Rethinking the ombuds office for a post-COVID world: an innovation perspective

ABSTRACT This study characterises the ombuds office in higher education as an innovative practice of handling employee, staff, and student grievances. Though ombuds offices have had a place on many higher education campuses for some time, their function has evolved in response to a changing environment. Drawing on Open-Systems theory, this study views the COVID-19 pandemic as both a challenge and an opportunity for universities to revisit their grievance handling practices and to devise best practices for a post-pandemic world. This study examines this assumption in the case of public higher education institutions in the State of Texas, using data from university websites and an online survey administered between March 2021 and May 2021. The study suggests that the new practices that ombuds offices have devised during the pandemic will serve as a toolbox that has the potential to place these offices on the track of sustainability in the post-COVID time.