CHAPTER I

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Grievance is any discontent or dissatisfaction that affects organizational performance. A

grievance can be stated or unvoiced, written or oral, legitimate or ridiculous. When the
organisation fails to satisfy the employees’ needs, he develops a feeling of discontent or
dissatisfaction. If the dissatisfaction of employees goes unattended or the conditions causing it
are not corrected, the irritation is likely to increase and lead to unfavourable attitude towards the
management and unhealthy relations in the organization. This in turn will affect industrial
productivity.

GRIEVANCE

Grievance is any discontent or dissatisfaction that affects organizational performance. As

such it can be stated or unvoiced, written or oral, legitimate or ridiculous. If the dissatisfaction of
employees’ goes unattended or the conditions causing it are not corrected, the irritation is likely
to increase and lead to unfavorable attitude towards the management and unhealthy relations in
the organization.

The formal mechanism for dealing with such worker’s dissatisfaction is called grievance
procedure. All companies whether unionized or not should have established and known
grievance methods of processing grievances. The primary value of grievance procedure is that it
can assist in minimizing discontent and dissatisfaction that may have adverse effects upon co-
operation and productivity. A grievance procedure is necessary in large organization which has
numerous personnel and many levels with the result that the manager is unable to keep a check
on each individual, or be involved in every aspect of working of the small organization.
The usual steps in grievance procedure are

1. Conference among the aggrieved employee, the supervisor, and the union steward.
2. Conference between middle management and middle union leadership.
3. Conference between top management and top union leadership.
4. Arbitration.
There may be variations in the procedures followed for resolving employee grievances.
Variations may result from such factors as organizational or decision-making structures or size
of the plant or company. Large organizations do tend to have formal grievance procedures
involving succession of steps.

Arbitration

Arbitration is a procedure in which a neutral third party studies the bargaining situation,
listens to both the parties and gathers information, and then makes recommendations that are
binding on the parties. Arbitration has achieved a certain degree of success in resolving disputes
between the labour and the management. The labour union generally takes initiative to go for
arbitration. When the union so decides, it notifies the management. At this point, the union and
company must select an arbitrator.

Guidelines

When processing grievances, there are several important guidelines to consider:

 Check the grievant’s title and employment status to determine if he / she are included in a
union eligible classification.
 Note the supervisor’s respondent obligation under the grievance procedure.
 Review the requested solution to the grievance. Determine if the relief sought is beyond a
supervisor’s authority to grant.
 Review all policies or other information related to the grievance.
 Conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations.

 Prepare a written response including the reason for the decision and provide a copy to the
grievant.
  Grievance materials should be maintained in a separate file from either personnel files or
records.

Articles related to grievance

Measures of supervisory behaviors and supervisor’s knowledge of the collective

agreement should, intuitively, be related to the occurrence of grievable events, but there has been
no theory advanced to explain grievable events. Kliener , Nigkelsburg and Pilarski implicitly
assumed that supervisor monitoring of employees will increase the number of grievable events,
but a theoretical basis or rationale for this assumed relationship is not discussed.

Grievants were less satisfied with their jobs, had poorer attitudes toward their line
supervisors, had greater feelings of pay inequity, had stronger beliefs that workers should
participate in decision-making, were less satisfied with their unions, and more active in their
unions. The lower satisfaction with the union among grievant may be due to dissatisfaction with
the processing of grievances. Grievants were more younger and had less education than
nongrievants.

Gordon and Miller, Allen and Keavney and Klass note the important role that expectancy
theory could play in differentiating grievants and nongrievants. Although not a complete test of
expectancy theory, Lewin and Boroff did include the employees perceived effectiveness of the
grievance procedure as an explanatory variable. Surprisingly, this was not significantly related to
grievance filing. Further research focusing on expectancy theory and grievance filing that more
fully develops testable hypotheses derived from expectancy theory seems appropriate.

