Dissatisfaction, Complaint, and Grievance

To understand what a grievance is, you must clearly be able to distinguish between dissatisfaction, complaint and grievance. Torrington (1987) provides us with a useful categorisation in this regard:

• Dissatisfaction: Anything disturbs an employee, whether or not the unrest is expressed in words.
• Complaint: A spoken or written dissatisfaction brought to the attention of the supervisor or the shop steward.
• Grievance: A complaint that has been formally presented to a management representative or to a union official.

In addition, there are other definitions of a grievance that distinguish it from the other two. Few such definitions are:

• A grievance is a formal dispute between an employee and management on the conditions of employment.
• Grievances are complaints that have been formally registered in accordance with the grievance procedure. (Jackson)
• A grievance is any dissatisfaction or feeling of injustice in connection with one’s employment situation that is brought to the attention of the management.

Therefore, you will see that a grievance is a formal and a relatively drastic step, compared to dissatisfactions and complains. However, instances where complaints turn into grievances are not common, since few employees will question their superior’s judgement. Further, many people do not initiate grievances because they fear negative consequence as a result of their attempt.

If we analyse these definitions of grievance, some noticeable features emerge as:

• A grievance refers to any form of discontent or dissatisfaction with any aspect of the organization.
• The dissatisfaction must arise out of employment and not due to personal or family problems.
• The discontent can arise for real or imaginary reasons. When the employee feels that injustice has been done to him, he has a grievance. The reasons for such a feeling may be valid or invalid, legitimate or irrational, justifiable, or ridiculous.
• The discontent may be voiced or unvoiced. But it must find expression in some form. However, discontent per se is not a grievance. Initially, the employee may complain of orally or in writing.
• a sense of lack of justice. Now the discontent grows and takes the shape of a grievance.
• Broadly speaking, thus, a grievance is traceable to perceived non-fulfillment of one’s expectations from the organization.

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