worth investigating 
whether the work environment in un-
ionized workplaces is different than that 
in nonunion workplaces. According to 
the data of this study, unionized librari-
ans report lower levels of satisfaction 
specifically with job content and growth 
and with work environment. The pres-
ence of a labor organization might imply 
a history of problems in the employer-
employee relationship, and the case 
might be that these problems still persist 
and affect the employees' work experi-
ences. In other words, union presence 
simply could be an indication, and not 
the actual source, of decreased levels of 
job satisfaction. 

Further research needs to analyze in 
more detail the reasons why unionized 



library employees tend to be less content 
with their jobs than their nonunion col- · 
leagues. Why did the participants of this 
study indicate lower levels of satisfac-
tion with job content and work envi-
ronment issues? Are there problems 
characteristic of union workplaces and 
independent of union culture? Within 
the same framework, it would also be 
interesting to compare the levels of job 
satisfaction between unionized library 
professionals and unionized faculty on 
the same campuses. 

A secondary finding of the present 
survey was that, contrary to previous re-
search, unions did not seem to affect the 
way professional librarians felt about 
the extrinsic rewards of their jobs.23 This 
possibly could imply either that collec-
tive bargaining did not improve the 
overall financial status of participants in 
the study or that those library profes-
sionals did not have any particularly 
favorable perceptions regarding the ex-
trinsic rewards of their job. 

Finally, among the demographic char-
acteristics of this study, researchers 
consistently found salary and part-
time employment status to be statisti-
cally significant, positive predictors of 

Unionization and Job Satisfaction 349 

job satisfaction among the survey par-
ticipants. The positive predictive rela-
tionship of salary with job satisfaction 
was not a surprise. Previous research 
findings focusing on the issue of pay 
have already shown that job satisfaction 
increases with salary. 24 Part-time status, 
however, was a new significant variable 
in the determination of job satisfaction. 
This research suggested that among li-
brary research institutions, part-time 
employees tend to report higher levels of 
satisfaction with their job than full-time 
employees. Unfortunately, no conclu-
sive inferences could be drawn in the 
present study since part-time employees 
were only 6.1 percent of the total survey 
population (see table 1). However, one 
may speculate that part-time employ-
ment could be a significant variable be-
cause of the importance it might carry 
among female-dominated professions 
such as the one involved in the present 
investigation (63.7 percent of the partici-
pants were females). Future studies 
should address the significance of this 
variable in connection to job satisfaction 
and examine whether this significance 
may relate to the characteristics of cer-
tain occupations. 

REFERENCES AND NOTES 

1. Charles A Odewahn and M. M. Petty," A Comparison of Levels of Job Satisfaction, Role 
Stress and Personal Competence between Union Members and Nonmembers," Academy of 
Management Journal23 (Mar. 1980): 150-55. 

2. Julius G. Getman, Stephen B. Goldberg, and Jeanne B. Herman, Union Representation 
Election: Law and Reality (New York: Russell Sage, 1976). 

3. William J. Bigoness, "Correlates of Faculty Attitudes toward Collective Bargaining," Journal 
of Applied Psychology 63 (Apr. 1978): 228-33. 

4. Richard Freeman, "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," American Economic Associa-
tion 68 (May 1978): 135-41. 

5. George Borjas, "Job Satisfaction, Wages, and Unions," Journal of Human Resources 14 
(Winter 1979): 21-40. 

6. Thomas Kochan and David E. Helfman, "The Effects of Collective Bargaining on Economic 
and Behavioral Job Outcomes," in Research in Labor Economics, ed. R. G. Ehrenberg, vol. 4 
(Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Pr., 1981). 

7. Chris J. Berger, Craig A. Olson, and John W. Boudeau, "Effects of Unions on Job Satisfaction: 
The Role of Work-Related Values and Perceived Rewards," Organizational Behavior and 
Human Performance 32 (Dec. 1983): 289-324. 

8. Susan Schwochau, "Union Effects on Job Attitudes," Industrial and Labor Review 40 Gan. 
1987): 209-24. 

9. Ronald Meng, "The Relationship between Unions and Job Satisfaction," Applied Economics 
22 (Dec. 1990): 1635-48. 



------------------ --- - ---~---.,jill';--~---

350 College & Research Libraries July 1995 

10. Russell L. Smith and Anne H. Hopkins, "Public Employee Attitudes toward Unions," 
Industrial and Labor Relations Review 32 (July 1979): 484-95. 

11. Richard B. Freeman, "The Exit-Voice Trade-off in the Labor Market: Unionism, Job Tenure, 
Quits, and Separations," Quarterly Journal of Economics 94 (June 1980): 643-74. 

12. Schwochau, "Union Effects," 209. 
13. Luis R. Gomez-Mejia and David B. Balkin, "Faculty Satisfaction with Pay and Other Job 

Dimensions under Union and Nonunion Conditions," Academy of Management Journal 27 
(Sept. 1984): 591-602. 

14. Bernadette H. Schell and AndrewS. Loeb, "An Investigation of General Happiness Level, 
Collective Bargaining Attitudes, Job Satisfaction, and University and Union Commitment 
of Faculty Members in Canada," Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 1 (Oct. 1986): 
537-56. 

15. Ibid, 548 . . 
16. Michael E. Gordon, Laura L. Beauvais, and Robert T. Ladd, "The Job Satisfaction and Union 

Commitment of Unionized Engineers," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 37 (Apr. 1984): 
359-70. 

17. Ibid, 365. 
18. For a detailed description of the design of this study see Tina Maragou Hovekamp, "Unions 

and Work Attitudes: Job Satisfaction, Work Values, and Organizational Commitment of 
Professional Librarians" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1993), 75-79. 

19. David J. Weiss, Rene V. Dawis, George W. England, and Lloyd H. Lofquist, Manual for the 
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Minneapolis: Univ.- of Minnesota, Industrial Rela-
tions, 1967). 

20. For more details, see ibid, 23-26. 
21. Chester A. Schriesheim and Anne S. Tsui, "Dual Commitment to Company and Unions" 

(Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Detroit, 1980); ibid., 
"Measures of Attitudes toward Company and Union: Development and Application" (Paper 
presented at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Decision Science, Las Vegas, 
1980); Dan R. Dalton and William D. Todor, "Antecedents of Grievance Filing Behavior," 
Academy of Management Journal 25 (Mar. 1982): 158-69; Edward J. Conlon and Daniel J. 
Gallagher, "Commitment to Employer and Union: Effects of Membership Status," Academy 
of Management Journal30 (Mar. 1987): 151-62. 

22. Freeman, "The Exit-Voice Trade-off." 
23. Kochan and Helfman, "The Effects of Collective Bargaining"; Berger and others, "Effects of 

Unions on Job Satisfaction; Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, "Faculty Satisfaction"; and Schwochau, 
"Union Effects." 

24. Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, "Faculty Satisfaction," 598. 



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