A

Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Annual Report, 1999

c. Service To Indiana University And The Local Community

I. Introduction

This report covers the Institute's accomplishments from May 1998 through April 1999, roughly the second year of our operation. In this report, we provide information about the Institute's activities serving our three-fold mission: teaching, research, and service in the field of conflict resolution. Our activities reach across levels of government, academic disciplines, and program area. Because of the broad variety of activities, we have divided this progress report into three areas: and federal agencies and organizations, the state of Indiana, and Indiana University and the local community.

The Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute (ICRI) was established in 1997. Indiana University provided the Institute with initial funding through the Strategic Directions Initiative. In 1998, the Institute received continuing funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Institute receives additional funding through grants and contracts with public and private organizations.

The staff at the Institute is comprised of faculty, and graduate and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds including law, public affairs, management, and environmental science. The location of the Institute’s offices in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) puts the vast resources and research of the School at the staff’s disposal. The Institute continues SPEA’s distinctive record of success in creating effective solutions to real-world problems. In the short two years of the Institute's life span, we have had an impact on programs at a number of levels and contributed to the theory of evaluating dispute resolution processes.

Our vision is to improve alternative dispute resolution (ADR) programs. Towards this vision, we evaluate conflict resolutions programs and processes at the federal, state, and local levels, thus providing feedback for program administrators, consumers, and neutrals. At the same time, through our research and service mission, we help to educate the program administrators of the future and provide tools for practitioners and policy makers.

Lisa B. Bingham

Director

Rosemary O'Leary

Principal Investigator

Gina M. Viola

Administrative Director

II. Institute Projects

ICRI operates in three spheres of public service: nationally in research on the federal sector, regionally within Indiana state government, and locally within Indiana University and the surrounding community. The goal of our research projects is to provide insight to practitioners and academics alike. Support from the Hewlett Foundation has made significant contributions to the Institute's ability to conduct research projects, collaborate with practitioners and academics, and provide service learning opportunities for students.

National Research and Service

ICRI focuses on the evaluation of conflict resolution in public policy and management. Federal and state agencies provide excellent opportunities to contribute to the growing field of systematic research.

Evaluating the State of the States in Environmental Dispute Resolution

This national survey of state use of environmental conflict resolution began in June 1998 and ended in January 1999. Under the supervision of Professor Rosemary O'Leary, twelve graduate students surveyed more than 150 individuals throughout all 50 states (and the District of Columbia). The researchers wrote summaries of current environmental dispute resolution activities for each state. These summaries were published in the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution in May, 1999.

Presentations and Articles

O'Leary, R. et al. "The State of the States in Environmental Dispute Resolution," published in the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, Vol. 14, 1999, No. 2, p. 515.

Forthcoming Presentation: "The State of the States in Environmental Dispute Resolution" at the 1999 Research in Public Management Conference, College Station, Texas, December 3-4, 1999.

Evaluation Literature Database

The Institute is creating a national resource on evaluation of conflict resolution programs: a comprehensive web searchable annotated bibliography of the evaluation literature. To date, we have entered the bibliographic information of over 220 evaluation articles to the database. Students working with the Institute as well as students in a graduate class in negotiation and dispute resolution have written summaries of the articles. Both the bibliographic database and the summaries will be posted on the ICRI website.

Program Evaluation Case Studies

In collaboration with the Policy Consensus Initiative (PCI), ICRI has volunteered to serve as a repository for, and creator of, case studies of programs and multiparty public policy disputes. PCI is funded by the Hewlett Foundation, and its mission is to enhance state government use of dispute resolution. It sponsors the annual meeting of the state offices. At the last few such meetings, participants have repeatedly emphasized that they need program evaluation information for policy makers to explain the value of what they do. Through the collaboration of PCI and ICRI, we are in a position to match students with potential case study projects around the country.

Evaluating the Ombuds Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

In March, 1998 the Institute began an evaluation of the National Institutes of Health Center for Cooperative Resolution (CCR) pilot ombuds program. The CCR ombuds program seeks to resolve disputes, to anticipate where disputes may arise, and to recommend changes in order to promote a positive work environment. Where ombuds offices have maintained data, anecdotal information has suggested that employees report a low rate of reprisal for using ombuds services, and that stakeholders perceive the ombuds office to be effective. However, there are no systematic empirical evaluations of the impact an ombudsman can have on an organization’s conflict management. This evaluation sought to capitalize on this unique opportunity provided by the CCR pilot program. The goal of the evaluation was to assess the success of the CCR ombuds program relative to the existing process options in the NIH conflict management system. ICRI designed the evaluation in conjunction with NIH stakeholders. The design planned to examine the NIH conflict management system by comparing pilot and non-pilot sites. Institute researchers created six survey instruments for data collection. The surveys were distributed to NIH Institutes starting in the summer of 1998. With a change of personnel in the ombuds office, the CCR decided to terminate the ongoing evaluation. NIH terminated data collection in December, 1998. ICRI personnel met with the NIH ombuds office on May 21, 1999. As a result of this meeting, ICRI personnel are now designing a database for collection of data within the CCR.

