Dissertation Examines "Ombuds Ideals"

A recent PhD dissertation by John T. Baugus at Fielding Graduate University, is titled, "Living the Ombuds Ideals: Independence, Impartiality, Informality, and Confidentiality in the Practice of the Organizational Ombuds." Baugus is the Associate VP for HR at Azusa Pacific University. Howard Gadlin was a member of the dissertation committee. The full paper is available online. 

Here is the abstract: 

As organizations have grown in size and complexity in recent decades, consequential conflicts between employees, and between employees and the organizations they serve, have become more frequent. Percolating organizational issues have potential to harm individuals, decrease productivity, be costly to resolve, and cause long-term damage to the entity’s public reputation. An increasing number of organizations, including colleges and universities, have created an ombuds office as one means to address concerns that arise. This study focused on organizational ombuds, who serve as neutrals and follow the standards of practice of the International Ombuds Association (IOA). 

The study positioned ombuds work as a form of alternative dispute resolution and was comprised of semi-structured interviews with 14 organizational ombuds practicing in colleges and universities. The purpose of the interviews was to determine how ombuds navigate the four central tenets of the IOA—independence, impartiality, informality, and confidentiality—in challenging cases. Thematic analysis of the interviews identified five themes: the interdependence of the four core IOA principles, dual notions of success, the importance of and dimensions of confidentiality, the power of visitors maintaining ownership of the issue when they engage the ombuds office, and ombuds’ verbal reinforcement to visitors about what each of the four standards means in terms of the office’s practices. Drawing on extensive literature in the sociology of professions, the study also found that the ombuds field is best described as a protoprofession rather than a profession. 

(Proquest.)