Members Participation in the Union: an Investigation of Some Determinants in Singapore

Data obtained from unionized employees inSingapore (N = 205) were used to investigate Strauss(1977) suggestion that union participation studies befitted into the general theories of role and commitment. Hierarchical regression analysis was used toexamine the contribution of role commitment variables(family and union) net of demographic, job or work andunion-related variables to the explained variance in a unidimensional model of unionparticipation. The model accounted for 43%(R2) of the explained variance inparticipation with the role commitment antecedent setcontributing a modest 5% (ΔR2). The significant positive individual variableswere union satisfaction, union commitment, union tenure,and gender while union socialization and marital statuspositively, and family commitment negatively approached significance. Extrinsic satisfactionwas significantly negatively related to participation.Limitations of the study, directions for future researchand the implications of the findings arediscussed.