Increasing citizenship behavior within a labor union: A test of organizational justice theory

A quasi-experiment was used to determine whether training union officers in the skills necessary for implementing principles of organizational justice would increase citizenship behavior on the part of members of a labor union in Canada. The results showed that 3 months after training, the perceptions of union fairness among members (n = 83) whose leaders were in the training group were significantly higher than among members (n = 69) whose leaders were in the control group. Factor analysis found that citizenship behavior had 2 dimensions: behavior supporting the union as an organization (OCBO) and behavior supporting union brothers and sisters (OCBI). Peer assessments revealed that citizenship behavior on both dimensions was significantly higher among union members whose leaders were trained than among members whose leaders were not trained. Perceptions of fairness were found to mediate the relationship between training and OCBO but not OCBI.