CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

11. ORGANIZATIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION SYSTEMS 323
The ubiquity of formal ODR systems in the union setting is credited for
the growth of ODR systems in nonunion settings as well. Following World
War II, there was very little implementation, let alone use, of formal ODR
in nonunion organizations (Slichter, Healy, & Livernash, 1960). In the 1960s
and 1970s, we started to see more substantial ODR procedures adopted
within firms. For example, General Electric introduced its multistep appeal
system in the 1970s in response to the threat of unionization (see Ewing,
1989). It was the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, that witnessed the
largest rise of nonunion ODR procedures. In 1980, Berenbeim’s (1980)
survey indicated that approximately two thirds of its sample of 96 nonunion
firms had a formal multistep appeal system in place. Ichniowski
and Lewin’s (1987) survey of a larger number of both union and nonunion
firms suggests approximately 50% of nonunionized employees had access
to a formal ODR system by the early 1980s.
Although the early research primarily focused on grievance procedures
as ODR, certainly other types of ODR systems were being introduced and
used in organizational settings. For example, IBM’s open-door policy, in
which disputants can approach any level of management with a dispute,
emerged in the 1960s. Cherrington (1982) identified open-door policies as
the “the most popular procedure for responding to employee complaints”
(p. 596) in nonunion organizations. Similarly, Thomson (1974) identified
open-door policies as the default for organizations without a formal multistep
appeal system in place. However, several researchers called into question
whether typical open-door policies were truly operating as effective
ODR systems in organizations (e.g., Cherrington, 1982; McCabe, 1988). The
use of ombudsperson (explained more in the following section) was also
being discussed in the literature (e.g., Balfour, 1984; McCabe, 1988), but it
was not clear how prevalent its use was in organizations.
Current Practice of ODR systems
ODR systems in organizations have grown considerably in use and
variability since the 1980s. The U.S. General Accounting Office’s (1995)
study of a sample of federal contractors found “almost all employers of 100
or more employees use one or more ADR approaches” (p. 3). This study
found that nearly 10% in the sample had adopted nonunion multistep
appeal systems (with arbitration as the final step) in particular. Similarly,
approximately 16% of the nonunion firms in Colvin’s (2003b) study of the
telecommunications industry had multistep appeal systems with arbitration
and/or peer review as the final step. Among workplaces that do adopt
ODR systems, these procedures vary in basic features, such as the extent to
which there is a formal, set procedure to follow, who is the final decision
maker, whether employees are permitted representation, what complaints