Employee Grievance Programs: Understanding the Nexus between Workplace Justice,Organizational Legitimacy and Successful Organizations

Abstract

This article explores issues of workplace justice and organization legitimacy founded in formal employee grievance programs and procedures designed to afford aggrieved employees procedural due process, equal treatment and fairness. The depth and breadth of the discussion and debate about what constitutes a successful employee grievance program is interdisciplinary and complex. It focuses on the inevitable tension between management prerogatives and employee rights in the public workplace. At issue is the relationship between workplace justice and legitimacy and its effect on organization efficiency and effectiveness. The author contends that workplace justice and organization success are closely tied to the legitimate actions of first-line supervisors and human resource managements' abilities to design institutions capable of fulfilling their social responsibilities in self-preserving ways. This will require a better understanding of how formal employee grievance procedures alter cooperative, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for resolving employees' workplace concerns, complaints, and disputes in public organizations.