Business Conflict Blog

The firm of Ogletree Deakins and St. Louis University recently held an all-day Employee Dispute Resolution Symposium at the University’s very beautiful Busch Student Center.  The proceedings were well-attended and it was a privilege for me to be invited to present the opening remarks.

The comments of the various speakers, many from in-house corporate programs and some from outside attorneys, suggested that the “center” has shifted over the past few years, and that comprehensive conflict management programs that seriously address employee concerns rather than gearing up for employment arbitration are very much the norm these days. Read more »

Tags: Employment, systems design

The first part of this post analogized the use of arbitration to resolve employee disputes to using a wood chisel to smash a boulder — the wrong tool for the job.  At its conclusion I said that, sympathetic as I am to employees, it was the effect on chisel, not the rock, that concerned me.  This part explains why there is cause for concern. Read more »

Tags: Arbitration, Employment, Public Policy

One hot, lonely summer day in 1958, at our rural home near Crozet, Virginia, I was working on an 8-year old’s project: dislodging a big quartz rock that was buried in the gravel driveway.  After a few hours I realized the trowel just wouldn’t do the job.  So I found a wood chisel in my Dad’s tool chest.  “Ah-ha!” I thought, “This is just the thing!  I’ll reduce it to bits and dislodge it a chunk at a time!”  By the time Dad got back from work at 5:30 or so the quartz had not been reduced by much, but the wood chisel had lost about all of its utility.

Dad’s objections included the necessity of the objective (”You wanted to put a hole in the driveway?”), the soundness of the strategic analysis (”You were going to pound it to bits?”), and (particularly) the skill of the execution of this project ([eyes raised to heaven] “Son….”).  And ever thereafter, when he cautioned me about using ”the right tool for the right job,” his words had particular piquancy.

Which (obviously) gets us to the Arbitration Fairness Act. Read more »

Tags: Arbitration, Employment, Public Policy

This article first appeared in HR Magazine, September 2004.

What is the road map to failure in managing employment disputes?  Here are ten easy-to-remember lessons on how to not just confront disaster, but ensure it and embrace it!

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Tags: Employment, systems design