The workplace and non-mainstream political ideas: the interplay between employee voice, unions, discrimination, and political radicalism and populism

Li, Weihao

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115928 Copy

Description

Title

The workplace and non-mainstream political ideas: the interplay between employee voice, unions, discrimination, and political radicalism and populism

Author(s)

Li, Weihao

Issue Date

2022-07-13

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Lamare, James Ryan

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Lamare, James Ryan

Committee Member(s)

• Schulze-Cleven, Tobias
• Bruno, Robert
• Riordan, Christine A

Department of Study

School of Labor & Empl. Rel.

Discipline

Human Res & Industrial Rels

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• employee voice
• labor unions
• workplace discrimination
• political radicalism
• populism

Abstract

This dissertation is motivated by the rise of populism and radicalism in Europe and a growing scholarly interest regarding how employees’ identities and ideas, in addition to traditional material interests, influence their behaviors and experience. It is composed of three studies that explore the interplay and relationships between human resources practices, trade unions, political radicalism, and populism. The first study investigates the relationship between non-union employees’ perceived effectiveness of direct voice in the workplace and their populist voting and attachment behaviors. Drawing upon the political socialization theory and workplace voice literature, I theorize three underlying mechanisms that might connect the perception of workplace voice procedures and employee populist attitudes. Using a uniquely constructed database based on multiple rounds of European Social Surveys, this study shows that management-provided employee voice is negatively associated with employee populist support. The second study addresses the questions of how trade union experience might be associated with union members’ far-left support and attitudes against the backdrop of radical political developments in Europe. This study theorizes that trade unions have been driven by their ideological traditions and instrumental strategies to reinforce their far-left political stances and that the molding, selection, and group polarization effects of union membership turn union members into a strong base of far-left supporters. I examine the relationships between union membership and members' support for different political stances, ranging from far-left to far-right, using a rich individual-level database that combines multiple high-quality datasets across countries and years. The findings generally suggest that labor union membership is positively associated with far-left support and attitude and that union membership effects do not affect different ideological member groups evenly. The third study tries to answer the research question of how the strength of populism at the national level might be associated with the likelihood of experiencing workplace discrimination. This study theorizes that the prevalence of populist ideas in the political realm and discrimination are interlocked and positively associated. While workplace discrimination might promote populist support, the prevalence of populism may increase the likelihood of encountering discrimination. Utilizing a uniquely constructed database based on the two most recent waves of the individual-level European Working Conditions Surveys, this study shows that the presence of populism at the national level is positively associated with perceived discrimination in the workplace by employees, but not all types of discrimination are equally affected.

Graduation Semester

2022-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Weihao Li

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