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date: 14 May 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter discusses the OO (organizational ombudsman) in the context of organizational conflict management systems (CMS). The OO is a confidential, neutral, internal resource-formally independent of line and staff management-working informally, without decision-making power. OOs work with all employees and managers, and every workplace issue, as a "zero barrier" office. OOs seek fair processes for concerns brought to them. OOs refer to all formal and informal CMS options, identify "new" issues, and recommend systems improvements. The chapter discusses the emergence of the role in the context of social, political, and cultural changes over the past 50 years, especially in North America. It discusses the alternative dispute resolution movement-and concurrent emergence of the OO as an appropriate dispute resolution role within a CMS. It describes the functions-and competencies required-of ombudsmen, and discusses current challenges faced by those in OO roles.

Keywords: organizational ombudsman, zero barrier office, appropriate dispute resolution, neutrality, confidential resource, independence

Mary Rowe

Mary Rowe has a PhD in economics and joined MIT in 1973. She has been an MIT Ombudsperson for decades, and also Adjunct Professor of Negotiation and Conflict Management. She helped to start and develop earlier ombuds associations, which subsequently became the International Ombudsman Association. Http://web.mit.edu/ombud includes Rowe’s articles on the ombuds profession, ombuds effectiveness and elements of practice, micro-inequities, micro-affirmations, harassment, integrated conflict management systems, and bystander behavior.

Howard Gadlin

Howard Gadlin has been Ombudsman and Director of the Center for Cooperative Resolution at the National Institutes of Health since the beginning of 1999. From 1992 through 1998 he was University Ombudsperson at UCLA. He was also Director of the UCLA Conflict Mediation Program and Co-director of the Center for the Study and Resolution of Interethnic/Interracial Conflict. While in Los Angeles he served as Consulting Ombudsman to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to coming to UCLA, he was Ombudsperson and Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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