Evaluating Mediation of Employment Disputes at the United States Postal Service

The Institute is conducting a multi-year study of the implementation of the USPS workplace mediation program called REDRESS (Resolve Employment Disputes Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly). When REDRESS was first implemented as a pilot in October 1994, the National Program Manager of REDRESS, (then Alternative Dispute Resolution Counsel) contracted with the Institute to design an independent evaluation of the pilot program. This work has grown into a four-year research collaboration between Indiana University and the USPS on the REDRESS program.

Over the summer of 1998, Institute researchers collected baseline data regarding perceptions of the climate and conflict management at the USPS. Researchers at the Institute designed the survey instrument and pre-tested it with assistance from the USPS headquarters. Seven researchers traveled to Cleveland, New York and San Francisco, to interview a random sample of USPS employees. The researchers conducted confidential one‑on‑one interviews with a total of 205 respondents, transcribed all interviews, designed a data entry protocol for coding of qualitative interview responses, and set up the data base. The USPS began rolling out the mediation program nationwide in the Fall of 1998. The Institute will conduct more interviews in the Fall of 1999 to assess the impact of the REDRESS program. Preliminary results of the data were presented in a report to USPS Headquarters. Additionally, REDRESS results from one of the cities were presented at the Society for Professionals in Dispute Resolution Conference. There are two ‘works in progress’ by Institute researchers soon to be submitted for publication.

The Institute is also measuring the impact of the REDRESS program by collecting data from participants in each mediation session. All participants in REDRSS mediations fill out confidential exit surveys and mail the surveys to the Institute. Thus far, the Institute has received and entered over seven thousand exit surveys. The exit surveys allow Institute researchers to determine how satisfied employees and supervisors were with the mediator, the process, and the outcome. The Institute enters the data and runs an analysis to submit quarterly reports to USPS Headquarters. Each report analyzes satisfaction levels of the program for each of the various regions of the country.

There are two additional studies designed for gathering more data on the USPS. The first one is an e-mail survey for Dispute Resolution Specialists that will elicit detailed information about the REDRESS mediation experience. The second research design targets USPS supervisors and interviews them one-on-one about their conflict management techniques and the impacts of training and mediation on these techniques.

Presentations and Articles

Presented Article "The Upstream Effects of Mediating Employment Disputes at the United States Postal Service: How can we Design an Evaluation for Capturing Changes in Relationships Between the Disputants?" at the 1998 Conference of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, October 19, 1998, in Portland, Oregon.

Attended a REDRESS Advanced Mediator Training in Indianapolis, IN on December 15 and 16, 1998. Provided REDRESS research articles to 30 Indiana mediators in attendance.

Presented preliminary findings of REDRESS research to 35 federal agency employees at the May 20, 1999 meeting of the Federal Interagency Working Group, Workplace Disputes Section. (Please see materials, attached).

Bingham, Lisa and Hallberlin, Cindy, "Postal Service Expanding Workplace Dispute Program," published in Consensus, October 1998, no. 40, p. 1. (Please see Consensus article and other news articles regarding the REDRESS program and evaluation, attached).

Forthcoming Publication: Bingham, L.B., and Napoli, L.M. "Changing Workplace Climate Through Mediation at the United States Postal Service," published in the American Bar Association's Federal Alternative Dispute Resolution Handbook.

An Evaluation of the Use of Dispute Resolution Techniques in EPA Enforcement Activities

With the cooperation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute is conducting research to determine the qualitative benefits of ADR in EPA enforcement activities. This research project, supervised by Professor Rosemary O'Leary, seeks to contribute to both theory and practice. It will help improve our understanding of the complex context in which ADR is utilized in enforcement activities at the EPA. During the summer of 1998, ICRI researchers conducted phone interviews with 23 EPA ADR Specialists and 30 mediators involved in EPA ADR processes. Institute researchers have completed phone surveys of approximately 100 EPA enforcement attorneys. Currently, Institute researchers are conducting phone surveys of a stratified random sample of participants in EPA ADR processes. All four phases of data collection will be completed by the end of June, 1999 and data analysis should be completed by Fall, 1999.

