Marching to Different Tunes: Commitment and Culture as Mobilizing Mechanisms of Trade Unions and Community Organizations

Abstract

This study examines mobilizing mechanisms using a British community organization and a British trade union as exemplars. Although there has been substantial work on union revitalization on the one hand, and the emergence of alternative, community organizations on the other, no study has compared the challenges these organizations face in encouraging member mobilization. The findings illustrate how the trade union engages in a service‐driven culture, cultivating instrumental commitment between the members and the union. The community organization, in contrast, engages in a relational culture and exemplifies a form of social commitment between the members and the group. As a result, different types of commitment and organizational cultures help explain why sustained member mobilization within a trade union is harder to achieve than within a community organization.

Mapping the frontier of theory in industrial relations: the contested role of worker representation

“…Also, numerous examples of community organizing tell us how ad hoc mobilizations have pushed employers into providing or at least promising better terms and conditions for workers, thus forcing them to change their business strategies and potentially adopt HPWS. Moreover, ad hoc mobilization can transform into institutionalization at higher levels, for example, the living wage initiative in the UK (Tapia, 2013;Tapia and Turner, 2013). Also, virtual campaigns against employers are another repertoire that is suitable for a new age of social media and one that both union and nonunion organizations are tapping into when targeting MNCs.…”

British union renewal: does salvation really lie beyond the workplace?

“…Holgate, ). These arguments are in turn arguably reinforced by findings that suggest that normative, value‐based forms of commitment are associated with greater member participation in union activities (Snape and Redman, ; Tapia, ).…”

Community organising in the UK: A ‘new’ approach for trade unions?

“…We have seen an expansion of the literature on non-union forms of organisation around work-related issues, most notably around workers centres in the USA (which are not making greater alliances with unions) (Fine 2005;Gordon 2005) and the extensive interest in the community organising of the IAF (Holgate 2013;Holgate and Wills 2007;Jamoul and Wills 2008;Robinson and Hanna 1994;Tapia 2012;Wills 2008;2009a;2009b). Yet, (2007: 199) points out, unions need to respond to the external and internal challenges in this post-Fordist/neoliberal era that have had such a detrimental affect on collective representation but to do this, unions need the type of strategic thinking that he describes as being more likely Ôwhen there is a leadership team from diverse backgrounds and with a range of organisational experiences, and is least likely when there is a homogeneous leadership group deeply embedded in bureaucratic routinesÕ.…”