Article Examines Collateral and Outsourced Ombuds Through Lens of IOA Ethical Standards

Kristen Blankely is the author of a forthcoming article in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, "Dispute Resolution Tradeoffs in Ombuds Office Design." Blankley, a Professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, evaluates the design considerations of three types of Organizational Ombuds: the traditional Ombuds, an employee with no other duties; "Collateral duty Ombuds," an employee with other, unrelated duties; and "Outsourced Ombuds," external, contracted providers. Blankley spoke on some of these issues at the Centre for Informal Dispute Resolution conference in March 2024. 

Here's the abstract of the article: 

An organizational ombudsman (or "ombuds," used as the preferred term in this paper) is a conflict resolution specialist who works as either an employee or contractor within the organization it serves. Ombuds provide a wide variety of services ranging from one-on-one discussions with visitors to reporting trends from visits to leaders of their organizations. Traditionally, organizational ombuds serve as employees with no other duties to the organization than their work as ombuds. However, over the last forty years, two new variations of this model have appeared. The first is a variation is where the ombuds are employees who have additional duties related to the organization's mission. This paper refers to those as "collateral duty" ombuds. The second involves using a contract model to outsource the ombuds role to non-employees. The paper refers to these people as "outsourced" ombuds. This paper examines the design choices in structuring ombuds offices, comparing the different models. Each model offers distinct benefits and tradeoffs in relation to the core ethical pillars of ombuds practice: independence, impartiality, informality, and confidentiality. This paper analyzes these ethical concerns and provides guidance for navigating ethical questions. 

(Cardozo J of Conflict Res.) 

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