LawOrganizational BehaviorPublic AdministrationCollective BargainingIndustrial RelationsLabor RelationsArbitrationGrievance HandlingGrievance ProceduresUnion GovernanceUnion OrganizingWorkplace Conflict ResolutionCollective Bargaining SystemsEmployee Grievance SystemsGrievance AdministrationUnion Grievance ArbitrationWorking Hours RegulationWorkplace Complaint Systems
Organizations without a process for hearing and resolving employee complaints leave their employees feeling powerless to affect the system that drives their working hours--a feeling that can send morale and motivation plummeting and fuel a vote to "go union" in an organizing effort. Even if unions fail to capitalize on such situations, the federal government may see a need to step in. Thus there is good reason, says author Alan Balfour (associate professor of management at the University of South Florida), to institute grievance systems for non-union employees. But which system is best? Balfour discusses the advantages and disadvantages of five: an open-door policy; ombudsman; juries of peers; hearing officers; and binding, outside arbitration. In doing so, he distinguishes between those that simply address the facts of a case and those that try to get to the root of a problem and solve it in ways that repair the relationships involved.