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Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation of Civil Rights in the Workplace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Lauren B. Edelman ,
Howard S. Erlanger  and
John Lande
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Abstract

Many employers create internal procedures for the resolution of discrimination complaints. We examine internal complaint handlers' conceptions of civil rights law and the implications of those conceptions for their approach to dispute resolution. Drawing on interview data, we find that complaint handlers tend to subsume legal rights under managerial interests. They construct civil rights law as a diffuse standard of fairness, consistent with general norms of good management. Although they seek to resolve complaints to restore smooth employment relations, they tend to recast discrimination claims as typical managerial problems. While the assimilation of law into the management realm may extend the reach of law, it may also undermine legal rights by deemphasizing and depoliticizing workplace discrimination.

Type
Articles on Culture and Compliance
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , 1993 , pp. 497 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by The Law and Society Association

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Footnotes

This research was supported by grants from the University of Wisconsin Graduate School, the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs, and the Fund for Labor Relations Studies in Ann Arbor, MI. We would like to thank Jane Collins, Murray Edelman, Sally Riggs Fuller, and the anonymous Law & Society Review reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts.

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