Management style and employee attitudes in the non-union firm: a no-go area for unions?

It is widely recognised that if unions are ultimately to stem the trend in membership decline then they must move beyond what Willman (1989) terms ‘market share’ unionism, whereby unions compete with each other within an existing and declining membership base, to seek to recruit in unorganised sectors which are now the focus of employment growth. Indeed, many recent academic studies appear to point to the potential fruitfulness of directing union resources into such recruitment activities (Kelly and Heery, 1989, Kelly, 1989).