Employee Grievances and their Resolution – Model for Grievance Resolution Procedure.Quality Circles: Concept, Structure. Role of Management, Quality Circle in India, HR Audit, Contemporary Issues in HRM.

Employee Grievances and their Resolution – Model for Grievance Resolution Procedure.Quality Circles: Concept, Structure. Role of Management, Quality Circle in India, HR Audit, Contemporary Issues in HRM.

1. Grievance Procedure
All labour agreements contain some form of grievance procedure for resolving
disputes. Any dispute can easily be resolved if the procedure is followed strictly
Grievance is referred to as an employee’s dissatisfaction or feeling of personal
injustice relating to his or her employment relationship. Generally a grievance
is well-defined in a collective-bargaining agreement. It is usually restricted to
violations of the terms and conditions of employment. But there are some other
conditions which may give rise to a grievance like:
l. A violation of law
2. A violation of the intent of the parties as stipulated during contract
negotiations
3. A violation of company rules
4. A change in working conditions or past company practices
5. A violation of health and/or safety standards.
There may be variations in the procedures followed for resolving employee
grievances. Larger organizations tend to have more formal procedures involving
a succession of steps. Some general principles which should guide any
procedure are:
l. Grievance must be addressed promptly.
2. Procedures and forms airing grievances must be easy to utilize and wellunderstood by employees and their supervisors.
3. Ego clashes should not be allowed to impede the resolution of disputes.
4. Occurrence of similar grievances must be avoided.
QUALITY CIRCLES (QC)
Quality Circle is a small group of people who voluntarily perform quality improvement
activities at the work place.Quality circles comprise the most widely publicized team
approach to problem solving. This technique was started by Kaoru Ishikawa in Japan in the
early 1960s. The American industry began to implement this concept in the late 1970s and
1980s.
CHARACTERSTICS OF QC
1. Quality circles consist of small groups of people who normally work at the same place
and are doing similar work.
2.These groups meet at regular intervals and discuss problems encountered in quality
improvement. Since such people take up the same type of work so their problems are
similarly known to all of them.
. The quality circles identify the problems first and try to find out the solutions
themselves. The solutions are tried and rectifications are made again, if necessary.
4.The efforts of quality circles are ultimately directed towards quality improvement on a
regular basis. This exercise also helps in improving the performance of participating persons.
5. Quality circles are voluntary associations of persons having a common cause.
ORGANISATION OF QCs
Quality circles meet on a regular basis to identify work centre problems and develop
solutions to these problems.
The idea here is that the quality circle should meet in a free period. The meetings aim to
solve the problems faced by the circles.
BENEFITS OF QCs
Quality circles help in improving human relations at the work centre.
2. The participative culture is developed in the organization.
3. The workers take keen interest in solving their quality problems.
4. It helps in reducing the defects of products/services.
5.It helps in improving productivity.
6. Encourages the attitude of problem prevention.
7. There is an improved communication between management and employees.
8. It helps in leadership development in the organization
Source : internet and books