MIT Ombuds Office

neutral, confidential, independent, informal

Ombuds Publications

Partial List of Mary P. Rowe's Publications

  1. "Saturn's Rings," a study of the minutiae of sexism which maintain discrimination and inhibit affirmative action results in corporations and non-profit institutions; published in Graduate and Professional Education of Women, American Association of University Women, 1974, pp. 1-9. "Saturn's Rings II" is a 1975 updating of the original, with racist and sexist incidents from 1974 and 1975. An excerpt appears in the Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Volume 50, No. 1 (Sept./Oct. 1975), pp. 14-18. A more complete version appears in Bourne, Patricia and Velma Parness, eds., Proceedings of the NSF Conference on Women's Leadership and Authority, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 1977, also reprinted in Comment, Vol. 10, No 3 (March 1978), p. 3. Also revised and republished as "The Minutiae of Discrimination: The Need for Support," in Forisha, Barbara and Barbara Goldman, Outsiders on the Inside, Women in Organizations, Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1981, Ch. 11, pp. 155-171.
  2. "Go Find Yourself a Mentor," in Bourne, Patricia and Velma Parness, eds., Proceedings of the NSF Conference on Women's Leadership and Authority, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 1977, also reprinted in Comment, Vol. 10, No. 3, (March, 1978), p. 2.
  3. "A Handy, Dandy, Quick and Practical Checklist for Women Trustees," in Moore, Kathryn, editor, Gateways and Barriers for Women in the University Community, Cornell University Press, N.Y., 1977, pp. 48-53.
  4. "Moving Up: Role Models, Mentors, and the Patron System" with Eileen Shapiro and Florence Haseltine, in Sloan Management Review, Vol. 19, No. 3, (Spring, 1978).
  5. "The Case of the Valuable Vendors, Subtle Discrimination as a Management Problem," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 56, No. 5, (Sept.-Oct., 1978), also reprinted in Dealing With Conflict, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School, 1983, pp. 167-173.
  6. "Building Mentorship Frameworks for Women (and Men) as Part of an Effective Equal Opportunity Ecology," in Farley, Jennie, (ed.) Sex Discrimination in Higher Education: Strategies for Equality, Cornell University Press, 1981, pp. 23-33 and 102-105. This article also appears in a revised version as "Building Mentoring Frameworks for Blacks (and other people) as part of an Effective Equal Opportunity Ecology," in the Proceedings of the First National Conference on Issues Facing Black Administrators at Predominantly White Colleges and Universities, M.I.T., 1982, pp. 152-158.
  7. "Dealing With Sexual Harassment," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 59, No. 3, (May-June, 1981).
  8. "Are You Hearing Enough Employee Concerns?" with Michael Baker, in Harvard Business Review, Vol. 62, No. 3, (May-June, 1984), pp. 127-136, a review of non-union complaint systems in the U.S.
  9. "The Non-Union Complaint System at MIT: An Upward-Feedback Mediation Model," in Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation, Vol. 2, No. 4, (April, 1984), pp. 10-18, also reprinted in Riskin, Leonard L. and James Westbrook, Dispute Resolution and Lawyers, West Publishing Co., 1987, and in Westin, Alan and Alfred Felieu, Resolving Employment Disputes Without Litigation, BNA, 1988.
  10. "Dispute Resolution in Scientific Settings: A Systems Approach," speech prepared for the AAAS in May, 1984, to appear in a book by Michael Baker on Scientific and Technical Dispute Resolution, an edited volume of proceedings.
  11. "The Ombudsman as an Ounce of Prevention," with John Reddy, in Industry, Vol. 51, No. 3, (March, 1987), pp. 42-44.
  12. "The Corporate Ombudsman: An Overview and Analysis," in Negotiation Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, (April, 1987), pp. 127-140.
  13. The Corporate Ombudsman Handbook, first (draft) edition, with James Hendry and others as co-editors, May, 1987; and "Corporate Ombudsmen: An Exploratory National Survey of Purposes and Activities," and "Cost-Effectiveness of Ombudsman Offices" with James T. Ziegenfuss and Lee Robbins, May, 1988; both reports distributed to the Corporate Ombudsman Association.
  14. "Organizational Response to Assessed Risk," in the Program Record of the 1988 IEEE Electro 1988 Conference, Risk Assessment and Response, IEEE, 1988.
  15. "What Actually Works? The One-to-one Approach," in Pearson, Carol S. and Donna L. Shavlik and Judith G. Touchton, Educating the Majority, ACE-Macmillan Publishing Co., 1989, pp. 375-384.
  16. "Corporate Ombudsman," with James T. Ziegenfuss, Lee Robbins and Robert Munzenrider, in Personnel Journal, March, 1989, pp. 76-79.
  17. "Should an Ombudsman Testify?," in Alternative Dispute Resolution News, BNA, June, 1989, Vol. 3, pp. 222-223.
