Employee Relation - disciplinary & grievance procedures - Outline Example

In any given organisation, grievances are inevitable and some actions by the employees require disciplinary action in order to ensure that their conduct is in compliance with the standard expectations. As such, this paper seeks to explain and evaluate the role and nature of disciplinary and grievance procedures within an organisation. As such, this paper seeks to outline the role and nature of the disciplinary and grievance procedures in an organisation. Basically, the role of grievance procedure is to provide individuals with a course of action if they have a complaint which they are unable to resolve through regular communication.

Such a procedure enables the employees to have a formal means of complaint about their terms and conditions, working environment, and related issues. Just like grievance procedure, disciplinary action is also meant to resolve issues that are deemed to be in violation of the organisation’s code of conduct in order to improve their performance. If such issues are unresolved, they may lead to conflicts among the members of the organisation and these are counterproductive. Therefore, the role of the disciplinary and grievances procedure is to set the benchmarks that can guide the behaviour of the members in an organisation.

Hawkins (1979) posits to the effect that these procedures in an organisation are meant to influence the behaviour of management, employees and trade union representatives in a defined situation to abide by a certain code of conduct. In short, the main purpose of procedures is to have an agreed set of rules which can be used to channel any discussion with regards to issues reflecting discontent through appropriate mechanisms towards finding a resolution. In most cases, matters pertaining to disciplinary and grievance issues are expected to be resolved informally at lower levels in an organisation.

However, it must be noted that these procedures are hierarchical in nature. Such issues are first dealt with by the line manager. If the matter has not been resolved, then mediation is considered as a viable option. If there is no solution in sight to the contentious issues, then the matter is raised formally through the disciplinary and grievance procedures for consideration by the top management. Such procedures have been designed in a way to delineate a proper channel that can be followed by a complainant to have his or her issue solved in a formal way.

Likewise, every organisation is structured in a particular way and this structure helps to shape the behaviour as well as the conduct of the employees within an organisation. Such a structure also helps the employees to know the exact person to approach in the event of a dispute which needs to be resolved. Over and above, it can be noted that disciplinary action is required to positively influence the behaviour and performance of the employees in a given organisation. Grievances are also common among the employees in an organisation.

However, it can be noted that if disciplinary issues and grievances are left unresolved, they can lead to conflicts among the employees which are counterproductive. Such issues can be resolved through disciplinary and grievance procedures which are formalised channels that can be followed towards resolving such issues if they cannot be solved informally at lower levels.