Evaluating Employment Arbitration Under the Rules of the American Arbitration Association

The Institute continues to study employment arbitration, an emerging method for resolving disputes between employers and employees not represented by a union. In cooperation with the American Arbitration Association, the Institute is studying the effectiveness of employment arbitration, the occurrence of employer-mandated arbitration, and the regulation of the employment arbitration process. The research concentrates on the Due Process Protocol for Mediation and Arbitration of Employment Disputes and explores the extent to which players frequently involved in arbitration have different results than one-time participants. In the past year Professor Lisa Bingham has presented results from this research showing that the Due Process Protocol is having and impact on employment arbitration by screening out employer plans that violate employee due process protections.

Presentations and Articles

Presented Article "Employment Arbitration after the Due Process Protocol: Preliminary Evidence that Self Regulation Makes a Difference" at September 24, 1998 conference, Arbitration in the 21^st Century, co-sponsored by the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Presented "Employment Arbitration after the Due Process Protocol: Preliminary Evidence that Self Regulation Makes a Difference" at the 1998 Conference of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, October 19, 1998, in Portland, Oregon.

Presented "Employment Arbitration after the Due Process Protocol: Preliminary Evidence that Self Regulation Makes a Difference" at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, on March 30, 1999.

Forthcoming Publication: Bingham, L.B. and Mesch, D.J. "Decision-Making in Employment Arbitration" in the Industrial Relations Journal. (Please see copy, attached).

Forthcoming Publication: Bingham, L.B. and Chachere, D.R. "Dispute Resolution in Employment: The Need for Research." Eaton, Adrienne, Dispute Resolution: IRRA 1999 Research Volume. (Please see copy, attached)

Evaluating the Use of Mediation and Facilitation of Employment Disputes at the United States Department of the Air Force

The Air Force uses various forms of dispute resolution for employment disputes, including facilitation, mediation, arbitration, and early neutral evaluation. The Air Force implemented its ADR program nationally in 1995. The Institute is analyzing archival data showing informal complaint filing rates, formal complaint appeal rates, mediation attempt rates, and mediation settlement rates at all 38 bases and commands. The Air Force has provided us with data through 1997. We continue to collect additional data.

Training and Evaluation of Conflict Resolution at Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center

The Institute has provided training and evaluation services to Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, a naval installation near Indiana University with 5,000 federal employees. On July 7 and July 28, 1998, Business Professor Stephen Hayford provided two one day course in negotiation to Crane Project Managers. On February 19 and 20, 1999, Professor Lisa Bingham taught a two-day course on interest based negotiation techniques and mediation. On March 11, 1998, Professor Lisa Bingham provided a one day short course in interest based negotiation to members of the Crane Resolution Committee. In addition, the Institute has contracted with Crane to review case decisions of the Crane Resolution Committee. This completed report provides Crane with summaries of the decisions and data regarding the types of disputes and their outcomes.

A Longitudinal Evaluation of Environmental Attorneys' Attitudes Toward the Use of Mediation in the Resolution of Environmental Disputes

This project is a survey of environmental attorneys' attitudes toward, and experiences with, ADR. A copy of the research design has been presented to a few board members of the American Bar Association Section on Natural Resource, Energy, and Environmental Law (SONREEL), who are supportive. We are awaiting their official approval (in order to gain access to their database of names and addresses), and hope to begin sending out surveys in January, 2000.

Service to the State of Indiana

ICRI’s mission to the state integrates teaching, research, and public service. Indiana has no state office of dispute resolution, unlike 25 or so other states, including next door neighbor Ohio. While there is statutory authority for state agencies to use mediation, and hundreds of registered mediators in the state, mediation has only been used some three dozen times in the past five years at the agency level, and all but two of these instances involve one agency. ICRI’s service mission to the state is to act as a ‘virtual’ state office of dispute resolution.

