Chapter 12: Employee Dissatisfaction, Grievances, and Complaints (SGT/2015)

Question 1

Employee Dissatisfaction, Grievances, and Complaints

Answer 1

• grievances often result from:
  
  • threats to their personal rights
  • right to fair treatment
  • infringement on right to privacy
• employee dissatisfaction may not be expressed, but it could effect ambition, morale, and performance just as if they were verbalized
• all grievances should be treated as real by the supervisor

Question 2

What are Causes of Employee Dissatisfaction

Answer 2

-4 broad areas of dissatisfaction:
-the working environment
-harsh, abusive, tyrannical, or inept supervision
-misunderstandings about policies and
procedures
-management failures
-supervisor should look at himself and see if he contributed to worker’s dissatisfaction, if so, change supervisor’s behavior
-invalid grievances should not be ignored, an explanation may change their behavior

Question 3

The Working Environment

Answer 3

-bad lighting, improper temperature, uncleanliness,
unsatisfactory equipment
-these require capital outlay to fix, supervisor
should tell upper mgt

Question 4

Inept Supervisory Practices

Answer 4

-failure to give recognition, use of intemperate language,

harsh methods when dealing w/ workers, existence of dual standards, excessive supervision

Question 5

Misunderstandings of Policies, Rules, and Procedures

Answer 5

-when supervisors tolerate violations of policies, equipment, wasted time, etc. workers will adopt that attitude as well

Rules of Conduct
-workers greatest complaint about rules were when the rules
restricted their personal rights
-controls governing their off-duty employment
-their hairstyles
-facial hair standards
-their criticism of the dept
-their place of residence
-officers believed inquiries into their personal lives (personal
debt, moral issues, off-duty alcohol use) were none of the
dept’s business
Enforcing Rules of Conduct
-workers often oppose the manner a rule is enforced
rather than the rule itself
-workers perceive inconsistent enforcement as the most
common violation
Due Process Violations
-a property interest happens when worker has legitimate
claim to his job by statute, contract, or existing rules
-a liberty interest happens when worker is dismissed and
such dismissal damages his reputation
-worker must show his rep was damaged b/c dept publicly
disclosed reason for dismissal
-USSC Cleaveland Board of Education v. Loudermill said public employee must be given oral and written notice of charges against him and have opportunity to tell his side of the story prior to termination
-workers can’t be punished for conduct unless conduct was
related to his performance of duty and impaired his
efficiency, organization’s efficiency, interfered w/ the good
order of the dept, or it was common knowledge his conduct
was prohibited.

Question 6

Supervisory Influence on Employee Behavior

Answer 6

-supervisors should find times to communicate his convictions
without “sermonizing”
-transferring a problem employee may correct the problem,
but most times doesn’t. It just shifts the responsibility to
another supervisor

Question 7

Recognizing Employee Dissatisfaction

Answer 7

-signs include: absenteeism, a growing inattention to duty,
excessive tardiness, indifference to the job, hostility and
irritability of employees, deterioration in morale
-supervisor should try to determine what the cause might be
-supervisor can go to the indigenous leaders for clues

Question 8

Supervisory Approaches to Employee Dissatisfactions

Answer 8

-example: workers try for pay raise and get denied. Supervisor
should not commiserate with workers. Instead he should
counsel them to seek redress.
Noncontractual Matters
-most grievances that don’t involve contracts can be
resolved by 1st line supervisor, unless grievance is about
him
-if supervisor can’t solve problem, fully document it and
forward it on

Contractual Violations and Grievances
-4 step process:
-supervisor of worker rep receives the complaint,
if not fixed…
-this one is cheapest and most critical
-complaint referred to higher mgt, if not fixed…
-complaint referred to even higher mgt, if not
fixed…
-voluntary arbitration

Question 9

READ THIS CHAPTER FOR QUESTION THAT GOES WITH THIS ANSWER!!

Answer 9

1. -the working environment
   -harsh, abusive, tyrannical, or inept supervision
   -misunderstandings about policies and procedures
   -management failures
2. Rules of Conduct, Enforcing Rules of Conduct, Due Process Violations
3. Inconsistency in enforcing rules
4. Property Interest- tenured employee has a claim to his job
   Liberty Interest – employee shows his reputation was damaged by public disclosure of his termination
5. A written grievance explaining the organization breached the contract with the employee