How do industrial relations climate and union instrumentality enhance employee performance? The mediating effects of perceived job security and trust in management

• Author: Peter Holland,Brian Cooper,Alexander Newman,Julian Teicher,Qing Miao
• Date: 01 January 2019
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21921

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

How do industrial relations climate and union

instrumentality enhance employee performance?

The mediating effects of perceived job security and trust

in management

Alexander Newman

1

| Brian Cooper

2

| Peter Holland

3

| Qing Miao

4

| Julian Teicher

5

1

Deakin Business School, Deakin University,

Geelong, Australia

2

Monash Business School, Monash University,

Australia

3

Department of Management and Marketing,

Swinburne University of Technology,

Hawthorn, Australia

4

Center of Social Welfare & Governance,

School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University,

Hangzhou, China

5

CQU Business School, Central Queensland

University, Melbourne, Australia

Correspondence

Qing Miao, Center of Social Welfare &

Governance, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang

University, Hangzhou, China.

Email: mqok@163.com

In this study, we examine the effects of two key variables associated with union effectiveness

on the job performance of employees, and the mechanisms that explain such effects. More spe-

cifically, we investigate whether employees' perceptions that their union has a constructive rela-

tionship with management (industrial relations climate) and is able to act as an agent for their

concerns (union instrumentality) promotes their job performance by enhancing their perceived

job security and trust in management. Drawing on three waves of data from 303 employees and

their immediate supervisors within 17 private enterprises in China, we find employees' percep-

tions of union effectiveness influence their job performance by enhancing both their perceived

job security and trust in management. These findings are consistent with social exchange theory

and conservation of resources theory. This article contributes to the literature by improving our

understanding of how unions influence employees' work performance and by explaining how

employees' perceptions of the industrial relations climate and union instrumentality influence

their job performance. It also sheds light on the important issue of the effectiveness of unions in

China, a country where the centrality of the Chinese Communist Party is often considered to

have reduced the instrumentality of unions.

KEYWORDS

industrial relations climate, job performance, job security, trust in management, union

instrumentality

1|INTRODUCTION

There is continuing debate in the literature on whether unions have

positive or negative effects on the work outcomes of employees

(Pohler & Luchak, 2015). The answer to this question may depend

upon whether the union has an adversarial or a cooperative relation-

ship with the management of the organization. Prior research suggests

where a cooperative industrial relations climate exists, and the union

has the capacity to deal with employees' concerns, employees will

tend to exhibit positive work attitudes toward the organization, such

as higher levels of organizational commitment (Deery, Iverson, &

Erwin, 1994; Lee, 2004). Research also suggests where unions have

cooperative relationships with management and employees perceive

unions to be effective, organizations benefit from higher levels of pro-

ductivity and lower levels of absenteeism (Deery & Iverson, 2005;

Deery, Iverson, & Erwin, 1999).

Despite such findings, the process by which unions influence

employees' work behaviors, such as their job performance, has

received limited attention. This is surprising given that one key aim of

an industrial relations system is the fostering of economic productivity

in organizations (Dunlop, 1958). The present study therefore asks

whether employees' perceptions of the industrial relations climate,

defined as the extent to which employees perceive the relationship

between the management and the union as being cooperative (Deery,

Iverson, Buttigieg, & Zatzick, 2014), and union instrumentality, defined

as the extent to which employees believe the union is effective in

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21921

Hum Resour Manage. 2019;58:35–44. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 35