Abstract:
The study sought to find out how being a member of a trade union affects the satisfaction of employees in the
Cape Coast and Takoradi Metropolis derive from their jobs and also how it influences their commitment to their
organizations. In other words, the study examined whether unionized employees were more satisfied and
committed to their organizations than non-unionized employees. The research design employed for the study was
the descriptive survey. A total of 400 respondents were sampled from various financial institutions (insurance
and banking institutions), using the systematic random sampling procedure. The respondents included 224
unionized employees and 176 non-unionized employees. The instrument used for the study was a set of
questionnaire consisting of the Weiss et. al 20-item Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Allen and Meyer
18-item organisational commitment scale. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential
statistics to answer and test the research questions and hypotheses. The main findings of the study indicate that
87% of the respondents believed that union membership is important. Again, the findings suggest that on the
average, unionized employees were more satisfied with their jobs that non-unionized employees, but nonunionized
employees were more committed to their organizations than the unionized employees. However, a test
of significance indicated that the two groups did not significantly differ in terms of their commitment and job
satisfaction. The findings were discussed and appropriate recommendations were made.