Bemmels, Reshef and Stratton-Devine included the shop stewards assessment of how
frequently employees approach them with complaints. Although most grievances are formally
filed by employees, the initiation of a grievance can come from employees or stewards.
Complaining to the shop stewards is the employees’ role in the grievance initiation process. Both
of these studies found the work group with employees who complained to the stewards more
frequently had grievance rates. Employees’ complaining to their stewards is a precursor to
grievance filing. The measure of consideration and structure were significantly related to
frequency of employee complaints in Bemmels and the steward’s assessment of the supervisors’
knowledge of the collective agreement was negatively related to complaints.

Lewin and Peterson found a positive relationship with grievance procedure structure and
grievance rates. They also found higher grievance rates under procedures that include provisions
for expedited grievance handling. It was found that provisions allowing oral presentation of
grievances was related to lower rates of written grievances, and screening of potential grievances
was related to lower rates of written grievance, and screening of potential grievances by a
committee or other union officials was associated with lower grievance rates. The number of
steps in the grievance procedure and the length of time allowed for filing a grievance were not
related to grievance rates.

Lewin and Peterson argued that evaluations of grievance procedure effectiveness should
include subjective evaluations by the participants as well as objective measures reflecting the
operation of the grievance procedure. They argued that subjective evaluations are the preferred
method for evaluating grievance procedure effectiveness. Effectiveness was difficult to interpret
from measures reflecting the operation of grievance procedures such as grievance rates,
settlement levels and arbitration rates since it was not clear what the optimal magnitudes might
be for these measures. Furthermore the purpose of grievance procedure is to resolve disputes
about the interpretation and application of collective agreements. Grievance procedures exist for
the benefit of the employees, employers and unions. If the parties were satisfied with the
operation of the grievance procedure, it seems to more important than attaining some
predetermined optimal magnitude of grievance filing or when, where, and how grievances are
being resolved.

Grievance procedures are related to other attitudinal measures and the behaviors of shop
stewards in the grievance procedure. Grievance procedure effectiveness was related to union
members’ overall satisfaction with the union. Grievance procedures have been found to relate to
union commitment, employer commitment and dual commitment. Employer commitment has
found to be negatively related to absenteeism and turnover and union commitment has found to
have a positive relationship with union participation and with shop steward behavior in the
grievance procedure. Many studies still report empirical analysis with no theoretical grounding,
or only intuitive and ad hoc hypotheses.
 Grievance could be classified into 4 basic types: Discrimination charges, rules violation,
general or unclassified complaints and discipline.

Discrimination was spelled out as based upon race, sex, religion, color, national origin, age,
veteran status, or handicapped.

Grievance corresponding rules violation was an employees’ interpretation of application of

policies and procedures governing personnel policies, department work rules, unsafe or
unhealthy working conditions, or other policies or procedures of a working nature.

Disciplinary actions are the category least classified as a grievance. Legalistic approach was used
to handle such cases. With the possibility of adverse legal action arising from unjust discipline,
separate systems are often established in discipline cases to ensure the employees’ complete due
process rights.

Five types of grievance systems were typically noted in the literature. They were the open door
policy, step-review method, peer-review also called the grievance committee or roundtable,
ombudsman and hearing officer. In the public sector study. The predominant method of
grievance adjudication was the step-review method used either singularly or in combination with
a peer-review committee. The step-review method had characteristics similar to the grievance /
arbitration procedures found in union contracts.

The step-review method has a preestablished set of steps for reviewing employee complaints by
succeeding higher levels of agency personnel.

Benefits of having Grievance procedure:

 The grievance procedure provides a means for identifying practices, procedures, and
administrative policies that are causing employee complaints so that changes can be
considered.
 They reduce costly employment suits.
 A grievance procedure allows managers to establish a uniform labour policy.
 A grievance system can be a reliable mechanism to learn of, and resolve employee
dissatisfaction. It can produce early settlements to disputes or provide for correction of
contested employment issues.
1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

The changing customer grievance towards employee person. To some it means industrial
democracy or co-determination with increased employee participation in formal organizational decision-
making. View at as more equitable sharing of the income and more human and healthy working condition
other sees it as breaking down the traditional high degree of specialization typical in many work situation
and substituting enlarge and enriched job’s or automation and rewarding job Based upon the positive
reactions to the survey and procedures, the researcher proceeded with the full data collection as described
above. 

