Mediation's Impact on Formal Discrimination Complaint Filing : Before and After the Redress Program at the U.S. Postal Serevice

This study attempts to contribute to the growing body of field research on organizational use of employment dispute resolution. It examines a natural experiment in mediation of discrimination complaints at the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ascertain whether there is evidence of the efficiency benefits long touted as products of ADR. First. it describes the history of mediation of employment disputes at the USPS. Second, it briefly examines the industrial relations and human resource management literature on organizational dispute resolution and grievance procedures and in particular grievance filing research. Third, it examines literature on ADR programs from a different organizational setting. the courts. We conclude that a well-designed employment dispute mediation program can resolve discrimination complaints at an earlier stage in the administrative process and thereby reduce the number of formal complaints filed