A STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCES HANDLING MECHANISM IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS IN COCHIN. Mr. Deenathayalan Aruchamy

Mr. Deenathayalan Aruchamy 1 , Prof. M. Mariappan 2 and Prof. Sasmita Palo 3 . 1. Head – Operations Aster Medcity Cochin, Kerala India. 2. Chairperson Centre for Hospital Management School of Health System Studies Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Deonar, Mumbai India. 3. Professor Centre for Labour studies School of Management and Labour studies Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Deonar, Mumbai India. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History

Employee grievances transpire in each & every workplace. To handle the grievances was a very big and challenging task and that too it was very common in hospital industry due to its nature of stressful job. It was very important to understand how grievances were handled in hospital industry and also what was the process followed in managing the grievances. Grievance may be of any kind of dissatisfaction with regard to pay, promotion, suspension, working condition etc. This study focused on understanding the effectiveness of Grievance Handling Mechanism in tertiary care hospitals in Cochin from the perspective of employees. The objective of the study was to find the effectiveness of grievance handling mechanism being followed in hospitals in Edapally jurisdiction of Cochin. Questionnaire was the tool to collect the data from employees and convenience sampling is used to select the samples for the study. The sample size was 173 and the tools used for analyzing the responses were frequency distribution and percentage analysis. The study outcome revealed that grievance management system followed in hospitals is very effective and most of the employees were highly satisfied with the grievance management mechanism being followed.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-
Grievance is any discontent or dissatisfaction that affects organizational performance. As such it can be stated or unvoiced, written or oral, legitimate or ridiculous. If the dissatisfaction of employees' goes unattended or the conditions causing was not corrected, the irritation was likely to increase and lead to unfavorable attitude towards the management and unhealthy relations in the organization. The grievances of the employees were related to the contract, work rule or regulation, policy or procedure, health and safety regulation, past practice, changing the cultural norms unilaterally, individual victimization, salary etc. Here, the attitude on the part of management in their effort to understand the problems of employees and resolve the issues amicably have better probability to maintain a culture of high performance. Effective grievance handling is an essential part of cultivating good employee relations and running a fair, successful and productive workplace. The formal mechanism for dealing with such worker's dissatisfaction is called grievance procedure. The primary value of grievance procedure is that it can assist in ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(11), 942-947 943 minimizing discontent and dissatisfaction that may have adverse effects upon co-operation and productivity. Grievances were very natural in organizations. However there is a need for handling or redressing grievances. For this, most of the large organization in India has evolved a formal grievance procedure which enables an organization to handle grievances satisfactorily. As a matter of fact, there were are several substantive reasons for having a formal grievance procedure in an organization. 1. It provides an established and known method of processing grievances. 2. It brings grievance to the knowledge of management so that it can know and understand them to take necessary action for their settlement 3. It gives an assurance to the employee that there is a mechanism available to consider his or her grievance in a dispassionate and detached manner. 4. Venting his / her grievance and being heard gives the employee a feeling of being cared for. This not only gets it off his chest", but also helps him improve his morale and productivity. 5. Involvement of various levels makes them know the kinds of issues that concern workers and managers facing. 6. Lastly, it checks the managers from taking arbitrary and biased actions against the workers as they know that their actions are subject to challenge.
The basic factors for grievance management were timely action, accepting the grievance, identifying the problem correctly, collecting the facts, taking decision and implementing the decision. The grievances for the employees may be arising out of working condition (poor physical condition, non-availability of proper tools and machines etc.), arising out of management policy (salary, seniority, transfer etc.), arising out of alleged violation (rules and regulations, responsibilities etc.), arising out of personal maladjustment (over ambition, excessive self esteem etc.) and arising out of general conditions (disciplinary, medical benefits, leave etc.). The grievance identifying techniques were direct observation, suggestion boxes and easy and open access policy and exit interviews.
Review of Literature:-Wyman (1971) stated in his study that the grievance procedure has been aptly described as the "heart of the collective bargaining process". Collective negotiations, of course normally result in a written agreement. However, an agreement is a static document presumably intended to cover all aspects of labor management relations, a task that no document can accomplish completely. Gordon, M.E. and Miller, S. (1984) stated in his study that the issues of grievances were normally associated with dissatisfaction among employees which were mainly related to salary, working procedure and working facilities. Dr. Nilesh Thakre (2013) stated in his study about resolving grievances, aggrieved employees will file their dissatisfaction through grievance procedure and their immediate managers or supervisors were responsible to take action within period given. Therefore, immediate supervisors were responsible to settle the grievance as they were the nearest personnel that represent managerial team, thus the result of the study is that the argument on the vital role played by supervisors in managing employees' grievances paralleled that of past studies. Pawan Kumar Taneja and Singh P.P, (2004) in their study argued that evaluations of grievance procedure effectiveness should include subjective evaluations by the participants as well as objective measures reflecting the operation of the grievance procedure. They argued that subjective evaluations are the preferred method for evaluating grievance procedure effectiveness.

Statement of research problem:-
Grievances were very common in all the industry and it might be for pay, promotion, suspension, working condition etc. In hospitals, grievances were very common because of its nature of stressful job and also very big challenge to handle. But hospital industries were also taking great effort to handle the grievances. But it was very important to evaluate the grievance process in hospitals to understand its impact. Hence there would be need for a study to understand how grievances were handled in hospital industry, whether considered all the employee grievances and also what was the process followed in managing the grievances.
Objectives of the study:-1. The aim of the study is to find whether the grievance handling mechanism identifies that the employee's problems were recognized and appropriately reviewed in a prompt and timely manner. 2. To identify whether grievance mechanism ensures a fair treatment of employee's concerns and prompt resolution of grievances without discrimination, coercion, restraint or reprisal against any employee who may submit or be involved in a grievance.

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Research Methodology:-Nature of this study was descriptive, as the main purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge about the level of grievance handling among the employees in the hospitals. Primary data collection was through questionnaire method wherein the questionnaire was handed over to the respondents and the same were analyzed. The sample size was 173 and the tools used for analyzing the responses were frequency distribution and percentage analysis. Area of the study was hospitals in Edapally jurisdiction of Cochin.
Data Analysis:- Interpretation:-From the above table, it was inferred that 1. 57 % of employees were male and 43 % of employees were female respondents for the study. 2. 7 % of employees were less than 30 yrs of age and 34 % were above 50 yrs of age and majority of the respondents were in 31 yrs -40 yrs of age group. 3. Only 10 % of employees were having schooling and diploma as qualification and majority of 42 % of employees were graduates. 4. 81 % of respondents were married. 5. 53 % of respondents were with 11 -20 yrs of experience and 9 % of employees were more than 31 yrs of experience.    2. 31 % of employees were responded that grievance was closed with time duration of more than 2 weeks. 11 % of employees were responded that grievance redressal was pending and it had crossed more than 2 months.