Organizational commitment of professional employees in union and nonunion research libraries

Abstract

This study was a comparative exploration of organizational (library) commitment among professional library employees in unionized and nonunionized research libraries. Based on a survey of 400 individuals, the study examined organizational commitment and its relationship to (1) union presence; (2) union membership status; and (3) union commitment. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that union presence was a negative predictor of organizational loyalty; registered and nonregistered union members shared similar altitudes toward their employing organization; and union commitment tended to be a positive predictor of organizational commitment. The conflicting findings in the test of the relationships between organizational commitment and union presence and between organizational commitment and union commitment might be partially attributed to the fact that union commitment was relatively low among the library professionals. In addition, such results suggest that among union libraries factors other than union loyalty may negatively affect employee feelings toward their library.