Date of Award
8-1-2014
Document Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Organizational Unit
Josef Korbel School of International Studies
First Advisor
Karen A. Feste, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Cynthia V. Fukami
Third Advisor
Jennifer C. Greenfield
Keywords
Assisting role, Conflict resolution, Human resource frame, Ombudsman, Reframing
Abstract
Organizational ombuds officers have worked in corporate America for nearly fifty years. This was an exploratory study of ombuds officers in the United States that utilized direct interviews to gather data from seven ombuds officers in large organizations. A qualitative approach compared roles of these ombuds officers to roles of other ombuds officers working in the United States. Roles examined included: investigatory, advocacy, assisting, and regulatory roles. The results demonstrated that a majority of ombuds officers worked in an assisting role. Ombuds officers may provide better information to organizations if they employ a four frame structure to track issues brought by visitors, such as that outlined by Bolman and Deal, which identifies four frames for understanding organizational behavior: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic. In this study, when looking at the functions of ombuds officers in light of the four organizational frames, most focused on a human resource frame.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Dana M. Bennett
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
155 p.
Recommended Citation
Bennett, Dana M., "Roles and Functions of Organizational Ombuds Officers in the United States" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 67.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/67
Copyright date
2014
Discipline
Alternative dispute resolution, Management, Organizational behavior