News Release

Women, minorities more prone to filing grievances

Study explores findings that claim many employees don't file grievances when presented with the opportunity

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Wiley

Haifa, Israel – May 12, 2008 – Many employees often do not file grievances even when presented with the opportunity to do so. A new study in Industrial Relations sought to assess the degree to which certain minority groups may be more or less prone to file grievances as a way to remedy particular types of workplace issues or problems.

Self-report data were collected from a sample of 866 blue-collar workers drawn from four unions in the northeastern United States. The study assessed employee grievance filing in relationship to demographic variables, including gender and race. The sample consisted of men, women, whites, African Americans, and Hispanics.

The overall rate of actual grievance filing by women and ethnic minorities was not significantly different from that of their male or white counterparts.

However, employee demographic characteristics do serve as a significant moderator of the link between the severity of potentially injurious workplace conditions and the rate of employee grievance filing. Specifically, the grievance filing of women and minorities was more sensitive to the severity of particular workplace conditions than was the grievance filing of their majority peers.

In contrast, the grievance-filing behavior of men and whites tended to remain fairly constant regardless of their perceived level of workplace injustice or injury. It is reasonable to expect then that grievance filing for women and minorities will be utilized only when the severity of the condition is such that the failure to file is perceived as entailing even greater risks than those entailed in filing.

“Our findings suggest that for those individuals who, because of their gender or minority status, are disadvantaged in the labor market and are thus perhaps most in need of an effective mechanism by which to voice concerns regarding the workplace, the grievance system may not necessarily always provide an adequate answer,” the authors note.

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This study is published in the April 2008 issue of Industrial Relations. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact journalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.

Peter Bamberger, PhD, is affiliated with the Israel Institute of Technology and can be reached for questions at peterb@techunix.technion.ac.il.

Corporate restructuring and downsizing, the changing employment relationship in union and nonunion settings, high performance work systems, the demographics of the workplace, and the impact of globalization on national labor markets - these are just some of the major issues covered in Industrial Relations. The journal offers an invaluable international perspective on economic, sociological, psychological, political, historical, and legal developments in labor and employment. It is the only journal in its field with this multidisciplinary focus on the implications of change for business, government and workers.

Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and its merger with Wiley’s Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal. For more information on Wiley-Blackwell, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com or http://interscience.wiley.com.


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