Job Characteristics: Union-Nonunion Differences

Abstract

One of the reasons for the development of nonunion construction was to allow management the flexibility of designing jobs without the constraints of jurisdictional and collective-bargaining agreements. The job-characteristics model was developed to identify differences in jobs and the motivational potential of a job. This paper reports the results of studies of a large sample of unionized construction workers and of a large sample of nonunion construction workers. Six hypotheses were formulated based on expected differences between union and nonunion environments and tested. In terms of the job-characteristics model, there is no difference in the perceptions of union and nonunion construction workers for task variety, task significance, and feedback. Union workers perceive greater task identity, while nonunion workers perceive greater autonomy. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations made for improving the motivational potential of jobs. The results of the study indicate that there is considerable opportunity for redesigning jobs in the construction industry.