Non-profit organisations and relationship management: an examination of parental justice evaluations, attitudes, and post-redress behaviours in a complaint resolution process

John Grainger

In the process of synthesising educational and business research in the field of relationship management, this study explores the extent to which parental justice-orientated evaluations of a complaint handling process influence post-redress attitudes and behaviours directed towards a team of educational service providers in a public school district. Justice is operationalised as outcomes received (distributive justice), processes used to deliver these outcomes (procedural justice), and the interpersonal communications experienced by the client during a critical service encounter (interactional justice). Utilising these three dimensions of justice provides valuable opportunities to explore relationships between justice evaluations and subsequent client attitudes and behaviours, as directed to the school system and its personnel. It further provides an opportunity to assess the impact perceptions of justice have on subsequent client-service provider relationships. The empirical investigation in this study is based on a stratified random sample of 642 clients drawn from a public school district. Respondents provided details of problems or concerns, and complaint handling processes experienced with schools or educational personnel, over a twelve month period. For purposes of analysis, respondents were categorised in three groups, voicers, non-voicers, and those who experienced no problems during the period under review. Relationships between justice evaluations and perceptions of satisfaction, commitment, trust, and satisfaction with complaint handling, together with various categories of post-redress behaviours were examined in the context of this grouping, using a variety of multivariate statistical techniques. The results from this study indicate that a complex web of relationships exist between justice evaluations and subsequent levels of client satisfaction, trust and commitment to the school system, as well as private and public post-redress complaining behaviour on the part of the clients. Interactional justice evaluations were found to impact on relationships to a greater. The results from this study indicate that complex web of relationships exist between justice evaluations and subsequent levels of client satisfaction, trust and commitment to the school system, as well as private and public, post-redress complaining behaviour on the part of the clients. Interactional justice evaluations were found to impact on relationships to a greater degree than procedural or distributive justice considerations, indicating that interpersonal communications play a highly important role in successful educational relationship management. Other findings highlight important differences between client responses to public and private sector service industries. The implications of these findings for non-profit organisations engaging in relationship marketing strategies are discussed.

Non-profit organisations and relationship management: an examination of parental justice evaluations, attitudes, and post-redress behaviours in a complaint resolution process

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