Organizational ombudsman

Additionally, an organizational ombudsman offers coaching on ethics and other management issues, provides mediation to facilitate conflict resolution, helps enable safe upward feedback, assists those who feel harassed and discriminated against.

The concept has been widely implemented, and has been spread around the globe, with many corporations, universities, government and non-government entities establishing organizational ombudsman programs.

In recent years there has been much research about organizational ombuds, for example at and and [1] The organizational ombudsman role has evolved from at least two sources:[citation needed] a) an evolution from the concept of the 'classical' ombudsman and b) a spontaneous creation and re-invention – of the idea of an internal, neutral conflict resolver – often by senior managers who had never heard of the classical model.

Sometimes referred to as the ultimate 'inside-outsider', an organizational Ombudsman adheres to professional standards strictly governing their confidentiality and neutrality.

[citation needed] By virtue of their protected and highly placed internal role (e.g., reporting to a board of directors rather than to line or staff management), they can be particularly effective at working long-term with management to help effect change in policies, procedures, systems or structures that are problematic for employees or inefficient for the organization.