Indiana ADR Provider Survey

This project consisted of mail surveys to 676 ADR providers in the state of Indiana. The Institute compiled the list of the 676 individuals from the Indiana Registry of Civil and Domestic Mediators, the membership lists of the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, and the Indiana State Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution. We received 215 completed surveys from ADR Providers. This information has enabled us to obtain a picture of providers, their areas of expertise, and their practices. In addition, we have created a web-searchable database of Indiana Providers for the ICRI website so that the public may more easily find Indiana mediators with particular expertise or in a particular geographic location. We expect to have the database available on the web during the summer 1999.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Mediation Pilot Project

In 1997, the Institute conducted a telephone survey of Indiana state agencies regarding their use of alternative dispute resolution. We found that very few agencies were using any form of ADR. In cooperation with the Governor's Office we have designed and implemented a mediation pilot program in IDEM. Our goal for this pilot project is to provide the framework for a mediation program that can serve as a model for other state agencies. The development of this pilot project has involved a number of steps:

¨ The Institute conducted in person interviews with IDEM attorneys, staff, and potentially responsible party (PRP) legal counsel, to assess IDEM’s conflict management system.

¨ Institute staff have represented ICRI at meetings of the Indiana State Bar Association Environmental Law and Dispute Resolution Sections soliciting input on the pilot.

¨ Institute staff developed a roster of environmental mediators for the IDEM Commissioner’s approval, and obtained a commitment from these mediators to do the first case pro bono, or at no cost to IDEM.

¨ Institute staff organized, planned and offered two different one-day training sessions on interest-based negotiation and mediation for approximately 40 IDEM staff.

¨ Institute staff designed a program evaluation to determine the impact of the pilot on IDEM.

¨ Staff met with administrative law judges in the Office of Environmental Adjudication to explore expansion of the pilot program in its next phase.

¨ As a result of these efforts, IDEM has appropriated $25,000 to pay mediators, beginning in January, 1999.

¨ Institute staff is working the members of IDEM staff as well as other agencies to develop a shared neutrals program for Indiana state agencies.

Other State Achievements:

ICRI staff drafted white papers summarizing Indiana statutes which provide authority to use dispute resolution processes and published the papers on the ICRI website.

We developed general information and definitions about conflict resolution processes as well as a limited bibliography and posted it on the ICRI website.

Institute staff set up and operate a listserv (named IndianaADR) for people in the state and the university interested in conflict resolution.

We met with representatives of the Governor’s office, General Assembly, and state agencies to ascertain how ICRI might best assist state government in using mediation.

In collaboration with the American Arbitration Association, we held focus groups on February 4th, 1999 on how to broaden Indiana use of dispute resolution. Leaders from government, business, and health care attended. Tom Colosi from the American Arbitration Association facilitated the focus group discussions. The Institute took notes on the focus group discussion and will issue a report with findings in June, 1999. Please see article from the April 1999 issue of Dispute Resolution Times, attached.

In conjunction with the Indiana State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section, the Indiana Chapter of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, and the American Arbitration Association, ICRI sponsored the Hoosier Midwinter Labor Conference on February 3, 1999. The conference was attended by over 100 individuals, including members of collective bargaining units, school representatives, private attorneys, state agency staff, and IU faculty and students.

Institute personnel will participate in a select group named the Indiana ADR Roundtable, created this fall by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard. The purpose of the Indiana ADR Roundtable is to assess the Indiana Supreme Court Rules on ADR and the use of court- connected ADR in Indiana. Institute staff are writing a law review article on the development of ADR in Indiana to assist in this discussion.

Since 1997, Institute staff have attended three national meetings of state offices of dispute resolution representing Indiana, two of these as part of the annual conference of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, and one in November, 1998 at the offices of the Ohio Supreme Court. As a result of ICRI’s efforts to bring together people in the state working in this area, we were able to secure an invitation to the Ohio conference for representatives of the Indiana Commission on Continuing Legal Education, which maintains the registry of trained Indiana mediators. They discovered for the first time that they have peers and colleagues doing similar work in other states.

Service to Indiana University and the Local Community

A part of the threefold mission of the Institute is to serve as a clearinghouse for conflict resolution activities within the Indiana University (IU) system. As such, we have reached out to faculty, staff, and students to determine needs and provide programs and opportunities which meet these needs.

Through its local activities, the Institute involves a number of individuals with different backgrounds and interests in conflict resolution. The chart below represents the number of individuals by category who have been involved in Institute activities in this past year.

Number of Participants in Local ICRI Activities

Students

IU Staff

IU faculty

Agency staff

Practitioners

Brownbags/Speakers

250

Research

Training Workshops

Community Workshops

Conference Presentations

Training

On October 1, 1998, ICRI sponsored a mediation short-course to 25 members of the IU Conflict Resolution Consortium, a group of staff and administrators who handle disputes among internal and external stakeholders. Members of the Consortium had expressed an interest in a skills building mediation course. Linda Harvey, a nationally known mediation trainer, provided the training.

