HOW EFFECTIVE ARE GRIEVANCE HANDLING PRACTICES OF SRI LANKAN BANKS?

Abstract

Importance of handling grievance of employees in organizations is indisputably established by numerous scholars. Having identifi ed this importance, organizations are increasingly concentrating on handling grievances systematically and properly. However, in order to handle grievances successfully, certain characteristics should be presented in the procedures of handling grievances.
The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of grievance handling procedures of several Sri Lankan public and private banks, employing four established characteristics of effective grievance handling procedures,namely; a) promptness, b) fairness, c) simplicity and d) acceptability. Five popular and main banks in Sri Lanka, three private sector banks and two public sector banks, were chosen for the study. Data were gathered through interviews, semi structured questionnaires, and organizational documents. Five Human Resource Managers of the fi ve banks and 60 banking assistance were employed for gathering information. Findings of the study indicated that the private banks had all the four characteristics of an effective grievance handling procedure evaluated in the study, while the public banks did not have any criteria of effectiveness that was studied.

Keywords: Grievance handling procedures, Promptness, Fairness,Simplicity, Acceptability.

For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk