Sources of Employee Grievances: Procedures and Employee Job Satisfaction among Seventh-day Adventist Institutions in Malawi

Abstract

In the workplace, complaints and concerns arise from time to time. Organizations must have an effective grievance-handling mechanism to address such issues. This study aimed to assess the sources of employee grievances, the current procedures for handling grievances, and their relationship with employee job satisfaction in selected Seventh-day advisory institutions in Malawi. Two hundred thirty-one employees participated in the study. Based on the reported findings, sources of employee grievances are communication, workload, working conditions, organizational culture, and supervision. However, the regression analysis showed that among the procedures in handling grievances, only ‘able to resolve grievances’ was a significant predictor of job satisfaction. Hence, organizations, particularly SDA institutions that recognize their employees as the most critical organizational assets, must ensure adequate supervision and grievance-handling procedures for the organization’s benefit in such a way that dialogue is commonly used in handling grievances.