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To study the effectiveness of grievance handling mechanism.

 To identify whether the employees are aware of the grievance handling mechanism.

 To identify whether the grievance handling system leads to a favorable attitude towards
the management
 To identify that the grievance handling system leads to a mutual understanding between
workers and the management
 To know the level of satisfaction towards the grievance handling procedure of the
organization
 To identify the factors influencing the effectiveness of the grievance handling in the
organization.
1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

 The study throws light on need for Grievance handling procedure and this study
facilitates the management for further improvement on the same.
 This study will be useful when similar kind of research is undertaken
 To study the effectiveness of Grievance Handling Procedure

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:

•Employees differ as individuals, in their needs, expectations and behavior. When their needs
are not satisfied or their objectives are not achieved, the result is employee dissatisfaction. It
is not an easy task for the management to keep all the employees satisfied and motivated, all
the time.

•If the dissatisfaction of employees’ goes unattended or the conditions causing it are not
corrected, the irritation is likely to increase and lead to unfavorable attitude towards the
management and unhealthy relations in the organization. Hence, handling the grievances of
any person in any organization is of paramount importance.

1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Research methodology is a way of systematically solve the Research Problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. The research need to
know the criteria by which they can divide that certain techniques and procedure will be
applicable to certain problems and others will not. Hence it is required to design the
methodology research problem.
Research Design:

Descriptive study is a fact finding investigation with interpretation. The descriptive

research is concerned with specific predictions with narration of facts and characteristics
concerning individuals. Hence, the Researcher choose to apply descriptive design for the
current study descriptive design generally describes the characteristics of a particular individuals.

Hence, this study is going to be descriptive in nature.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION:

 Primary Data
 Secondary Data
Primary Data:

Primary data is the new or fresh data collected from the respondents through structured
questionnaire schedule.

Questionnaire Design:

The questionnaire contains sequences of questions which the respondents real and choose
their answer without then assistant of the interviewer. The questions were sort contain simple
words and where easily understandable. The questionnaire can be designed by the following
patents.

Secondary data:

The secondary data were collected from the published sources such as books, magazines,
journals, web sources and company records.

Sampling design:

A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It is
the procedure used by the researcher in selecting items for the sample.

Sample size:
 The Researcher has adopted simple random sampling techniques for this study. The
sample size is 100 respondents.

STATISTICAL TOOLS:

According to the project there will be two statistical tools are used. They are

 Percentage Analysis
 Chi-square Test
 Correlation

Percentage analysis:

Percentage refers to a special kind of ratio in making comparison between two

or more data and to describe relations between the data. Percentage can also be used to
compare the relative terms, the distribution of two or more series of data.

No. of respondents

Percentage (%) = × 100

Total respondents

Chi-square Test:

Chi-square test is non parametric test used most frequently by marketing

research to the test hypothesis. Chi-square tests aim at determines whether significant
difference exists amongst groups of data or whether difference due to sampling. When a
small number of freedoms are increases, the distribution curve becomes more
symmetrical and resembles the normal curve.
 Chi-Square test =

Correlation:

Correlation shows the relationship between two variables, in this case the
researcher has correlated the personal variables of the respondent and some of their
views and opinions in order to analyze whether or not the two factors coincide and affect
employee engagement.

“Correlation analysis deals with the association between two (or) more variables.”

Correlation (r) = N ∑XY ─ (∑X) (∑Y)

√ N ∑ X 2─ (∑ X )2 √ N ∑Y 2 ─(∑Y )2
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY :

 The determination facts of quality of work life used in this study may not be
exclusive some of the factor might have been left out.

 The lack of interest among the employee as they felt that they have nothing
beneficial by research.

