Confidence at Work and Individualism-Collectivism: An Empirical Demonstration of the Distinctiveness of American Union Employees

Provided is an empirical demonstration of the distinctiveness of American union employees in regard to individualism-collectivism. Using confidence at work as an individual difference predictor and featuring willingness to equate success and failure with coworkers, and holistic thinking, as individualism-collectivism outcomes, relational differences between nonunion and union employees were shown. Specifically, inverse confidence at work-collectivism relationships were present for nonunion employees, but absent for union employees. Because such differences were hypothesized based on a view of union socialization as overlaid socializationin which it is argued that internalized dominant culture individualism is not eradicated by union socialization but rather is situated within a work collectivethe scholarly view that American union demise is inevitable due to dominant culture individualism is called into question. Suggestions to strengthen the empirical basis for the demonstrated distinctiveness of union employees are offered.