Enacting Organizational Justice and Institutional Learning in Faculty Dispute Resolution Processes: Lessons Learned from
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Enacting Organizational Justice and Institutional Learning in Faculty Dispute Resolution Processes: Lessons Learned from a Study of the UNC System Sandie Gravett 1 & Stella Anderson 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
This study examines dispute resolution processes available to higher education faculty in a nonunion context who are attempting to resolve adverse employment conditions. It assesses the efficacy of those processes for producing outcomes of value both to individual faculty members and to a university. Key areas of interest include faculty knowledge about and levels of confidence in campus systems for dispute resolution, how campuses prepare for and conduct hearings, and the potential for dispute resolution processes to enact organizational justice and produce institutional learning. A survey of faculty affiliated with the 16 constituent higher education institutions of The University of North Carolina and interviews conducted with faculty having direct experience with campus hearings provided data to examine these issues. The data indicates that for dispute resolutions processes to function effectively, there must be greater support of persons engaged in the processes, additional training for administrators, advisors and hearing panel members, and increased transparency in reaching and reporting the outcomes of these processes. Keywords Dispute resolution systems . Organizational justice . Institutional learning . Adverse employment decisions . Non-union, public university faculty . Shared governance
Introduction University faculty traditionally function as professional employees within a shared governance framework. The expectation of faculty leadership in areas related to an institution’s academic
* Sandie Gravett [email protected] Stella Anderson [email protected]
1
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA
Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal
mission, especially the decision making authority of faculty over matters of hiring, promotion, and tenure, significantly shapes the employer-employee relationship. Indeed, establishing effective dispute resolution processes for this subset of a university’s workforce can present unique challenges for both faculty and administrators. Still, when adverse employment conditions arise and employment decisions are contested, this feature of university life can be advantageous. A strong shared governance ethos holds the potential for a synergistic approach to conflict management and dispute resolution that can provide rich benefits such as enacting organizational justice and promoting institutional learning. This study focuses on dispute resolution processes in higher education settings. It grew out of the authors’ long-term experience as advisors for faculty seeking redress in adverse employment situations, serving on faculty hearing committees, and in faculty governance leadership roles on a non-unionized public university campus as well as within a larger university system.1 To explore core
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