 Some respondents hesitated to give the actual facts as they fear the management
would take any action again them.

 The research was conducted with is a limited duration of time so a detailed and
comprehensive study could not be made.
 CHAPTER 2

2.1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Articles related to grievance

Measures of supervisory behaviors and supervisor’s knowledge of the collective

agreement should, intuitively, be related to the occurrence of grievable events, but there has been
no theory advanced to explain grievable events. Kliener , Nigkelsburg and Pilarski implicitly
assumed that supervisor monitoring of employees will increase the number of grievable events,
but a theoretical basis or rationale for this assumed relationship is not discussed.

Grievants were less satisfied with their jobs, had poorer attitudes toward their line
supervisors, had greater feelings of pay inequity, had stronger beliefs that workers should
participate in decision-making, were less satisfied with their unions, and more active in their
unions. The lower satisfaction with the union among grievant may be due to dissatisfaction with
the processing of grievances. Grievants were more younger and had less education than
nongrievants.

1. Gordon and Miller, Allen and Keavney and Klass note the important role that
expectancy theory could play in differentiating grievants and nongrievants. Although not a
complete test of expectancy theory, Lewin and Boroff did include the employees perceived
effectiveness of the grievance procedure as an explanatory variable. Surprisingly, this was not
significantly related to grievance filing. Further research focusing on expectancy theory and
grievance filing that more fully develops testable hypotheses derived from expectancy theory
seems appropriate.

2.Bemmels, Reshef and Stratton-Devine included the shop stewards assessment of how
frequently employees approach them with complaints. Although most grievances are formally
filed by employees, the initiation of a grievance can come from employees or stewards.
Complaining to the shop stewards is the employees’ role in the grievance initiation process. Both
of these studies found the work group with employees who complained to the stewards more
frequently had grievance rates. Employees’ complaining to their stewards is a precursor to
grievance filing. The measure of consideration and structure were significantly related to
frequency of employee complaints in Bemmels and the steward’s assessment of the supervisors’
knowledge of the collective agreement was negatively related to complaints.

3.Lewin and Peterson found a positive relationship with grievance procedure structure and
grievance rates. They also found higher grievance rates under procedures that include provisions
for expedited grievance handling. It was found that provisions allowing oral presentation of
grievances was related to lower rates of written grievances, and screening of potential grievances
was related to lower rates of written grievance, and screening of potential grievances by a
committee

4. Lewin argued that evaluations of grievance procedure effectiveness should include subjective
evaluations by the participants as well as objective measures reflecting the operation of the
grievance procedure. They argued that subjective evaluations are the preferred method for
evaluating grievance procedure effectiveness.

5. Daud (2011) points out that the use of an effective approach in managing an employee
grievance is essential to resolving employees’ dissatisfaction fairly. The author adds that
managing grievances just after it has occurred is important in order to deny the further
construction of disputes.

6. Slotsve (1992) and Tan (1994) argue that depends largely on the ability of managers and
supervisors to recognize, diagnose, constructive use of approaches used in managing employee
grievance and correct the causes of potential employee dissatisfaction before they become formal
grievances.

7. Ivancevich (2017), the use of appropriate style in managing employee grievance enables the
supervisor to take every grievance seriously, gather all information available on the grievance,
after weighing all the facts, and provide an answer to the employee who is voicing the
grievance..
8.Meyer (1994), an employee grievance signifies that a manager’s behaviour was inappropriate
or the manager has failed to abide by the worker’s right

9.Daud (2011) shows that the most applied styles in managing employee grievances include
integrating, compromising and dominating. Besides, Rahim and Magner (1995) argue that
another style applied in handling employee grievance is the obliging sty

10. Warr and colleagues (2019) in an investigation of Grievances, considered a range of

apparently relevant factors, including work involvement, intrinsic job motivation, higher order
need strength, perceived intrinsic job characteristics, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, happiness,
and  self-rated anxiety

12. Mirvis and Lawler (1984) suggested that Griviences was associated with satisfaction with
wages, hours and working conditions, describing the "basic elements of a good quality of work
life" as; safe work environment, equitable wages, equal employment opportunities and
opportunities for advancement.  

