Thomas A. Kochan The factors that affect the amount of power concentrated in boundary units of organizations engaged in collective bargaining are assessed from an interorganizational perspective1. Literature from both organizational and collective bargaining research is reviewed and integrated. The propositions generated from this review are empirically assessed using data from a sample of locals of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and 228 city governments around the country. The results show that (1) characteristics of specific industrial relations subenvironments are better predictors of concentration of power in boundary units than are characteristics of the general environment, (2) the sources of power one organization brings to a relation are the paramount environmental factors producing concentration of power in a boundary unit in another organization, (3) environmental complexity and environmental change are not significantly related to boundary unit power, (4) the legal environment is an important factor leading to boundary unit power, (5) perceived measures of several union organizational characteristics are more strongly related to boundary unit power than are actual measures, and (6) the proportion of the variance in boundary unit power explained can be increased by including intraorganizational factors relevanttothe organization's political decision-making process. It is suggested thatfuture interorganizational research should focus more directly on power relations between organizations, on institutional factors specific to the type of relation studied, and on the interaction between external pressures and internal political forces impinging on organizational decision makers.
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Thomas A. Kochan (1975) studied this question.