Employees at the IMI, which provides consultancy and training for many non-union companies, are understood to have voted in favour of the principle of union recognition.
Technical and office staff who make up two-thirds of the staff at the IMI have already voted 80 per cent in favour of setting up a union for the first time. The result of a ballot of teaching staff has yet to be disclosed, but is not expected to affect the overall result.
Staff regard the move towards union representation as tentative at the moment, although initial contacts have been made with a number of unions.
Unionisation could adversely affect the institute's ability to market its training courses and consultancy services to Irish and overseas companies, especially those which are non-union.
The decision to hold a ballot was prompted by concerns among staff about a number of issues.
The staff pension fund has gone from a surplus of €10 million to a deficit of €2 million within a year.
Another source of concern is the use of reserves to fund the development of a 50-bedroom accommodation block and conference centre at the IMI's campus in Sandyford, Co Dublin.
The chief executive of the IMI, Mr Barry Kenny, said yesterday he would "wait and see" what staff decided.
There was a a deficit in the pension fund but this left the IMI "in the same boat as half the country".
The board had taken steps to deal with the deficit, he said.
Mr Kenny said he believed the new accommodation block had a promising future. He pointed out that the IMI ran many residential programmes, so the centre had something of a "captive audience".
According to staff sources, the decision on whether staff ultimately join a union is likely to depend on the response of IMI management to their concerns. "Staff have always valued the good collegiate environment in the IMI, but they feel this has come under threat in recent times," siad one source.
However, Mr Kenny said the new staff representative group had not expressed any concerns to him.
The most recent annual report of the IMI says that operating conditions were "challenging" for the organisation in 2002, with a winding down of its international arm and a "softening of demand" for public programmes. Membership in 2002 stood at 1,650, down from 2,052 the year before.
The organisation reported a surplus of €156,000 for the year to August 2002 and had an accumulated profit of over €3.2 million.
The IMI's 36-member elected council includes some of the leading figures in Irish industry and public administration. The current chairman is Dr Chris Horn of Iona Technologies.