On January 6th to 9th, 1999, ICRI sponsored a 40-hour Environmental Mediation short course providing students with nationally known trainers from the Washington, DC-based organization, Resolve, Inc, in a one-credit hour program that is eligible for continuing legal education credit. Twenty graduate students, four IU faculty, five IDEM staff members, one administrative law judge, and one private attorney attended the training. Several segments of the training were provided by faculty and students affiliated with ICRI .

Conferences and Speakers

On February 25 and 26, 1999 ICRI and SPEA co-sponsored Gail Bingham of RESOLVE as a SPEA colloquium speaker. Ms. Bingham is a nationally known environmental and public policy mediator, and has written the leading research volume on environmental conflict resolution. Ms. Bingham presented a colloquium at SPEA to faculty, students, and community members entitled "Where is the Civil in Society? Resolving Environmental Issues by Consensus." She also presented a colloquium entitled "Opportunities and Obstacles in Resolving Environmental Issues" as part of SPEA’s annual State House reception. On February 26^th, Ms. Bingham served as a panelist on the Environmental Conflict Resolution Panel of the National Association of Environmental Law Society conference held on the IU campus. Professor Lisa Bingham moderated this panel.

On February 25, 1999 ICRI personnel presented a colloquium on Alternative Dispute Resolution at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs statehouse reception held in the Indiana Government Center of the State Capitol. The colloquium was attended by state and local government personnel, mediators, lawyers, faculty, students, and alumni.

IU Conflict Assessment

During the fall 1998 semester, students in a SPEA graduate course in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (V547) conducted a conflict assessment of Indiana University. The students fanned out across the IU Bloomington campus conducting interviews with key staff and administrators. This project has the support of the IU offices of Human Resources, the Dean of the Faculties, Research and the University Graduate School, and the President of the University. Its goal is to achieve a better understanding of how the University manages conflict, and to determine whether there is room for improvement in the system. The initial data collection is complete. Students working with the Institute will complete analysis and a report by August, 1999.

Collaborations with IU Departments and the Bloomington Community

ICRI is also building collaborative relationships with the new office of Student Mediation Services at IU, the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program of the City of Bloomington, and a nascent community mediation program in Bloomington. These two programs train student volunteer mediators, and give them mediation experience in student roommate disputes and misdemeanor property offenses. A law student who worked with ICRI during the summer of 1998 was hired to coordinate the Student Mediation Services project. Institute staff also participate in the IU Conflict Resolution Consortium, a group of IU staff and faculty who handle complaints and conflict as part of their function within the university system.

Graduate students affiliated with ICRI have been working with local nonprofit agencies, including the Community Kitchen, Shelter, Inc., and Middle Way House to design conflict management training for management and staff at the agencies.

Brown Bag Presentations

Throughout the year, the Institute sponsors brownbag forums which provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to learn from conflict resolution practitioners and researchers. We held the following presentation in the last year:

Professor Rosemary O’Leary, "Environmental Conflict Resolution," February 20, 1998.

Dean A. James Barnes, "Superfund Mediation," April 17, 1998.

Professional and USPS Mediator Linda Harvey, "Transformative Mediation," October 1, 1998.

Professor John Krauss, Director on the Indiana Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, "Why Are Public Meetings Such a Disaster?" November 2, 1998.

Business School Professor Stephen Hayford, "Revisions to the Uniform Arbitration Act," November 12, 1998.

Steve Lucas, Department of Natural Resources, Vickie Martin, Indiana Education Employee Relation Board, and Susan Nelson, Attorney Mediator, participated in a panel presentation, "Mediation in Different Contexts," February 12, 1999.

Kathryn Watson, private attorney, former director of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management Office of Enforcement, "Pig Poop: the Scoop on Negotiated Rulemaking" on April 12, 1999.

Collaboration with IU Faculty

The Institute began with a five member faculty advisory board and has continued to expand the members of the advisory board to include as many members as possible with interest in alternative dispute resolution. Four members of the IU faculty, including the Dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, attended the forty hour Workshop in Environmental Dispute Resolution. The brownbag series has provided an opportunity for faculty to present their professional public service work to a wide forum. Also, the Institute has referred a number of state and local programs seeking research, service, or teaching assistance to members of the faculty in the IU system.

Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute Annual Report, 1999

I. Introduction

Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Annual Report, 1999