Relations between management and labor constitute one of the most important aspects of organizational behavior as workers seek to maximize their job satisfaction while management seeks to minimize costs. When workers perceive that they are treated fairly and that they have a good work environment, relations with management are often cooperative and concilitory. When workers are of the opinion that they are exploited by management, or that their concerns are not appropriately perceived by management, difficulties can develop. Unions are one tool that workers use to better convey their concerns to management. Unions have developed the strike, which is a legally protected weapon used against management. Unionization spread quickly through the private sector, but was less successful in organizing public sector employees. The right to strike that is protected for private sector workers is also prohibited to some government employees, including police officers, when public safety is at stake. This research examines the union environment within police organizations.
Importance of Unions to Police Management
Unions of one form or another exist in many police organizations. In some cases, police officers are represented by a national union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP); in other cases, police officers in a given department have their own association. Over time, unions evolve to the point where the union is working in accordance with the management team. This occurs after the union has won wage and benefit gains and when there are fewer serious challenges to work out. Mature unions often find that their members are less committed to the union and its goals, and the union itself becomes characterized by bureaucracy and administration, often the two issues that it was formed to react against in the beginning (Holden, 1994, p. 242).
Labor unions within the United States got their start in the late 1700s, but the most hard...