INEFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

Grievance Procedures

In 2015, there were nearly 90,000 discrimination complaints made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; 45 percent of which included a charge of retaliation (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016).

Grievance procedures are typically put in place to prevent, identify, and rectify problems, but this and other findings suggest that reported grievances are made worse upon initial reporting, not better. Some studies indicate that this may be because when “protective” systems are implemented, people pay less attention to managing their own prejudices and rely more on company policies to guarantee fairness.

However, if these policies are not consistently checked and adapted to counter bias, which they frequently are not, they inevitably fall short of their objectives. Consequently, people lose trust in systems, organizations, and their leadership (Dobbin & Kalev, 2020).