Enacting Organizational Justice and Institutional Learning in Faculty Dispute Resolution Processes: Lessons Learned from a Study of the UNC System.

This study examines dispute resolution processes available to higher education faculty in a nonunion context who are attempting to resolve adverse employment conditions. It assesses the efficacy of those processes for producing outcomes of value both to individual faculty members and to a university. Key areas of interest include faculty knowledge about and levels of confidence in campus systems for dispute resolution, how campuses prepare for and conduct hearings, and the potential for dispute resolution processes to enact organizational justice and produce institutional learning. A survey of faculty affiliated with the 16 constituent higher education institutions of The University of North Carolina and interviews conducted with faculty having direct experience with campus hearings provided data to examine these issues. The data indicates that for dispute resolutions processes to function effectively, there must be greater support of persons engaged in the processes, additional training for administrators, advisors and hearing panel members, and increased transparency in reaching and reporting the outcomes of these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]