According to Glueck (1979) a Grievance is a formal dispute between an employee and the Management of a particular company or organization which could occur due to violation in the employee contract. According to him, a grievance could also be arisen due to mismatch in interpretations of the contract by employees, stewards, and management, a violation of a contract provision, violation of law, a violation of work procedures or other precedents, and perceived unfair treatment of an employee by management.

The existence of a good grievance management policy supports immensely for an organization to maintain a good relationship with the employees of the firm and the practice of grievance management express the reality that conﬂict is inevitable in the management of workplace relations between workers and employers (Nurse & Devonish, 2007).

Image I – Grievance Management

Source: (www.tal.sg)

Methods of Understanding employee grievances in an organization

Opinion surveys

A survey could be carried out to evaluate what the employees think about the decisions of the management and also to measure if there’s any grievance related to any of the captioned decisions. These surveys could be conducted through physical or online methods. Most popular one is the online surveys conducted bases on set of employees of the company.

Gripe Box

This is a famous method mostly used in factories all around the world. Several boxes named Gripe boxes are kept at prominent location of the factory enabling the employees to lodge any complain related to work. Since the person lodging the complaint need not reveal his/ her identity he can reveal his feelings of injustice or discontent fairly and without any fear of victimization.

Observation

Under this method, there is no document or formal complaint involved from the side of the employee and any grievance is identified by preferably by the employer through the observation. Employer observes the worker for several days very closely and if he comes across any an employee who exhibits an indifferent attitude, experiences difficulties in getting along with people, mishandles or damages tools, equipment or materials due to carelessness or he/she is quite often absent then they infer such an employee has some serious grievances which needs immediate action and remedy (Opatha, 2019).

Objectives of Grievance handling procedure

Enable employees to raise their grievance.
Avail an opportunity to clarify the nature of the grievance.
To investigate the reasons for dissatisfaction.
In order to obtain, where possible, a speedy resolution to the problem.
Take appropriate actions and ensure that promises are kept.
To inform the employee of their right to take the grievance to the next stage (Taru, 2016).

Benefits of Grievance Management

According to Obiekwe (2019), there are benefits of Grievance Management to both employer and employee as well. A proper Grievance Management system motivates the employees to raise their concerns to the top management without any fear and reprisal thereby providing speedy solutions from the employer side. It prevents minor disagreement of employees developing in to more serious concerns or the disputes. It saves employers time and money as solutions are found for workplace, Problems and It helps to build an organizational climate based on openness and trust.

Conclusion

A good Grievance Management system allows the Management of an organization to understand the true feelings of their employees with related to the decisions taken by the management, policies and procedures of the organization and rules of the organization. Thereby helping them to make the necessary adjustments and improvement to the system as an when required. It also serves as a medium for upward communication to organization top management, and makes them become more aware of employee’s frustration, problems and general expectation. As a result, help an employee to release the pressures that has accumulated because of the grievance.

Video I - Grievance Management

Source : (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlfPjCviTxA)

References

Glueck, W. F., 1979. Foundations of Personnel. 1 ed. Texas: Business Publications Inc..

Nurse, L. & Devonish, D., 2007. Grievance management and its links to workplace justice. Employee Relations, 29(1), pp. 89-109.

Obiekwe, O., 2019. Impact of Employee Grievance Management on Organizational Performance. IIARD International Journal of Economics and Business Management, 5(1), pp. 1-15.

Opatha, H. H. D. N. P., 2019. Defining a Grievance: A Theoretical Examination of An Old Issue. Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management , 9(1), pp. 22-33.

Mind Tools Vedios, 2021. Youtube. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlfPjCviTxA
[Accessed 12 08 2021].

Simple Learning Tips, 2021. Youtube. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ47tgwhx3s&t=2s
[Accessed 22 08 2021].

Taru, R. D., 2016. Effectiveness of Grievance Handling Mechanism. International Engineering Journal For Research & Development, 3(2), pp. 195-225.

