Analysis of Employee Grievances and HR Response: A Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This case study analyzes a data breach and subsequent grievance.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
BODY.............................................................................................................................................. 4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 8
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................9
2

INTRODUCTION
This assignment is based on the grievances faced by the manager and the employee who has
done illegal and fraudulent activities. The employee has come up with the grievances he had
with the manager and he communicated the same to the human resource manager, now the
human resource department had to solve these grievances as soon as possible. The human
resource manager needs to build up some evidence and proofs to justify the mistake of the ex-
employee. He also has to take some serious actions in accordance with the policies of the
organisation. This assignment will be including, discussion on the whole event, problems and
grievances, where the event happened with a witness. The other thing which is to be included
here is responsibilities of the manager and human resource manager after this event and what
are the tasks to be done to get the control over the employees and to maintain the ethical work
culture in the organisation. There will be a meeting to analyse and resolve the grievances in a
panel including the manager, human resource management team and trade union people so
that the proper solution can be achieved, this meeting will be scheduled to set an example to
the upcoming and current employees. The solutions to resolve these grievances within the
organisation. For overall legal compliance of the policies and rules of the organisation first, the
rules are to be followed in a very strict and in a mandatory manner. This assignment will include
the timings and the topics, questions to be discussed in the meeting.
3

BODY
1. EVENTS THAT RESULTED IN GRIEVANCES AT THE WORKPLACE
Events that resulted in the termination of the employee were related to theft activity which is
unforgettable and it became mandatory to fire the employee from his job.
The employee was caught in the managers’ office where he was fetching up the data from the
manager's computer through USB chip and he was intending to steal the data from the
manager’s computer, this data is very private and important as it included future strategies,
account wise data of clients and suppliers. This was witnessed by another employee named XYZ
who witnessed the scene; the whole event occurred at 8 pm 30 March 2019. If this data would
be misplaced then the manager’s job could be in danger and he would be punished with fines
or maybe he would be sued by the company. Through the employee's phone, it was revealed
that he was going to supply this data to the competitors for money. The competitor contacted
the employee to misuse the computer and steal the data from the manager’s computer so that
they can get the ideas and new product planning schedules and designs of future clients. There
was also a presentation for next day which is to be delivered to gain the orders from very big
prospect clients, if the information could have reached the competitors then they would copy
the same and further this may cause huge loss to the company’s current and future cash flows.
After seeing this manager yelled at the employee who tried to steal but he was not having any
reason to justify himself and going to the manager's office at night when all the other
employees are gone.
4

Grievances faced by the manager were very unprofessional as the employee has behaved very
rudely; he was the defaulter and did not accept the fact that he was stealing the data. As the
manager shouted he became impatient and hides the pen drive from the manager in his
pocket. There are mostly 3 types of grievances this was most probably the individual grievance,
this grievance is from point of view of an employee who thinks that the manager is trying to
blame the employee because he has some grudges with the employee.
5

2. Responsibilities of Manager
The manager needs to become more alert and conscious about his work, a delegation of power
and passwords with the other employees and subordinates. The manager has the responsibility
to control the activities of the employees under him and manage them by reviewing their
activities each and every time to avoid the frauds. The manager has the responsibility to
combine all the proofs that he has about the grievances and to see that the witness does not
change his statements at the time of the meeting.He needs to incorporate more security in his
office and other places so that in future no one will try to do the same frauds like this
(Srimannarayana et al., 2010).
Responsibilities of HR
The HR manager has the responsibility of supporting the manager and suing the ex-employee
because he has been given warning that he will not return to the office again but he returned
and filed a complaint against the manager. He did this because his recommendation will clearly
state that he has been expelled because of his misrepresentation and fraudulent activities and
his unprofessional behaviour. Due to this, he will not be able to get the job anywhere else. The
ex-employee should be legally sued and punished with a fine of a reasonable amount. The ex-
employee is blaming the manager that manger is deliberately blaming him.
HR manager needs to specify an amount of fine which it needs to be charged if anyone does
this again. The manager needs to communicate the legal rules and ethics code and mandatory
laws which are to be strictly followed by the organisation and its employees and violation will
be chargeable of fine and severe punishments (Jones and saundary, 2012).
6

3. SUGGESTIONS AND ADVICE TO SOLVE THE GRIEVANCES THROUGH A MEETING
The problem can only be solved by talking about this in a meeting where the trade union,
manager, griever (employee) and HR manager are present. The time period of the meeting will
2 hours where all the topics related to this problem will be covered one by one, everyone’s
point of view will be heard and used in decision making for this grievance. The aim of the
meeting is to come to the conclusion that solves the problem without being biased with the
employee and manager. The manager has been reported for a grievance for the very first time
so the possibility of his defaulting from the manager's side is less reliable. Still, on the basis of
proofs, only the panel will take the decision (Wood et al., 2014).
The meeting will be held with the following questions –
1. What is the point of view of the employee, why he went to the manager's office and
what he was doing with the USB?
2. What is the point of view of the manager, what the employee was doing when he
caught him red-handed?
3. How did the manager react when the employee was stealing the data?
4. What are the words of the witness and what are the other proofs of both the parties?
5. Who is the defaulter or griever here according to trade union, HR manager and
management team?
Steps to be taken after the meeting- The human resource manager needs to study the point of
view of both the manager and the employee. He has to clearly evaluate both the proofs and the
documents. After evaluation and discussing the same with the trade union and reaching to the
7

conclusion that who is the defaulter probably the employee and what are errors and mistakes
of managers which are to be resolved. The punishment and fine on the employee which is to be
charged to compensate for the loss that could have been occurred if this important information
was made available to the competitors.
HR needs to strictly make employees follow the code of conduct, ethics of the organisation
firstly by communicating them the laws and all the rules then after communicating the amount
of penalty that would be charged from next time. Every employee should be examined and
checked before he enters the organisation. There should be a ban on caring for the pen drive
and other USB chips in the office premise. He should communicate the rules and policies to all
the departments and their managers (Singhal et al., 2017).
8

CONCLUSION
This report can be concluded by stating that there are some times where the company faces
internal grievances these grievances can only be solved by the HR department of the company
and the manager himself. There are various ways in which the solution can be derived but the
most suitable solution is to sit and discuss the same in a meeting and if the knot is not solved
than serious legal actions are required to maintain the ethical and smooth workflow within the
organisation. In the report, there is an explanation about how the whole event happened, who
was the defaulter and at what time. The main aim of doing this report was to identify the
grievances that are faced by the manager and what was the fault of the employee, his fault was
that he tried to steal the data from the manager’s office after the office. There was very
important information that he tried to give it to competitors. The responsibilities of HR and
manager in this situation and what will be their responsibilities after the grievances are solved
in order to bring harmony, peace and ethical working culture in the organisation.
9

REFERENCES
Jones C, Saundry R. The practice of discipline: evaluating the roles and relationship between
managers and HR professionals. Human Resource Management Journal. 2012 Jul;22(3):252-66.
Singhal T, Ojha A, Madhav NS. Effective and impressive approaches for grievance handling in
pharma sector. Innovat International Journal Of Medical & Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2017 Jan
1;2(1).
Srimannarayana M. Line management responsibility in HRM: An empirical study. Indian Journal
of Industrial Relations. 2010 Jan 1:470-80.
Wood S, Saundry R, Latreille P. Analysis of the nature, extent and impact of grievance and
disciplinary procedures and workplace mediation using WERS2011. Acas Research Papers.
2014;10:14.
10