Voicing discontent: What happens to the grievance filer after the grievance?

Previous empirical research on grievance systems suggests that managers punish grievance filers by giving them lower performance ratings, limiting their chances for promotion and even terminating their employment. The present study uses relevant theory in Organizational Psychology, Social Psychology and Organizational Behavior to examine to what extent these "punishment effects" are a result of an actual change in employees' behavior as a function of grievance-filing, having access to a grievance system or simply having a cause to file a grievance.One hundred fifty-seven participants were randomly assigned to the two factor, between-subjects design. The first manipulated factor was the presence or absence of a basis for a dispute and the second manipulated factor was the presence or absence of a grievance system. About half of the participants in the Dispute-Present System-Present cell filed a grievance against their manager. The results provided partial or stronger support for the hypotheses derived from relevant theory in Organizational Psychology and the related disciplines. Consistent with the Procedural Justice literature, employees who had access to a grievance system were more willing to continue working than those employees who did not have access to a grievance system. Consistent with Naylor, Pritchard, and Ilgen's theory (NPI), employees who had a basis for dispute had lower objective job performance than employees who did not have a basis for dispute. In contrast to the previous field research, the results from the present study provide partial support for the Exit-Voice model. The results suggested that allowing aggrieved employees to voice their discontent via a grievance procedure may prevented an increase in their desire to leave the organization. Additionally, the results suggest that at least part of the "punishment effects" reported in earlier field studies may be due to an actual decrease in the grievant's objective job performance. Implications of these results are discussed.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio