Organizational Relations

[Gregory Matthews]

Every organization, large or small, secular or religious, has to deal with standards for relating to employees.  In the U. S.  Federal employees, generally have a right to seek counsel, advice and representational help in their relations with management.  This help is provided to the employee at no charge to them and by other employees who have been formally trained to provide this service and are recognized by management for the provision of those services.

Providing these services and the training of the people who fill this role is costly.  Those costs are not paid by either the person in that role of by the employee who has requested help.  Those costs are provided  by another means.

As a former Federal employee, I requested assignment to one of those representative positions, while at th[e same time continuing in my position as a chaplain.  It should be noted that this representational work involves much more than discipline.  It could involve many, not all, aspects of the working environment.

When I requested such an assignment, some involved people questioned whether or not, I as clergy could properly represent people.  A representative of the organization that provided the funding that I mentioned above was asked to interview me as to how I would relate to people in discipline cases when I thought that they were guilty.  I told the representative, among other things, that I would perform my duties based upon the following four (4) principles:

1)  Every person had a right to be informed of the charges against them.  I would not tolerate not being open with the person on that point.  NOTE:  In my experience with people in general, many  just do not like to tell someone what the real issue is.  I have seen this done in both the secular and religious setting.

2) Every organization has policy and rules that state how discipline should be carried out.  This is called "due process."  I would insist upon management sticking to the rules.  In both secular and religious settings, I have  often see people attempt to manipulate the situation in a manner that people were not given due process.

3) No matter how foolish, every person has the right to tell their story even if acting against advice.

4) When guilty, I would work for a resolution that was fair to all parties.

I will suggest that the above four are good rules of behavior.  Yet, I have often seen people get into trouble because they did not follow those basic rules.  I have seen this happen both inside and outside the SDA denomination.  I am not saying that they are never followed.  I have seen them successfully followed inside and outside the SDA denomination.