Behavioral Outcomes of Grievance Activity

1
Behavioral Outcomes of Grievance Activity

• Lewin and Peterson (1999)
• Industrial Relations

2
Are employees punished for filing grievances?

• Data from distinct firms/industries
• Steel firm
• Retail dept. store
• Nonprofit hospital
• Local public school district
• Data from 80s and 90s
• Data on job performance promotion, attendance,
  and turnover

3
Summary statistics

• Those who would file a grievance tended to be
  better performers than non-filers (prior to
  filing the grievance)Table 1 (1981 and 1991)
• This comparison is reverse post-filing of the
  grievance (1983 and 1993)
• Grievance filers were now below-average
  performers
• Grievants who won their cases enjoyed
  significantly lower promotion rates post-filing
  (Table 2)
• Voluntary turnover among winning grievants also
  significantly higher post-filing
• Similar results found for those pushing grievance
  deep into process (beyond a simple first-step
  resolution)

4
Regression Analysis

• Table 3
• Last 3 columns of each model include variables to
  see if prefiling state of worker affects post
  grievance outcomes (to see if sample of filers is
  special)
• Most results show negative affect of filing and
  settling a grievance on job performance measures
• Tables 4 5
• Data for supervisors
• Resuls show retribution against supervisors
  against whom grievances are filed also.

5
Conclusions

• Grievance filers and their supervisors had
  significantly lower job performances rating,
  higher turnover rates, and lower promotion rates
  in period directly after grievance filing than
  did workers/supervisors not involved in
  grievances
• Though grievance filers had higher pre-grievance
  promotion and work attendance rates, this is not
  found to significantly influence post-grievance
  job performance and promotion ratings.