The Vector Insight
Reading between the lines on some public polls.

“Canadian business is likely less customer-focused, less innovative and less productive because of management's historic antipathy toward unions."

That’s the implication in a national employee survey on job satisfaction:

Group-think refers to the tendency for everyone to think alike in organizations that emphasize team work and commitment. When people get along and always try to find a consensus before decisions, you can be uncomfortable if you're the dissenter.

When people all think alike, they tend to pay little attention to new ideas, especially unconventional ideas from the outside. When group-think is going on, the activists in the organization or the employees or team members don't try too hard to seek out information that contradicts their assumptions.

Management often tries hard to keep their worksites nonunion because they feel a union is a third party that will bring in an" us-versus-them" atmosphere. There is new evidence that traditional management is right: in unionized workplaces employees are less devoted to the boss:

• In a national employee survey for the Royal Bank of Canada conducted in 2007 by Ipsos Reid, union members are 18 points less likely than nonunion employees to say "I have a strong sense of loyalty to my employer."
• Unionized workers are 20 points less likely than nonunion employees to feel "I trust my employer."

The poll asked the cross-section of Canada's workers what grade they would give their employer, "where an A is the top mark you can give followed then by either a B, C, or D or a fail."

• 65% of nonunion employees gave their boss an A or B "overall as a place to work."
• Only 51% of union members, however, gave their workplace an A or B.

When it comes to trusting their employer, 34% of union members say they do compared with 54% of nonunion employees.

Only 39% of union members say "I have a strong sense of loyalty to my employer" compared with 57% of nonunion workers.

The twist to this is, being less loyal to the boss is probably a good thing for the organization.

Advanced management theory says what's important isn't loyalty to the boss but that employees have a strong sense of loyalty to the customer and the client. Using this benchmark, Canadian business is less customer-focused, less innovative and less productive because of management's historic antipathy toward unions.

Aside from loyalty to the boss, union and nonunion employees think alike.

88% of nonunion employees and 85% of non-members agree that "it is important for me to love and value the type of work that I do."

55% of nonunion employees and 52% of union members agree that "I like to be given minimal instruction to figure out how to do my job on my own."

Nine out of 10 employees - in unions or not - are satisfied (very or somewhat) with their jobs. Just 13% of union members and 14% of nonunion workers are unhappy with their job.

Some 53% of nonunion workers and 56% of unionized employees agree that "I prefer to work in a team setting." But clearly "team setting" in a union workplace is different from teamwork where employees have no union.

The findings are from an Ipsos Reid poll conducted online November 5-15, 2007, with 2,052 adults (18 and over) employed full- or part-time.