Mary P. Rowe

Barriers to equality: The power of subtle discrimination to maintain unequal opportunity

This article argues that subtle discrimination is now the principal scaffolding for segregation in the United States. The author suggests that this scaffolding is built of “microinequities”: apparently small events, which are often ephemeral and hard to prove; events that are covert, often unintentional, frequently unrecognized by the perpetrator. Microinequities occur wherever people are perceived to be “different”: Caucasians in a Japanese-owned company, African-Americans in a white firm, women in a traditionally male environment, Jews and Moslems in a traditionally Protestant environment. These mechanisms of prejudice against persons of difference are usually small in nature, but not trivial in effect. They are especially powerful taken together. (As one drop of water has little effect, though continuous drops may be destructive, one racist slight may be insignificant but many such slights cause serious damage.) Microinequities work both by excluding the person of difference and by making that person less self-confident and less productive. An employer may prevent such damage by developing programs on diversity, like “valuing differences” and team-building. The author does not believe microinequities should be made the subject of antidiscrimination legilation.

People who feel harassed need a complaint system with both formal and informal options

Wkh increasing diversi~ in the U.S. workforce. lawmakers. the corporate world, scholars and tie geneml public me all showing increasing interest in pnwenting and dealing with hamssment. particularly sem.ud and racial harassment. Because perception of harassment is intrinsic to the deftition of the offense of haramment, it is necess~ to have an undemanding of hose who experience the problem, (Hasammem is an unusual “wrong”’: h exists in part in the eye of the person wronged, rather than having a wholly objective life of i~ own. For example, sexual hamssment is legally defined in part as being unwanted sexual attention).

The Ombudsman's Role in a Dispute Resolution System

ConclusionIn the terms of Ury, Brett, and Goldberg, ombuds practitioners can help to provide “motivation, resources, and skills” for continuous problem solving in times of change, within a dispute resolution system. Ombuds offices help to foster interest-based solutions. They can help disputants to loop backward or loop forward, where such actions are appropriate. In the language of Total Quality Management, ombudsmanry is focused on the needs of the “customers” (that is, the persons involved in dispute), in particular by providing respect and by providing options. In human terms, ombuds offices appear to be widely used where they have appeared, thus indicating some effectiveness of response to the needs of people in conflict.

Disputes and conflicts inside organizations: A systems approach

SummarySuppose you read all five of these books, as you prepare yourself to design, use, supervise, or teach about complaint systems? You will emerge with negotiations theory lucidly applied to complaints from Ury, Brett and Goldberg, and very impressive case examples of formal, interest-based grievance mediation. You will learn an elegant technique from Blake and Mouton that helps groups help themselves to learn and use a method to handle and resolve conflicts. You will gain insight about the panorama of functions and activities of an ombudsman-troubleshooter, that peculiar, mini-micro, complaints device, from Ziegenfuss. Westin and Feliu and Ewing, among them, have identified and/or addressed all the major issues in response to the classic question, “What are nonunion companies doing in-house, about fair adjudicatory process and why are they doing it?,” and they each give detailed case studies.What you will not get from three of these books is enough emphasis on helping complainants (whether employees or managers) deal responsibly and effectively on their own with their problems. Moreover, you will not get enough about “choice” by complainants, as distinguished from choice by negotiations specialists, or choice by managers, about how disputes should be handled.More generally speaking, what you will not get from any one of these books is a fully integrated map of all the (union and nonunion) complaint system functions and characteristics that are necessary for a first-rate system. Each discussion is a superb building block forthat book which, at this point in time, no one has yet come close to having written. However, you will be able to consolidate from these books a multifaceted view of why complaint systems are needed, and will be able to consolidate the best of contemporary thought as to how to build such systems.

The Organizational Ombudsman

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Micro-inequities in Medicine

In this ethical legal column, the guest editor, Julie Silver, MD, focuses on the concept of micro-inequities, a term coined by Mary Rowe, PhD (one of the invited columnists) more than 40 years ago. For the PM&R reader, this concept has broad and important implications. The unintentional and systematic biases experienced by women, ethnic and racial minorities, people with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, among other groups, raise ethical implications about social justice in multiple interdependent contextsdthe workplace, clinical care, educational programs, academic societies, and policy initiatives. Although there is increased awareness of the concept of micro-inequities, their continued perpetuation is unsettling and requires thoughtful attention and strategies. Dr Silver is a leader in rehabilitation medicine, well known for her scholarship in cancer rehabilitation, workforcediversity, and inclusion. She is anAssociateProfessor and Associate Chair in the Department of Physical