Overt and Covert Manifestations of Employee Dissatisfaction at Work

To begin with, it has been argued that industrial conflict is recognisable in most workplaces. As there is a relationship between employers and employees, and everyone has different needs and wants, the issue of having conflicts is actually common and there is a high possibility of these conflicts to be occurred. However, these conflicts can be either ‘overt’ or ‘covert’, expressed ‘collectively’ or ‘individually’, ‘pro-actively’ or ‘defensively’. So basically, employees usually get dissatisfied with the work when they are engaged with a certain number of reasons. The occurrence of the dissatisfaction leads to great levels of industrial conflicts in the organisation. There are a number of causes which can dissatisfy employees. One of the main causes of the conflicts in any given organisation can include the issues of the trade unionism especially when the rights of employees to join the trade unions are infringed or when the independence of the trade unions are compromised by the organisations that the people work for. Dissatisfaction of employees in an organisation can also be resulted from wages and the levels of the remuneration that are offered to the different people who work in the organisation (Baldry et al. 2007). When employees know that their payments are lower than the value of the work that they do in the organisation, the overall effect would be a general dissatisfaction of the employees of the organisation. The dissatisfaction can also be resulted from the changes in the managerial policies in the organisation as well as adverse changes to the working conditions in the organisation. It is important to note that when working conditions are affected in a negative manner, employees in the organisation will be dissatisfied with the operations and thus they may engage inactions that can lead to massive effects on the firm; including great losses to the organisation. This essay will explore the various overt and covert manifestations of employee dissatisfaction at work and it will explain what HR practitioners can do to both minimise their occurrence and address them when they do occur.

It must be considered that there are different types of conflicts in workplaces; the main two aspects are overt and covert manifestations of employee dissatisfaction at work. Employees usually have a number of ways through which they can be able to express their feeling of dissatisfaction with different ways in which an organisation is run. The different symptoms or manifestations of the dissatisfaction can be; easily seen (overt) or hidden (Covert). The overt manifestations of the dissatisfaction by employees usually take forms of open actions that are undertaken by groups of employees in the firm “collective” and it can be pro-active or defensive. On the other hand, the covert manifestations of the dissatisfaction of employees are usually manifested in the form of actions that are limited to the individuals who are