The National Conference on Current Trends in
Conflict Resolution in Higher Education

Concurrent Workshops II

Using a University Ombuds Office as a Catalyst for a Conflict
Management System: Going from Reactive to Proactive

Workshop Presenter

    Camillo Azcarte is a professional Ombudsman, mediator, facilitator and trainer working at the Ombuds Officer of Princeton University. Previously, he was the Ombuds Officer at Florida Gulf Coast University where he also acted as the Director of the Conflict Resolution Institute and a Faculty member at the College of Business. Earlier, Camillo was Government Programs Coordinator for the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution. Camilo holds a Juris Doctor from Xaverian University, a Master in corporate and labor law and a Master in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts. He is a member of the Association of Conflict Resolution, the Ombudsman Association and an affiliate of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Harvard University and has received several awards for his work in dispute resolution, including the “Award for Outstanding Achievement in dispute resolution” and the “Don Paulson Award for excellence in dispute resolution.”

    Howard Gadlin has been Ombudsman and Director of the Center for Cooperative Resolution, at the National Institutes of Health since the beginning of 1999.  Before that, from 1992, through 1998, he was University Ombudsperson and Adjunct Professor of Education 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 well as Consulting Ombudsman to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Dr. Gadlin was Ombudsperson and Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He currently serves as Chair of the Coalition of Federal Ombudsmen. Dr. Gadlin is past President of the University and College Ombuds Association and of The Ombudsman Association (TOA). An experienced mediator, trainer and consultant, he has years of experience working with conflicts related to race, ethnicity and gender, including sexual harassment. At present he is developing new approaches to addressing conflicts among scientists. He is often called in as a consultant/mediator in “intractable” disputes. He has designed and conducted training programs internationally in dispute resolution, sexual harassment and multicultural conflict. He is the author, among other writings, of “Conflict, Cultural Differences, and the Culture of Racism,” and “Mediating Sexual Harassment.” He is the co-author of “On Neutrality: What an Organizational Ombudsman Might Want to Know.” Recently he was Guest Editor of a Negotiation Journal section entitled “The Many, Different and Complex Roles Played by Ombudsman in Dispute Resolution.”

Workshop Notes

Chaos Theory

• First office at NIH

• Half of the people at NIH are involved in research

• The other half are involved in support functions

• Need for an Ombuds office arose from overuse of formal Grievance system

• NIH needed a better process so they decided on an Ombuds program

• They hoped the Ombuds program would handle the responsibility to stop systemic problems in NIH

• They got top leadership to buy in to the Program

• They established limits to Conflict Resolution principals

• The process was adapted to the culture of the students

Design systems run the risk of management

• The Ombudsman insures people of different Status are treated fairly

• Be careful not to maintain the power structure of an organization

• Become aware of the regularities of conflicts

• A harassed person usually blames himself or herself

• Ombudsman helps create a program to empower harassed people

Address regular reoccurring problems

• Much conflict comes from most powerful people

• Because they have the ability to ruin your career

• The ombudsman works back from the conflict to discover the root of the problem

• Once the problems are discovered money has been set aside to solve them by oversight

• It is important to promote the process early on and create a partnering agreement

• Use a template for a model for the partnership agreement

Be proactive

• Give them the tool to avoid difficulties

• Then go back to where the problem started

• Develop a mid-stream partnership Agreement

• Tailor the process to the scientific community

• Training in collaborative mediation techniques

• Partnering workshop

Power study (Depression to surplus)

• Developed governing structure (public research committee)

• Collaboration financial, administration 9 schools

Power discrepancies

• Identify issues not Names, Separately interview each party

• Find a method to equalize power

• Find a way to address potential conflicts

Process of dialogue

• Tailor Structure to organization

• Creating power discrepancies is a risk of intervention

• Define terms of reference for the office to assist to Ombudsman

• Ombudsman must be tuff and uncompromising

• Must understand internal structure of the organization

• Must be completely neutral

• Independent support outside of management

• Must be able to live with structural tension

Ombudsperson deals a lot with having to get people to work together.  ‘Big’ Question is how an Ombudsperson can do this.

Ombudsperson needs to be respected, to identify issues and make recommendations.

• Putting appropriate systems into place (depending on culture and context)

• Able to coach people, not just saying here is the process but to walk them though it.

• And to facilitate, not just mediation

Designing Conflict Management

• To be able to see the fear and risk that is potential in every department. The Ombudsperson needs to be part of the management department and the justice dept. but to be able to maintain power and balance of the system as a whole.

 As and Ombudsperson you will see recurring problems/symptoms of a particular problem/case (ex... sexual harassment). ???? With those symptoms in mind the Ombudsperson can put a new or useful process into place.

• work backward from the conflict and see the common problems

• Ask yourself; are all the parties’ communication beforehand their relationship, the rules, conflict procedures when necessary…? etc.

 Development – (Handout; the Q: How can these Q’s give you a process that is proactive and useful? Perhaps give a model and tweak it a bit…)

An example he used was where equipment is located in a building. Does the location of the equipment enhance communication between the different groups that make up the Federal people and the researchers? This is an easy thing to do but will help give everyone a chance to communicate.

Power discrepancies allow big players to have too much power and too much say in where the equipment should be placed.

Proactive – Ombudsperson should interview all bosses of each party separately, not have a meeting but ‘change the rules’; this is intended to equalize the power.

• Give the information you have collected from the bosses anonymously!

• Or have them create a vision for all the parties to see (create a bond and a goal)

*Everything must be particular the context of the companies/parties

Question and Answer segment:

                Q: Putting the homeland Security offices into place; there are a lot of different backgrounds and departments coming together, should there be an Ombudsperson and if so what should their role be?

                A: Yes there should be an Ombudsperson, but it must be seen as independent regardless if they are in-house. No one should have power over them (to an extent) b/c they need to be impartial regardless of pressures (Especially in Gov. Projects/programs).

• Terms of Reference: Ombudsperson needs rules and restrictions but not to be able to be fired if they “piss off” the boss

• Also there should be an advisory committee to the Ombudsman for evaluation.

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