Contemporary Trends in Employee Relations and the Employment Relationship: A Competitiveness Perspective.

• Author: McCabe, Douglas M.

INTRODUCTION

Some general principles can be deduced from the following studies on organizational due process and nonunion grievance procedures: Zach, 2019; Ebisui, 2016; Grenig, 2016; Berman and McCabe, 2006; McCabe and Rabil, 2002; and McCabe and Rabil, 2002. Efforts to move from the specific to the general in any analysis should be attempted with caution, particularly in complex situations in which one or more factors may be exerting their weight in a direction from that of other factories. In other words, to generalize about one factor will not be necessary to arrive at the same conclusion as to generalize about another. Furthermore, to generalize about the composite of all the factors may involve a situation so unique that it will not occur, rendering generalization of no value. It is important, therefore, to weigh the various factors, as the size and strength of varying waves and winds in a turbulent sea might be appraised in order to determine the probable direction of a ship that is at their mercy.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR NONUNION GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES

It would be foolish to draft a procedure and claim it to be "the ideal" for resolving employees' complaints and grievances. Like an organization chart, the procedure should be tailored to the situation of a particular company. On the other hand, it is practical, based upon the research, to propose a summary of general principles which should be considered when preparing a manual's Grievance section. Hopefully the following items will assist a company in drafting what is for it, in its particular situation, a grievance resolution procedure which approaches an idea.

1. Have the above-cited studies, which reflect the thinking and experience of a number of companies, been examined by you in search of ideas which may be beneficial for your company?

2. Do you consider it advisable, as a few companies do, to state, either in the introduction of your employee-relations manual or in the section on Grievances, your company's philosophy that "Our employees are our most important asset," together with some explanation for it?

3. What title do you think will be best for the manual's section regarding grievances, such as How to Handle a Grievance?

4. Consider the advisability, as some companies do, of providing a specific definition of "grievance" as your management desires employees to understand the word. Some companies define a grievance as a complaint by an employee against treatment by management which violates the terms of employment described in the employee-relations manual. Some companies state that a grievance may be initiated against supervisors' and managers' "application or interpretation" of a company policy published in the manual, but not against the policy itself. All such companies surveyed ignore in their manuals the possibility that a policy may be defective and that it...