This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gulbrandsen, T. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Family Businesses and Trade Unions in Norway

Institute for Social Research, Oslo

In this article an examination is made of the extent to which employees in family businesses are members of unions compared to workers in non-family businesses and of the extent to which owners collaborate with trade unions. The analyses demonstrate that the percentage of union members in family businesses with a family CEO (owner-management), controlling for other factors, is significantly lower than in family businesses with CEOs who are not related or in non-family businesses. Theoretically, there are two possible explanations for this finding. The workers may abstain from joining a union because they are unwilling to bear the brunt of opposing an authoritarian owner-manager. Or, alternatively, the owner-manager may treat the employees so well that they see no need for a trade union. The analyses indicate that lower union density in owner-managed enterprises is associated with a higher wage level. This result lends support to the second explanation.

Key Words: private ownership • trade unions • unionization

Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 30, No. 4, 592-613 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0143831X09342617


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?