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Christina Merchant and the State of Dispute System Design
Author(s) -
Amsler Lisa Blomgren,
Martinez Janet K.,
Smith Stephanie E.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
conflict resolution quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.323
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1541-1508
pISSN - 1536-5581
DOI - 10.1002/crq.21149
Subject(s) - midstream , conflict resolution , state (computer science) , dispute resolution , political science , field (mathematics) , public relations , corporate governance , grievance , sociology , public administration , management , law , economics , engineering , computer science , mathematics , algorithm , crude oil , pure mathematics , petroleum engineering
Abstract Christina Merchant made an important contribution to the field of dispute resolution through her teaching, writing, and training on dispute 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 conflict. With Cathy Costantino, her 1996 book provided a unique and influential resource for a field that has continued to grow. The field would benefit from broadening the academic literature that informs systems for managing conflict. 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, conflict resolvers with DSD skills and expertise are poised to make important differences in emerging global systems for addressing conflict upstream in policy development, midstream in its implementation, and downstream in enforcement.