Christina Merchant and the State of Dispute System Design

• Author: Lisa Blomgren Amsler,Janet K. Martinez,Stephanie E. Smith
• Date: 01 December 2015
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21149

C R Q, vol. 33, supplement 1, Winter 2015 S7

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the Association for Confl ict Resolution

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21149

ARTICLES

Christina Merchant and the State of Dispute

System Design

Lisa Blomgren Amsler

Janet K. Martinez

Stephanie E. Smith

Christina Merchant made an important contribution to the fi eld of

dispute resolution through her teaching, writing, and training on dis-

pute system design. Using principles of organization development, she

brought a new organizational lens to thinking about dispute system

design (DSD) beyond collective bargaining and grievance procedures;

she looked at the whole organization, its many sources of, causes for,

and ways to address confl ict. With Cathy Costantino, her 1996 book

provided a unique and infl uential resource for a fi eld that has contin-

ued to grow.  e fi eld would benefi t from broadening the academic

literature that informs systems for managing confl ict. Zooming out

to the organization’s nested institutional contexts, the work of Elinor

Ostrom in political science and political economy provides the tools

of institutional analysis for DSD. She also laid the groundwork for

thinking about DSD in relation to governance, not only at the local

but also at the state, regional, national, and international levels. By

applying a more comprehensive analytic framework to DSD, confl ict

resolvers with DSD skills and expertise are poised to make important

diff erences in emerging global systems for addressing confl ict upstream

in policy development, midstream in its implementation, and down-

stream in enforcement.

Portions of the text and the illustrations are from Dispute System Design by Lisa Blomgren

Amsler, Janet K. Martinez, and Stephanie E. Smith © 2016 by the Board of Tr ustees of the

Leland Stanford Jr. University, reprinted by permission of Stanford University Press, sup.org.

S8 AMSLER, MARTINEZ, SMITH

C R Q • DOI: 10.1002/crq

Christina Merchant, in collaboration with Cathy Costantino, authored

one of the earliest books to guide and teach a new fi eld of practice

within the dispute resolution community. Merchant had a rich career

in labor relations in the private, public, and international arenas. Using

organization development as its frame, in Designing Confl ict Management

Systems: A Guide to Creating Productive and Healthy Organizations, Costan-

tino and Merchant (1996) built on their lifetime of experience addressing

disputes to broaden DSD beyond collective bargaining and labor relations

to organizational confl ict management. What impact has Christina Mer-

chant’s work had on the fi eld? Where is the fi eld of DSD now?

 is article briefl y traces the history of DSD and outlines its new direc-

tions. First, it addresses the origins of DSD in the fi eld of dispute resolu-

tion. Next, it describes the birth and history of DSD, placing Costantino

and Merchant’s work in this context, and outlining its relation to organiza-

tion development. Next, we argue that the work of Elinor Ostrom in polit-

ical science and political economy provides necessary tools of institutional

analysis for DSD and the groundwork for thinking about DSD in rela-

tion to governance. We propose an analytical framework for DSD (Amsler,

Martinez, and Smith, forthcoming) to provide confl ict resolvers with more

tools. With DSD skills and expertise, confl ict resolvers are poised to make

important diff erences in emerging global systems for addressing confl ict

upstream in policy development, midstream in its implementation, and

downstream in enforcement.

Origins in Alternative Dispute Resolution

DSD has its origins in the contemporary fi eld of dispute resolution.

Dispute resolution around the world and through history has ranged from

village elders fostering conciliation in communities, religious leaders medi-

ating family confl ict, and commercial experts arbitrating business disputes,

to contemporary formal court proceedings. In the twentieth century,

labor relations provided models for resolving confl ict outside government

through private justice systems that include negotiation, mediation, and

arbitration (Barrett and Barrett 2004).

Modern alternative dispute resolution (ADR) theory developed in the

United States with Mary Parker Follett (1918/1998), whose deep knowl-

edge of organizations, administration, labor relations, and political science

grounded her research on confl ict and its management (Menkel-Meadow

2000, 2005). Subsequent research in the disciplines of organizational