title: The use of measures of job satisfaction, role stress, personal competence and supervisory behavior in the prediction of union membership in a human service agency.
abstract: One-hundred and sixty-nine social workers, assistance payments technicians and clerical workers in a human service agency in the Northeast completed a questionnaire two times with a nine-month period between the two administrations. Thirty-one of the respondents joined the union between the two administrations of the questionnaire. A comparison of the responses on the first questionnaire of thirty-one employees who eventually joined the union with the one hundred thirty-eight who retained their nonmember status, indicated that the union members reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction with work, lower levels of clarity about agency objectives, and lower levels of clarity about the agency's reward system. The implications of these findings for human service agencies are discussed.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007750:Labor Unions; D011361:Professional Competence; D011635:Public Health Administration; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States