Grievance management and its links to workplace justice

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of workers' demographic characteristics on their perceptions of procedural justice from grievance management. A related aim is to determine whether procedural justice perceptions have an impact on perceptions of distributive justice.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a survey of 660 employees across the public and private sectors. Perceptions were measured with the use of a dichotomous scale, and logistic regression analysis was applied to test the relationships between the dependent and independent variables.FindingsExcept for education, demographic characteristics made no significant difference to workers' perceptions of procedural justice afforded by grievance procedures. Perceptions of procedural justice, however, had an impact on perceived distributive justice.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of dichotomous response sets prevented the use of factor analysis. Logistic regression analysis compensated for the inability to use ANOVA. Further research is needed to explain why education moreso that any other demographic characteristic would influence procedural justice perceptions of grievance management. Research is also required to isolate the effects of justice perceptions on satisfaction with the trade union and organizational citizenship behaviours.Practical implicationsFailure to pay careful attention to procedural justice can create problems for managers, workers and unions.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the need to pay due attention to procedural justice. It continues a line of inquiry on workplace justice that has only recently been initiated in Barbados.