| This study compares workplace dispute resolution strategies in matched pairs of hierarchical and non-hierarchical (worker-owned cooperative) organizations operating in four industries---coal mining, taxicab, wholefoods, and homecare. Drawing on the themes from law and society, organizational theory, alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and the sociology of gender, this research explores the impact of gender and of formal (i.e., official) and informal (i.e., unofficial) power on grievances and disputing strategies.;The first three industries---coal mining, taxicab, and wholefoods---demonstrate how the degree of formal and informal power workers hold affects their choice in grievance strategy. Workers with little power---neither formal nor informal---often chose to leave their jobs or learned to tolerate potential grievances, rather than try to resolve grievances. Workers with more formal power, but still little informal power, were more likely to use formal grievance procedures to resolve disputes, because avenues of informal grievance resolution were closed to them. Workers with the most power, those with both formal and informal power, could choose between informal or formal dispute resolution, but often preferred informal means.;In the fourth industry, homecare, workers with different amounts of power all had very similar grievance strategies. Workers at the cooperative business had high degrees of power, workers at the homecare charity business had modest degrees of power, and those at the private business had little power. Despite these differences in power, the workers' responses regarding their anticipated grievance behavior were remarkably uniform. Workers in all three homecare businesses reported preferring to resolve disputes informally rather than through formal grievance procedures. The triangular nature of disputes in the homecare industry (i.e., worker-manager-client, rather than simply worker-manager), as well as the industry culture's ethic of care, overrode the straightforward influence of power on grievance resolution. |
