Q: What is the focus of the panel on which you are speaking?
A: Our panel will generally deal with employee access to justice and more specifically with the question of whether providing employees with ADR procedures and processes promotes workplace justice.
Q: How does your current work or research connect to this panel?
A: The paper Ariel Avgar, Ryan Lamare, and I are presenting at our Portland session is called “The Strategic Underpinnings of Conflict Management in U.S. Corporations: Evidence from a Survey of Fortune 1000 Companies.” This paper uses the database we’ve assembled on the ADR practices and policies of Fortune 1000 corporations to assess whether a strategic choice model can explain variations in these practices and policies. We find that the strategic orientations of corporate managers are, in general, significantly related to the organization’s choice of ADR techniques and conflict management systems. Specifically, we identify three strategic factors that are important in explaining managers’ choices: (1) the desire to achieve efficiency in the operation of the organization; (2) the objective of avoiding litigation and its related costs; and (3) the goal of sustaining relationships and achieving durable solutions of workplace disputes. We also find that the organization’s commitment to ADR, measured by the proportion of the workforce covered by ADR policies, is strongly related to the organization’s portfolio of ADR techniques and its use of conflict management systems. To the extent that the provision of ADR policies and techniques improves employee access to justice, these findings support the view that employee access to justice is a function of the strategic orientation of the organization.
Q:What is significant about this work; how is it relevant to today’s issues in the workplace?
A: Our panel’s papers and presentations are highly relevant to critical issues in the contemporary workplace. There is debate and controversy over whether ADR techniques (such as arbitration) provide employees with equity and justice comparable to litigation. Is an ADR forum an adequate substitute for the courtroom? There is no clear - cut answer to this question in part because it depends on one’s values. But our panel will provide both theoretical and empirical evidence on the question.
Q: How will attending LERA help move your work forward?
A: I have attended almost all of the annual LERA meetings (and earlier, IRRA meetings) since I joined the organization in 1963. Participation in LERA and its annual meeting is essential to the research and teaching I do. The formal sessions are clearly important, but the opportunity to interact with colleagues from across the country and around the world is equally important.