Supervisor and manager styles in handling discipline and grievance: Part two - approaches to handling discipline and grievance

Examines the relative influence of a number of factors that can affect the approach (handling style) of a supervisor or manager when dealing with a disciplinary or grievance incident. Uses the same data set as the earlier paper in the same series. Finds that, for discipline, the most influential factors are the inconvenience for the manager of particular employee transgression and the length of employee service, with additional but comparatively minor effects for employee gender and the manager’s prior training and experience in handling issues. Identifies the most influential factors with grievance as the extent to which an issue challenges the authority of the manager, the length of employee service, the employee’s gender and, to a lesser extent, the gender of the manager handling the issue. Outlines the implications of these results for future research and for the training of supervisors and managers.