Employee Grievance: Meaning, Features, Causes

Because they are human, employees have expectations, presumptions, conventions, values, and they also reflect their culture. Employee grievances may arise from dissatisfaction with management or an organisation that disregards their human qualities. Additionally, some unfair or inhumane actions may give rise to employee grievances. In addition, inadequate motivation, superfluous or non-scientific systems, and inadequate leadership may also be the cause of complaints.

Workers may file grievances in response to specific behaviours or because of current policies, rules, or work procedures. They file a formal grievance, or written complaint, with management if the degree of discontent keeps rising. Concerns, issues, or complaints brought up by staff members with their bosses are known as grievances. If an employee has a legitimate grievance, they have the ability, under the Employment Relations Acts, to file a personal grievance.

Employee complaints have a detrimental impact on the company. Employees may engage in negative actions including protesting, going on strike, and going on a lockout if the issue is not resolved quickly. As a result, the organization’s production will decline and there may be a disagreement or conflict between the management and employees. It is possible for capable, seasoned, and sincere workers to depart the company. Production costs might result from real workers quitting the company. There might be a rise in production costs and a decline in the calibre of goods and services.

Any complaint that is made to management over a worker’s working situation and relates to feelings of unfairness is called a grievance. In general, a grievance is any kind of dissatisfaction that negatively impacts productivity and organisational relations. It’s important to differentiate between complaints, grievances, and unhappiness in order to comprehend what a grievance is.

Anything that bothers an employee is considered dissatisfaction, regardless of whether the agitation is verbally communicated.

A complaint is a verbal or written expression of displeasure directed towards the shop steward or supervisor.

A grievance is a formal complaint that has been made to a union official or a management representative.

A grievance is any unhappiness or discontent, whether spoken or not, whether legitimate or not, resulting from anything related to the business that an employee feels, thinks, or even senses is unfair, unjust, or inequitable, according to Michael Jucious.

A grievance is, in essence, a condition of unhappiness that might be articulated or not, documented or undocumented, justifiable or unjustified, and related to a worker’s job circumstances.

Characteristics of Grief:

Any kind of complaint or dissatisfaction with any part of the organisation is referred to as a grievance.

The source of the unhappiness must be related to the job and not personal or family issues.

There are both imagined and genuine causes for the unhappiness. Employees file grievances when they believe they have been treated unfairly. Such a sentiment may have a genuine or illogical cause, be justified or absurd, or be valid or invalid.

Whether expressed or not, the unhappiness has to be expressed somehow. But unhappiness in and of itself is not a complaint. The employee may file a written or verbal complaint at first. If this is not investigated right away, the staff member feels unfairly treated. At this point, the unhappiness intensifies and becomes a complaint.

Therefore, in general, a grievance may be traced back to the perception of not receiving what one expected from the company.

Reasons for Employee Discontent

Employee complaints not only lower staff and organisational productivity, but they also run the risk of endangering the organization’s continued survival. As a result, the complaint has to be resolved as soon as feasible. This requires that the cause be found. The basis for a grievance might change depending on the circumstances. The following are a few of the key causes:

Injustice in Management

Workers want to be treated similarly to other workers. However, a grievance will surface if management treats similarly performing individuals differently.

Ineffective Communication

Healthy relationships are formed via open, two-way communication, which also inspires workers. Each employee must receive policies, instructions, notifications, and other materials in a manner consistent with their work responsibilities. They feel inferior as a result of one-way and regulated communication, which leads to misunderstandings between management and staff. This miscommunication will gradually develop into a complaint. Therefore, one of the reasons for employee grievances is also inadequate, regulated, and one-way communication.

A distinct meaning

Grievances may also result from differing interpretations and levels of understanding between management and workers. Employees develop a bad attitude toward management and the whole company if they interpret the policy, regulations, terms and conditions, instructions, and guidelines in a different way. Grievances are more likely to occur in an organisation if communication is poor.

Personality characteristics

Some workers have a practise of filing grievances insignificantly. Even when they make little errors, they pick on or criticise other staff members. This will lead to grievances for both the individual and other staff members. Thus, one of the grounds for the complaint is a personality characteristic.

Organizational Culture

Sometimes, an incorrect organisational culture leads to employee grievances. Employee dissatisfaction and a negative impact on the corporate environment are caused by bad cultures. This unhappiness intensifies and turns into a grudge.

Ineffective management

The leader is the custodian of all workers and must be present. Employees may become less enthusiastic and cease to follow or pay attention to their leaders if they are weak leaders. The organisation may engage in serious in-disciplinary actions. As a result, there will be more employee complaints.

Conflicting personalities

Certain employees may occasionally have a personality conflict with their coworkers, management, and other people’s ideas, concepts, and working methods. When their proposal is rejected, they can see it as a challenge, and retaliation may ensue. Ego feelings may make an employee angry, unhappy, or demoralised, which can lead to employee grievances.