  18. "Cost-Effectiveness of Ombudsman Offices," with Anthony Perneski, in the Corporate Ombudsman Newsletter, May, 1990.
  19. "People Who Feel Harassed Need a Complaint System with both Formal and Informal Options," in Negotiation Journal, April, 1990, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 161-172.
  20. "Barriers to Equality: the Power of Subtle Discrimination," The Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, June, 1990, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 153-163; also reprinted in Mappes, Thomas A. and Jane S. Zambaty, eds., Social Ethics, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1991.
  21. "Helping People Help Themselves: an Option for Complaint Handlers," Negotiation Journal, July, 1990, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 239-248.
  22. "Ombudsman Dilemmas: Confidentiality, Neutrality, Testifying, Record-Keeping," with Mary Simon and Ann Bensinger, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of SPIDR, 1989, SPIDR, 1990, pp. 282-293. Also reprinted in Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration, Winter 1993, pp. 329-340.
  23. "The Ombudsman's Role in a Dispute Resolution System," Negotiation Journal, October, 1991, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 353-361.
  24. "Whose Interests Were at Stake — And Who Was at the Table?" Negotiation Journal, January 1992, Vol. 8, No. 1.
  25. "The Case of the Hidden Harassment," (comment) in Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1992, p. 7.
  26. "Options and Choice for Conflict Resolution in the Workplace" in Negotiation: Strategies for Mutual Gain, by Lavinia Hall, ed., Sage Publications, Inc., 1993, pp. 105-119.
  27. "Corporate Ombudsmen: Functions, Caseloads, Successes and Problems," with James T. Ziegenfuss, a 1989 survey of 55 corporate ombudsmen Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter 1993, pp. 261-280.
  28. "Perspectives on Costs and Cost Effectiveness of Ombudsman Programs in Four Fields," with James T. Ziegenfuss, Gary Hall, Anthony Perneski and Marshall Lux (an analysis of five types of ombudsman offices), Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter 1993, pp. 281-312.
  29. "An Overview of Client and Internal Ombudsmen," Journal of Health and Human Resources Administration, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter 1993, pp. 259-260.
  30. "Comment" on "What Should I Do with My Problem Employees? A Case Study," Catherine Stover, ed., Small Business FORUM, Journal of the Association of Small Business Development Centers, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Spring, 1993, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 19-22. Also reprinted in Problems and Solutions in Small Business Management, Catherine Stover, ed., Upstart Publishing, 1995.
  31. "Fostering Diversity, Some Major Hurdles Remain," CHANGE Magazine, March/April 1993, pp. 35-39.
  32. "The Post-Tailhook Navy Designs an Integrated Dispute Resolution System," Negotiation Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, July 1993, pp. 203-213.
  33. "People With Delusions or Quasi-Delusions Who ‘Won't Let Go’," Journal of the University and College Ombuds Association, Occasional Paper, Number 1, Fall 1994.
  34. "Options, Functions, and Skills: What the Organizational Ombudsperson Might Want to Know," Negotiation Journal, April 1995, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 103-114, also reprinted by The Ombudsman Association, 1995.
  35. "Specifications for an Effective Integrated Complaint System," in Sexual Harassment on Campus, Robert Shoop et al, editors, Simon and Schuster, 1996.
  36. "Dealing with Harassment: A Systems Approach," in Sexual Harassment: Perspectives, Frontiers, and Response Strategies, Women & Work, Vol. 5, Margaret Stockdale, editor, Sage Publications, 1996, pp. 241-271.
  37. "Dispute Resolution in the Non-union Environment: An Evolution Toward Integrated Systems for Conflict Management?" in Sandra Gleason, editor, Workplace Dispute Resolution, Michigan State University Press, 1997.
  38. "What is it like to be an Organization Ombudsperson?" for the 50th year celebration journal of the IRRA, Perspectives on Work, Vol. 1, no. 2, 1998.
  39. "Workplace Justice, Zero Tolerance and Zero Barriers: Getting People to Come Forward in Conflict Management Systems," with Corinne Bendersky, in Negotiations and Change, From the Workplace to Society, Thomas Kochan and Richard Locke (editors), Cornell University Press, 2002.
  40.  "A Questionnaire for Analyzing Your Conflict Management System," to be included in the Proceedings of the CNCR conference on dispute resolution systems, forthcoming.

In Progress

Dealing with-or Reporting-"Unacceptable" Behavior, with Linda Wilcox, (HMS) and Howard Gadlin (NIH).

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