From Postal to Peaceful: Dispute Systems Design in the USPS REDRESS® Program

• Author: Lisa Blomgren Bingham,Tina Nabatchi
• Date: 01 June 2010
• Published date: 01 June 2010
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X09360187
• Subject Matter: Articles

Review of Public Personnel Administration

30(2) 211 –234

© 2010 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X09360187

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From Postal to Peaceful:

Dispute Systems Design

in the USPS REDRESS

Program

Tina Nabatchi1 and

Lisa Blomgren Bingham2

Abstract

This article explores the concept of dispute systems design for workplace disputes,

focusing particularly on the first two stages: organizational diagnosis and design. It argues

that dispute systems should be designed in light of the conflict-related motivations and

behaviors of personnel under existing conditions, as well as the likely consequences of

each design choice on their future motivations and behaviors, including incentives to par-

ticipate in the new system. These assertions are illustrated with an in-depth case study of

Resolve Employment Disputes, Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly (REDRESS), the U.S.

Postal Service (USPS) employment mediation program. The case study shows that the

organizational diagnosis stage was critical to the successful design of the USPS program

in that it provided important information about the dispute behaviors of personnel in the

existing system. In turn, this information helped the USPS understand how various design

choices would affect individual incentives to participate the future REDRESS system.

Keywords

dispute systems design, workplace mediation, organizational conflict, employment disputes

Introduction

Dispute systems design (DSD) refers to the strategic arrangement of dispute resolution

processes within an organization (Costantino & Merchant, 1996). DSD has become an

1Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA

2Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Tina Nabatchi, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 400 F Eggers Hall,

Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

Email: tnabatch@syr.edu

212 Review of Public Personnel Administration 30(2)

increasingly important element of organizational activities, particularly in regard to the

management of workplace conflict. This article explores DSD for workplace disputes

and focuses primarily on the organizational diagnosis and design stages. It argues that

an effective dispute system requires the organization to understand the conflict-related

motivations and behaviors of personnel under existing conditions, as well as the likely

consequences of each design choice on their futures motivations and behaviors, includ-

ing incentives to participate in the new system. Moreover, the article asserts that it is

especially important for the organization to design the system with the goals of enhanc-

ing reciprocity, cooperation, and self-determination and increasing perceptions of orga-

nizational justice. These assertions are illustrated with an in-depth case study of Resolve

Employment Disputes, Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly (REDRESS), the U.S.

Postal Service (USPS) employment mediation program. The case study shows that the

organizational diagnosis stage was critical to the success of the USPS program in that

it provided important information about the dispute strategies of personnel in the exist-

ing system, which in turn shed light on how various design choices would affect indi-

vidual incentives and behaviors in REDRESS.

To that end, this article first explores DSD and uses public choice theory to give

insights about the need for organizational dispute systems, as well as the need for those

systems to promote reciprocity and cooperation among participants. The article then

discusses the four stages of DSD, paying particular attention to the organizational diag-

nosis and design stages and their relationships to perceptions of organizational justice

and self-determination. The article concludes with an in-depth case study of the USPS

REDRESS program.

Dispute Systems Design

Dispute systems are the composition, arrangement, and structure of dispute resolution

procedures and processes in organizations (Bingham & Nabatchi, 2003). All organi-

zations have dispute systems (by design or not); however, those dispute systems are not

always effective at minimizing the various dysfunctional conflicts experienced by

organizations. Dispute systems design refers to the deliberate managerial effort to iden-

tify and improve the way an organization addresses conflict by decisively and strate-

gically arranging its dispute resolution processes (Costantino & Merchant, 1996). The

ideas of DSD have grown in popularity as organizations have recognized their poten-

tial to produce satisfactory dispute outcomes in a timely, efficient, and cost-sensitive

manner (Bingham, Hallberlin, Walker, & Chung, 2009; Lipsky, Seeber, & Fincher,

2003). Today, DSD efforts are seen in a host of organizations in the public, private,

and nonprofit sectors to address the myriad disputes organizations face both within

and outside their walls. DSD has become especially prominent for workplace disputes,

perhaps because these disputes are largely internal matters among organizational mem-

bers (Nabatchi, 2007) and as such may be the most visible disputes in organizations.

Concern about organizational DSD, and particularly DSDs for workplace disputes,

is rooted in research that identifies three primary methods of conflict resolution: power,