18 comments:

Rukmali FernandoAugust 22, 2021 at 2:07 AM
The grievances are very harmful, and require to be addressed properly and timely manner. In order to deal effectively with grievances there is a need for an adequate process that can give a step-by-step responsibility for the proper management of grievances.
Oshadha BandaraAugust 24, 2021 at 7:10 AM
The formal grievance procedure should support employees to raise concerns about a safe workplace without fear of adverse consequences. Knowing that any concerns will be taken seriously and handled properly will help to strengthen staff morale and maintain productivity. grievance management is the management of employee dissatisfaction or grievances. By establishing formal grievance management procedures, the organisation provide their employees with a safe place to voice their grievances. It is important for employees to see that their grievances are taken seriously. Therefore, through a grievance policy, employer can ensure that appropriate procedures are in place to deal with employee concerns, as well as procedures for the collection and monitoring of common grievances.
Tharindu DassanayakeAugust 25, 2021 at 1:51 AM
Grievance handling is very sensitive subject. Employees express or reveal their grievances with lot of trust. They trust that person who handle the grievance will keep the secrecy and also trust that they will take the necessary actions for their problems. Every organization should have a grievance committee and the committee should consist with senior management and should be independent.
Mihirani BalasooriyaAugust 27, 2021 at 3:43 AM
Grievances appear as aggregate questions when they are not settled. Likewise, they will then, at that point lower the confidence and effectiveness of the employees. Unattended grievances bring about frustration, dissatisfaction, low productivity, lack of interest in work, absenteeism, and so on To put it plainly, complaint emerges when employees' assumptions are not satisfied by the association because of which a feeling of uneasiness and dissatisfaction emerges. This dissatisfaction should manifest from work issues and not from private matters.
Thilina D JayasekaraAugust 27, 2021 at 10:54 AM
Hi Wathsala it is a very sensitive topic to discussed that you have line up well. I would like to add here some benefits of grievance handling procedures,
01 Encourage employees to raise concerns without fear of retaliation.
02 Provides a fair and prompt means of handling complaints.
03 Avoid turning minor disagreements into more serious disputes.
04 It serves as an outlet for employee frustrations and discontent.
thank you for sharing.
Praveen Joel FrancisAugust 28, 2021 at 4:19 AM
Employees should be able to express concerns about a safe working environment without fear of repercussions if they use a formal grievance procedure. Knowing that any concerns will be taken seriously and dealt with properly will assist to boost employee morale and productivity.
Thank You for sharing such an informative topic Wathsala, all the best.
blogs of UMESHAugust 28, 2021 at 5:27 AM
An important one.
Employment-related issues such as grievances are common, but they can be managed by educating employees on how to handle them and ensuring the proper procedures are in place. The stress of dealing with workplace complaints can be significantly reduced by being in control and having confidence that the procedures organizations have put in place are compliant.
Nadun AbeywickramaAugust 28, 2021 at 9:33 AM
Important topic Wathsala, HR managers should look into grievances without presuming anything in an impartially and unemotionally. As the famous Hawthorne Studies specified, from the employees’ point of view, it is vital to allow worker to ventilate his grievances easily and listen to everything showing patience and limitation. There is no use dismissing the argumentative issues on hand as trivial or worthless of critical attention.
Wathsala SiriwardhanaAugust 28, 2021 at 11:03 PM
Thank you for your comment Nadun
Mohamed AmjadAugust 29, 2021 at 3:04 AM
As explained, GP is to support employees to raise concerns relating to a safe working environment without the fear of any negative repercussions. It is important that staff feel that their grievances are taken seriously and it can ensure that there are fair processes in place to deal with staff concerns, along with procedures for collecting and noting where the same grievances keep arising.
Jude Shannon LucianAugust 29, 2021 at 8:47 AM
Grievance management is an extremely important component of HRM as if the employees are not given the proper attention or solutions it could lead to serious drops in organizational performance & increase in employee turnover rates. It’s a really informative article, thank you for sharing

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Importance of Grievance Management Policy for an organization

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