The Revitalization of the CWA: Integrating Collective Bargaining, Political Action, and Organizing

• Published in: Industrial & labor relations review 2003-07, Vol.56 (4), p.573-589
• Main Authors: Katz, Harry C., Batt, Rosemary, Keefe, Jeffrey H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Collective Bargaining; Dependency theory; Environmental legislation; Industrial relations; Innovation; Labor management relations; Labor regulations; Labor union representation; Labor unions; Labour force; Labour market; Labour movements; Labour relations; Organization Theory; Organizational change; Organizational Development; Political Action; Political behavior; Political integration; Political regulation; Regulatory legislation; Subsidiary companies; Trade unions; Union organizing; Unionization; Unions
• ISSN: 0019-7939; 2162-271X
• DOI: 10.1177/001979390305600402

This case study of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) demonstrates the value of resource dependence and contingency organizational theories-two branches of organization theory, which has most commonly been used to interpret firm behavior-for analyzing union revitalization. Consistent with predictions of those theories, the CWA responded to a changed environment by abandoning strategies that no longer achieved organizational objectives, but retaining and bolstering strategies that continued to be effective. Furthermore, like the organizations analyzed in Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald Salancik's classic exposition of resource dependency theory, in the face of heightened environmental complexity and uncertainty the CWA used political action, growth strategies, and inter-organizational linkages to gain advantage. The CWA conformed to another prediction of contingency theory by using an integration strategy-specifically, by making simultaneous and interactive use of activities in collective bargaining, politics, and organizing-to spur innovation and respond to environmental complexity and uncertainty.