Abstract
This study uses theories of cognitive processing to analyze the failure of employer and union campaigning to change employee predispositions to vote for or against union representation. Consistency theory does not wholly account for the results because there was no general pattern of selective exposure. The pattern of exposure was also not that hypothesized by complexity or satiation theories. It is argued that insulation from the effect of persuasive communications is a complex cognitive process that can control either exposure to or assimilation of the communications.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 126-147 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Organizational Behavior and Human Performance |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1977 |
Funding
Requests for reprints should be sent to Jeanne B. Herman, Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60201. The data discussed in this article were collected in a study of union representation elections supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and Russell Sage Foundation. Stephen B. Goldberg participated fully in the speculation about the complex cognitive process insulating the employees in the elections studied from the persuasive impact of company and union campaigns. I alone am responsible for the faulty thinking in this report.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine