Grievance Procedure Research: A Review and Theoretical Recommendations

Abstract

This review focuses on the grievance procedure research published in the past decade with specific attention on the application (or lack thereof) of social science theory to grievance research. The review concludes that the theoretical grounding of recent grievance research has improved over the earlier research, but remains quite inadequate. Recommendations on the direction that grievance research should take in the future to further improve on the theoretical content of grievance research are provided. It is argued that theory in grievance research should advance at two levels: the comprehensive systems approach, and the application of specific social science theories to narrower aspects of the grievance process.