Union Commitment

Like many constructs in this field, union commitment was introduced with a measure of the construct. As a corollary of organizational commitment, Michael E. Gordon and colleagues defined union commitment in 1980 as a member’s identification with and involvement in a particular union, as distinct from a particular employer organization, and operationalized the definition in terms of three related components:

• 1.
  A strong desire to remain a member of the union
• 2.
  A willingness to exert high levels of effort on behalf of the union
• 3.
  A definite belief in and acceptance of the values and goals of the union

A four-factor union commitment scale was developed with the intent of identifying predictors and outcomes of commitment. Research studies using the union commitment scale have continued to the present. Union commitment research ...