Ascribing Meaning to Grievance & Discipline

1. Ascribing Meaning to Grievance & Discipline • Awkward words nowadays • Technical terms to describe the breakdown of mutual confidence • Used when the working relationship goes wrong • Deals with dissatisfaction

2. Milgram Experiments • 18 different experiments to investigate obedience to authority • Highlighted significance of obedience & power to everyday lives • Subjects showed astonishing compliance with authority • Predilection to obey instructions from authority figures

3. Factors For Obedience to Authority • Family • Institutional setting • Rewards • Perception of authority • Entry into the authority system • Overarching ideology

4. HR role (1 of 2) • Facilitate and administer grievance and disciplinary issues • Devise and negotiate the procedural framework or organisational justice • Involved in interviews and problem solving discussions

5. HR role (2 of 2) • Maintain viability of the whole process • Monitor and make sure grievances are not overlooked • Oversee disciplinary machinery

6. Types of Discipline • Regulation of human activity to produce a controlled performance • Managerial discipline • Team discipline • Self discipline

7. Value of Discipline • Negative – producing punishment or prevention • Valuable quality for individuals

8. Three Forms of Discipline Figure 25.1  Three forms of discipline

9. Dissatisfaction, Complaints & Grievance • Dissatisfaction – anything that disturbs an employee, whether or nor the unrest is expressed in words • Complaint – a spoken or written dissatisfaction brought to the attention of the supervisor • Grievance – a complaint that has been formally presented to a management representative

10. Types of Complaints • Factual and can be easily tested • Based on partly subjective reactions • Involving the hopes and fears of employees

11. The Framework of Organisational Justice Figure 25.2  The framework of organisational justice

12. Organisational Culture • Affects behaviour of people • Develops norms that are hard to alter • Provide a pattern of conformity • Affects the freedom and candour which people discuss dissatisfaction

13. Rules • Every workplace has rules • Rules need to be clear and readily understood • Number of rules should be sufficient to cover all obvious and usual disciplinary matters • Helpful if rules are jointly determined • Easy access to rules

14. Types of Rules • Negligence • Unreliability • Insubordination • Interfering with rights of others • Theft • Safety offences

15. Ensuring Rules Are Kept • Provision of information • Induction • Placement or relocation • Training • Review • Penalties

16. Types of Penalties • Rebuke • Caution • Warnings • Disciplinary transfer • Demotion • Suspension

17. Features of a Grievance Procedure • Fairness • Representation • Procedural steps • Promptness

18. Outline Grievance Procedure Figure 25.3  Outline grievance procedure

19. Disciplinary Procedure • Similar to grievance • Depends on fairness, promptness, representation • Additional features – authorisation of penalties, investigation, information and explanation

20. Outline Disciplinary Procedure (1 of 2) Figure 25.4  Outline disciplinary procedure

21. Outline Disciplinary Procedure (2 of 2) Figure 25.4  Outline disciplinary procedure

22. Are Processes Equitable? • To command support must be equitable, just and fair • Fairness linked to interests that all workers have in common • Process of formalising procedures that once existed in custom and practice • Degree of similarity to judicial process

23. Summary (1 of 2) • General predilection of people to obey commands from those holding higher rank • Exercise of discipline limited by the procedural structures for grievance & discipline • Grievance and discipline are HR areas which other people do not want to take over • Discipline can be understood as being managerial, team or self discipline

24. Summary (2 of 2) • Dissatisfaction, complaint and grievance form a hierarchy • Grievance and discipline processes require a framework of organisational justice • The grievance and disciplinary process frameworks is key to being equitable

25. Focus on Skills V:Grievance & Disciplinary Interviews • Least popular of all management activities • Required when things go wrong in the working relationship • Involves at some point a meeting between – • a dissatisfied manager and an employee who is seen as the cause of the dissatisfaction • or a dissatisfied employee and a manager representing the employing organisation

26. Present Day Views on Discipline • Connected with the idea of punishment • Can make a problem solving approach difficult

27. The Latin Derivation • Discere – to learn • Discipulus – a learner In a disciplinary interview the manager is attempting to modify the working behaviour of a subordinate, not necessarily via punishment

28. Idea of Grievance • Can have problems of definition and ethos • A convenient technical classification dissatisfaction – complaint – grievance • Dictionary definition – a real or imaginary wrong causing resentment

29. The Nature of Grievance & Disciplinary Interviews • Provide information • Explain work requirements • Can deliver rebukes • Use a problem solving approach • Involve sympathy • Requires use of perception • Requires empathy

30. Methods • Analytical • Constructive

31. Process (1 of 4)

32. Process (2 of 4)

33. Process (3 of 4)

34. Process (4 of 4)

35. Procedural Position • Important to understand the procedural position • Ensure the impending interview is appropriate • Critical in disciplinary as penalties may already have been set up by warnings, etc. • Who needs to attend? • What facts need to be determined? • What advice may be required? • Where will interview take place?

36. Information That Should be Sought • Subject of grievance/disciplinary • Aspects of working performance – disciplinary • Factual collaboration • General information – working arrangements, relationships, etc.

37. Suitable Place for the Interview • Formality of location can impact on assessment of situation • Informal versus formal

38. Grievance Interview Steps • Understand the nature of the grievance • Explain the management position • Focus on the problem • Discuss possibilities • Decide action

39. The Grievance Interview in Sequential Terms

40. Disciplinary Interview Steps • Explain the management position • Understand employee’s position – focus on the problem • If this does not produce satisfactory result – progress to more steps – persuasion, showing disapproval, invoking penalties

41. Disciplinary Interview - Moves to Disengagement • View accepted and parties seek a solution • Persuasion • Disapproval • Penalties

42. Summary • Grievance and discipline interviews are central to the process of sorting things out • Are one means whereby people at work achieve self discipline and autonomy • Different steps involved depending on whether it is a grievance or a disciplinary interview