The organizational ombudsman practice is becoming in recent years a new field of interest in the academia. Born in North America and now spreading to Europe, the organizational ombudsman is a “neutral” employee in charge of dealing with disputes and complaints within the organization. Many universities, corporations and government agencies have an ombuds office today, but extensive empirical research in the field is still lacking. This article features interviews with some of the most prominent people in the organizational ombudsman world: 8 university ombudsmen, 4 ombudsmen from a government agency, 4 corporate ombudsmen, 1 community ombudsman and 1 ombudsman working in a international organisation have discussed with the author various aspects of this new profession. Participant observation was also conducted during the joint meeting of two professional ombuds organisation, and some major issues such as the kind of systemic changes generated by ombudsmen and the evaluation of the ombudsman impact were discussed and examined. Finally, two innovative ombudsman schemes have been analyzed in details: the ombudsman/mediator programme in the health care complaints sector and the community ombudsman in charge of dealing with disputes and relational dissatisfaction within a religious congregation.
L’alba di una nuova professione : la pratica dell’organizational ombudsman / L. Cominelli. - In: MEDIARES. - ISSN 1723-3437. - 12(2008), pp. 109-130.
L’alba di una nuova professione : la pratica dell’organizational ombudsman
L. CominelliPrimo
2008
Abstract
The organizational ombudsman practice is becoming in recent years a new field of interest in the academia. Born in North America and now spreading to Europe, the organizational ombudsman is a “neutral” employee in charge of dealing with disputes and complaints within the organization. Many universities, corporations and government agencies have an ombuds office today, but extensive empirical research in the field is still lacking. This article features interviews with some of the most prominent people in the organizational ombudsman world: 8 university ombudsmen, 4 ombudsmen from a government agency, 4 corporate ombudsmen, 1 community ombudsman and 1 ombudsman working in a international organisation have discussed with the author various aspects of this new profession. Participant observation was also conducted during the joint meeting of two professional ombuds organisation, and some major issues such as the kind of systemic changes generated by ombudsmen and the evaluation of the ombudsman impact were discussed and examined. Finally, two innovative ombudsman schemes have been analyzed in details: the ombudsman/mediator programme in the health care complaints sector and the community ombudsman in charge of dealing with disputes and relational dissatisfaction within a religious congregation.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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