Trade unions are juristic entities and volitional associations that have, historically and ideologically, represented the aggregate strength of labour to maximise their effectiveness in their endeavour to fulfil their core responsibilities and principal functions. However, Ceronie (2007) postulates that, in South Africa, there has been a loss of ideological support for unions since the dawn of democracy. The establishment of the democracy had the effect that a huge driving gear to belong to a union was lost. The mandate of trade unions is to, inter alia, protect, maintain, and improve the working conditions of their members. They fulfil this mandate by ensuring that they offer services that meet, if not exceed, members' satisfaction levels. Trade unions ultimately exist to protect both the work- and non-work-related interest of their members, whether these be economic, social, political, or environmental (Venter, 2003). Nel et al. (2005) asseverate that trade unions are membership organisations: They exist because of their members, they are made up of members, they serve their members' interest, and they are governed by their members. That is, they derive their authority and mandate from the members. Therefore, trade union are service providers. They must give employees enough reason to become attracted to them as members and to remain members. Simply put, trade unions, as the embodiment of workers' aspirations, owe a duty of care to their members, and thus should at all times, act in their best interests. Thus, the kind and quality of services offered by trade unions should be perceived by members as sufficient and satisfactory. Highly satisfied and committed union members are more likely to support and participate in trade union activities. Trade unions, like any other organisation that provides services, are faced with challenges of membership decline due to perceived poor services or the lack thereof, and are therefore required to devise remedial measures to mitigate the membership decline. Against the backdrop of the foregoing, the aim of the study was to examine if there is a relationship between the quality of services and benefits offered by unions to their members and member satisfaction. The sample comprised members of the three major unions within the public service of South Africa. Using the quantitative paradigm, primary empirical data were collected by distributing 500 questionnaires, which yielded a 48.9% response rate. Data were analysed using the SPSS Statistics 23 software program. The questionnaire was valid and reliable, with an overall scale reliability coefficient of α = .975. The findings revealed moderate levels of member satisfaction (56%) with low dissatisfaction (16%), and a significantly high participation rate in union activities (61%), and union effectiveness (80%). That is, the findings revealed that members were generally satisfied with their unions' performance. The findings affirm union instrumentality, union effectiveness, and member participation as antecedents of union commitment, and also confirm unions' performance and effectiveness as significant determinants of members' satisfaction with a union. Therefore, in a quest to maintain and/or increase their relevance, trade unions must examine their current services and benefits, in order to determine whether they still meet their members' preferences, and, if not, to develop and provide a new service mix that will not only appeal to unionised members, but will also attract non-unionised workers. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Human Resource Management / PhD / Unrestricted

Bakgrund: I Sverige finns det många företag både stora och små som använder sig utav den kooperativa organisationsmodellen. Trots att kooperativa företag är en stor del av näringslivet är kunskapen om dem begränsad. Kooperativa företag ägs av sina medlemmar bygger på principen demokratisk medlemskontroll, vilket innebär en medlem en röst. Eftersom kooperationer bygger påmedlemskontroll påverkar detta hur beslutsfattande ser ut i organisationen, vilket gör beslutsfattandeett intressant ämne att studera djupare i kooperationer. Det finns mycket tidigare forskning om beslut däremot finns det inte det när det kommer till kooperationer. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att öka kunskapen inom beslutsfattande i kooperativ genom att ur styrelsens och ledningens perspektiv undersöka hur de resonerar sig fram till beslut, vad deras roll ibeslutsfattande får för konsekvenser och hur de arbetar med att representera sina medlemmar i besluten. Metod: Studien har genomförts som en kvalitativ flerfallstudie. Studien följer en abduktiv ansats och har ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv. Det empiriska materialet från fyra olika kooperativ har samlats in med hjälp av semi-strukturerade intervjuer med subjekten. Slutsats: Beslutsfattare inom ett kooperativ använder sig huvudsakligen av ett konsekvenslogiskt resonemang för att komma fram till beslut och beslutsfattarna eftersträvar rationalitet i sina beslut genom att välgrundade beslutsunderlag ses som viktigt. När besluts resoneras fram är det viktigt att desom är involverade i beslutsfattandet måste få möjlighet att förstå sig på beslutsunderlaget och det bör det förankras bland involverade parter. Studien påvisar vikten av kommunikation och motivation bakom de beslut som har tagits av organisationen för att hantera motstånd, ge beslutet legitimitet samt underlätta implementering. Genom studien kan vi dra slutsatsen att medlemsdeltagandet är inte lika stort som det kunde ha varit och de kooperationer i vår studie som upplevde skilda åsikter bland medlemmarna, som var av majoritet, såg inte det som något negativt utan att det var bra med många åsikter. Styrelsen och ledningen arbetar med att representera medlemmarna genom att ta beslut som är i organisationens bästa intresse däremot orsakar informationsasymmetrin mellan medlem och styrelsen/ledningen att medlemmens styrsignaler inte alltid får gehör. / Background: In Sweden there are many companies both large and small that use the cooperativeorganization model. Although co-operative enterprises are a large part of the business community, the knowledge of them is limited. Co-operative enterprises are owned by their members based on the principle of democratic member control, which means one member one vote. Since cooperatives are based on member control, it affects how decision-making is constructed in the organization, which makes decision-making an interesting topic to study in depth in cooperatives. There is a lot of previous research on decision-making, but not when it comes to co-operatives.  Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of decision-making in co-operatives by examining, from the perspective of the board and management, how they reason their way to decisions, the consequences of their role in the decision-making and how they work to represent their members in the decisions.  Method: The study has been conducted as a qualitative multi-case study. The study follows an abductive approach and has a phenomenological perspective. The empirical material has been collected from four different co-operatives through semi-structured interviews with subjects. Conclusion: Decision-makers in a co-operative mainly use consequentialist reasoning to reason their way to decisions, and the decision-makers strive for rationality in their decisions which is shown through the emphasis of having well-informed decision-making materials. When decisions are reasonedout, it is important that those involved in the decision-making process must be given the opportunity to understand the basis of the decision and it should be anchored among the parties involved. The study demonstrates the importance of communication and motivation behind the decisions taken by the organization in order to manage resistance, give the decision legitimacy and facilitate implementation. We can also conclude that member participation is low, and the subjects that experienced differingopinions among members, did not see this as something negative, rather useful. The board and management work to represent the members by making decisions that are in the best interest of the organization, but the information asymmetry between the member and the board/management means that the member´s control signals are not always heard.