THE ASSESSMENT OF EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCES HANDLING IN PRIVATE COMPANIES: THE CASE OF A.G. TIMBERS AND NAJA DAVID VENEER & PLYWOOD COMPANY LIMITED

Abstract

Grievance management is an important topic in the area of industrial relations. Research on grievance management is burgeoning, and yet the understanding of its backgrounds and consequences remain rather unclear. This research discusses the grievance handling style at A.G. TIMBERS LTD and NAJA DAVID VENEER & PLYWOOD LTD. To achieve this objective, the study identified the styles used in the timber companies (sawmill) in handling employee grievances, explored employees’ perceptions about the way their grievances are handled, discovered factors which hinder effective management of employees’ grievances, and found out what should be done to effectively manage employees’ grievances. In terms of research design and methodology, this study used an exploratory research design whereby interviews, questionnaires and desk review were used as data collection techniques. The population of the study included 1,258 staff out of which 98 were administrative, 230 were bush operations staff, 136 were transport staff, 52 were auxiliary staff and 734 were production staff. Among these 42 administrative staff were from the AGT, while 56 administrative staff were from NDVP. Also, 76 bush operations staff were from AGT, whereas 156 were from the NDVP, 72 transport staff were from AGT while 64 transport staff were from NDVP. Moreover, 23 auxiliary staff were from AGT while 29 were from NDVP and 342 production staff were from AGT while 392 were from NDVP. Data were collected from respondents, coded and analyzed using Microsoft Excel software (X) The study found that majority of supervisors dominating style in trying to solve their employees’ grievances, whereas few supervisors used obliging style of managing employee grievance