After you read the readings and listen to the instructor remarks, write a 3-5 page paper for your boss (the Deputy Director for Administration) on how you would approach designing an ADR process to resolve sexual harassment complaints for the National Park Service (NPS). Address the issues in:
Designing an ADR Process for the National Park Service
Allegations of sexual harassment at the National Park Service continue. The Inspector General
for the Interior Department that oversees the Park Service, for example, found a pattern of
unwanted advances and attention, plus inappropriate comments, made to female Park Service
employees at Canaveral National Seashore. Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell stated that
reports of sexual harassment at the National Park Service are probably just the tip of the
iceberg and that cultural problems throughout the system are likely to be found.
You are the head of Human Resources at the National Park Service and have been called into a
meeting next week with the Director of the Park Service, Park Service and Interior lawyers, and
the Secretary of the Interior. You will be asked to discuss how the Park Service should go about
designing a dispute resolution process to handle allegations of sexual harassment. You do not
have to present a fully designed process but you should be prepared to discuss a number of
planning issues, including but not limited to:
The factors to consider when designing the sexual harassment dispute resolution process;
How these factors might be weighted in terms of Service goals;
How and why these factors may lead to consideration of one or more types of dispute
resolution process (identify the type or types);
The steps to be undertaken when designing the process;
The timetable;
How to evaluate the process;
How to roll out the process to Park Service employees and stakeholders, such as the
White House and Congress;
How to educate Park Service employees about the process; and
How to sustain the process.
Please prepare a 3- 5-page paper for your boss (the Deputy Director for Administration) on how
you would approach designing an ADR process to resolve sexual harassment complaints for the
NPS. The assignment is intended to focus on the factors that must be considered when designing
and selecting an ADR process. Thus, the emphasis is on how one decides on an ADR process,
rather than on all the nuts and bolts of how it would operate. Assume no unions are involved.
Grading will be based on the associated rubric.
Note:
The assignment is intended to focus on the factors that must be considered when designing and selecting a process (see especially the chart on these factors in the readings). Thus, the emphasis is more on how one decides on a process, rather than on all the nuts and bolts of how it would operate. Assume for the purposes of this exercise that no unions are involved. When making a recommendation for your boss, be sure to be specific about the reasons for your recommendation and discuss how it ties directly to the issue of sexual harassment. Do not simply toss out general concepts–be specific with explanations. Please address all issues in the assignment as shown in the rubric.
