Information, Organizational Norms and Salience in the Use of Workplace Grievance Procedures: A Bangladesh Field Experiment
35 Pages Posted: 30 May 2018
Date Written: May 17, 2018
Abstract
Grievance procedures should allow workers to voice dissatisfaction and report abusive or unsafe conditions. Yet in practice, these procedures can be ineffective or underutilized. A randomized controlled trial of an intervention intended to promote the use of grievance procedures is conducted with Bangladeshi apparel workers. Half of participants are randomly selected to complete a task to promote salience of workplace communications. Half of the participants in each task condition are then randomly selected to receive four educational messages concerning the presence of a worker committee, the ability to make a complaint, organizational norms concerning verbal abuse and a statement by HR that grievances are taken seriously. Participants are then surveyed on their knowledge, perception and use of grievance procedures.
Educational messages increase the perception that grievance procedures are fair, the probability of making a complaint, awareness of the worker committee and comfort seeking help from the worker committee. Message content matters. Instructing workers that they can make a complaint to HR, that verbal abuse is not condoned and that management will act on their complaint increase awareness of the existence of the worker committee and comfort bringing a concern to the worker committee. Salience of workplace communications increases awareness of the existence of and comfort bringing a concern to the worker committee.
Female participants are less likely to know of grievance procedures, to know of the worker committee or to have ever made a complaint. Treatment does not reduce the gender disparity and, for some metrics, increases the gender differential.
Keywords: Grievance Procedures, Human Resource Management, Salience, Apparel Industry
JEL Classification: O15, J5
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation