Date of Award

8-1-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Josef Korbel School of International Studies

First Advisor

Karen A. Feste, Ph.D.

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.

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

Rights holder

Dana M. Bennett

File size

155 p.

File format

application/pdf

Language

en

Discipline

Alternative dispute resolution, Management, Organizational behavior

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