Trust in ADR: what people expect Annual ADR Conference Oxford 2016

Dr Naomi Creutzfeldt

ESRC Research Fellow /Lecturer in Law, University of Westminster

Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford (Associate)

THANK YOU

  ESRC for funding my project

  All participating ombudsmen and their staff

  My colleagues for support, encouragement, and feedback

  Hope that my findings can contribute to understand users expectations better and to refine some processes

Outline

  My project

  Method

  My sample

  Some of my findings

  What next?

Trusting the middle-man: impact and legitimacy of ombudsmen in Europe

Peoples perceptions of fairness and trust in informal justice

1. What explains users' perceptions of fairness and trust vis-a-vis ombudsmen institutions?

2. How do cultural frameworks influence citizens use of ombudsmen?

Participating ombudsmen

Differences and the search for similarities

  All participating ADR bodies are different!

  Typical person who responds to a survey? Timing of response.

  Terminology (ombudsman)

  The survey – common stages in the complaint process   First contact   The procedure   The outcome   The overall satisfaction

Method

  Consumer satisfaction survey sent out by ombudsmen to their customers who recently went through their procedure   by post

  by email - online link

  September 2014 – March/May 2015

Theories

  Procedural fairness   Neutrality / Respect / being heard / Voice

  Legitimacy (1) a moral obligation to obey the decisions of this authority;

(2) that it is acting in a lawful manner; and

(3) that it operates according to a normative framework they themselves share.

Procedurally just / fair

Outcome acceptance and

compliance

Legitimacy and trust

A few survey questions

  Could you briefly state, in your own words, what the problem was you contacted the Ombuds service about?

  What did you expect the ombuds to do for you?

A few survey questions

  What was your impression of the staff when you first contacted the ombuds?   Helpful   Understood my problem   Seemed to know what they were talking about   Treated me with respect and courtesy   Seemed trustworthy / seemed to act with good intent   Seemed interested in hearing my story   Seemed unbiased and neutral   Were unhelpful   Not sure, can’t remember

A few survey questions

  I feel a moral obligation to follow the ombuds recommendation

  I have confidence in the ombuds

  The ombuds acting according to the law

Likert scale response (5 point scale)

The project report

  Here are a few examples of my comparative findings

  The project report (publish next month) will include a comprehensive overview.   Overall sample / by country / by ombuds / public &

private

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/trusting-middle-man-impact-and-legitimacy-ombudsmen-europe

The sample

Project sample size: 3,190

UK (1,310)

Germany (1,466)

France (414)

Private / public distribution

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

private ombuds (2577)

public ombuds (613)

Total complaints per ombudsman

Results

  Qualitative

  Quantitative

Results

Public sector ombudsman – seeking accountability

‘… address the issues; make them accountable for their mistakes so that the same problems didn't arise again; […] insist that questions were answered and not just ignored.’

‘… ask for support to ensure that the highlighted problems are corrected to safeguard others.’

…conduct a thorough investigation into my concerns so that lessons could be learned.’

Results Private sector ombudsman – seeking individual redress

‘…force [company] to make the payments owed promptly, with a small compensation amount’

‘…act on my [the consumer's] behalf , hopefully with some 'teeth' or power behind them, to force the [company] to finally do what ANY self-respecting company trading within the UK should do, i.e. Treat its customers with SOME level of service & respect.’

FOUR NORMATIVE ROLES

• … to help me understand what it’s all about.

INTERPRETER

•  ... to hand over my problem. ADVOCATE

• … to share the responsibility. ALLY

• … they have the right tools to help me. INSTRUMENT

A few comparative stats   Demographics

  Important factors in the decision to complain

  Impression of staff

  Satsifaction levels

  Expectations of case handling

  Outcome

  Lawfulness

  Fairness

  Overall satisfaction

Mean age by country

Gender distribution by country

I have spent much time and effort to try and sort out my problem before contacting an ombudsman

  Germany / France / UK:

Between 78 -97%

Importance in decision to complain – excluding FOS

Impression of staff (excluding FOS, UK only)

 Satisfaction with ombudsmen in the sample

Satisfaction with how ombuds dealt with your case, including FOS

Satisfaction with ombuds excluding FOS

Satisfaction with ombuds – public/private UK only

 Was the way your case was handled what you expected?

Was the way your case was handled what you expected?

Your case was handled the way you expected, UK only private / public

 Was the outcome in your favour?

Outcome in your favour?

Outcome in your favour? Including FOS, UK only

 Were you willing to accept the outcome?

Willing to accept the outcome

Willing to accept outcome, including FOS UK only

  If you are not willing to accept the outcome what will you do next?

Unwilling to accept outcome, what next?

Unwilling to accept including FOS

 Fairness?

How fair are the procedures?

Overall satisfaction – including FOS

 The energy ombudsman sample, as example

An example from the studies energy data

Germany France

Was the outcome in your favour?

67,4% 50,9%

How fair are the procedures?

82 % 90,7%

Does the ombudsman act according to the law?

83,4% 84,9%

Confidence in the ombudsman?

78,3% 71,3%

Regressions …

  … perception of whether the process was fair was significantly correlated with overall satisfaction (r=0.824, p < 0.001)

projects comparative findings

  The data shows that citizens’ expectations of the ombudsmen go beyond their responsibilities.

  Cultural specific element to disputing behavior and expectations

  Expectations change, narratives change throughout the complaint journey.

  It’s about managing expectations from the outset & reinforcing them.

  Staff procedural justice seems very important in this context.

  Factors influencing peoples’ perception of fairness and satisfaction levels = decision-acceptance (leading to increase in trust):   First contact with staff

  Duration of case

  Quality of contact throughout the procedure

  Continued communication and updates

  procedural justice /fairness

  Outcome - acceptance

What next?

  Project outputs …

  Online critics of ombudsmen (online activism)

  LGO / OS project on vulnerable users

Thank you. https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/trusting-middle-man-impact-and-legitimacy-ombudsmen-europe

N.creutzfeldt@westminster.ac.uk