13.  Baba and Jamal (1991) listed what they described as typical indicators of quality of
working life, including: job satisfaction, job involvement, work role ambiguity, work role
conflict, work role overload, job stress, organizational commitment and turn-over intentions.
Baba and Jamal also explored reutilization of job content, suggesting that this facet should be
investigated as part of the concept of quality of working life.

14.Sirgy et al.; (2001) suggested that the key factors in Griviencesare: Need satisfaction based
on job requirements, Need satisfaction based on Work environment, Need satisfaction based on
Supervisory behavior, Need satisfaction based on Ancillary programs, Organizational
commitment.

15. Herzberg at al., (1959) defined Griviencesas satisfaction of these key needs through
resources, activities, and outcomes stemming from participation in the workplace. Maslow's
needs were seen as relevant in underpinning this model, covering Health & safety, Economic and
family, Social, Esteem, Actualization, Knowledge and Aesthetics, although the relevance of non-
work aspects is play down as attention is focused on quality of work life rather than the broader
concept of quality of life

16. Lawler and Porter, 1966). An individual's experience of satisfaction or dissatisfaction can
be substantially rooted in their perception, rather than simply reflecting their "real world".
Further, an individual's perception can be affected by relative comparison - am I paid as much as
that person - and comparisons of internalized ideals, aspirations, and expectations

17.Loscocco & Roschelle, 1991 An individual's experience of satisfaction or dissatisfaction can

be substantially rooted in their perception1

18. Hackman and Oldham (1976) drew attention to what they described as psychological growth needs
as relevant to the consideration of Quality of working life. Several such needs were identified; Skill
variety, Task Identity, Task significance, Autonomy and Feedback. They suggested that such needs have
to be addressed if employees are to experience high quality of working life

19.       Warr and colleagues (1979) in an investigation of Quality of working life, considered a range of
apparently relevant factors, including work involvement, intrinsic job motivation, higher order need
strength, perceived intrinsic job characteristics, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, happiness, and  self-rated
anxiety. They discussed a range of correlations

20      Bearfield, (2003) used 16 questions to examine quality of working life, and distinguished between
causes of dissatisfaction in professionals, intermediate clerical, sales and service workers, indicating that
different concerns might have to be addressed for different groups
 CHAPTER 3

COMPANY PROFILE

M.C.A Export is one of the leading home textiles in karur, we export to the Spain, Netherlands
and the U.K. We have bagged our share in the international market which is marked by
the satisfied customers. Well connected with the agents, the company ably handles the
international logistics. 

As a manufacturer and exporter of quality home textile products to the international market, we

stand committed to quality products, on-time delivery and continuous improvement in process.
With our contemporary infrastructure and well-groomed personnel, we have been able to
differentiate ourselves in the extremely competitive market of home textiles

Fabric Section :  We have a huge space to store the fabrics received from weaving and the same
are checked thoroughly before sending them for conversion into made-up items.

Embroidery – Brings our ideas/designs into beautiful products our in-house computer
embroidery facility enables to bring out our innovative designs on our products with creativity
and cost effective.

Sewing – Our fabrics are converted into variety of made-ups with utmost care using skilled
workmen.  We have able and experienced team to guide and lead the sewing section to make the
finished goods exactly matching the requirement of our clients

3.1 PRODUCTS MANUFACTURER AND EXPORTER:

 Furnishing fabrics
 Hotel linens
 Hospital linens
 Bed sheets
 Pillow covers
  Cushion covers
 Curtains
 Table mats
 Table cloths
 Kitchen set.

3.2 PRODUCTS:

Manufacturer and exporter of home textiles

 Kitchen & culture

 Table linen

 Table cloths

 Woven

 Kitchen linen

 Towels

 Kitchen wear

 Oven gloves