A Corporate or Organizational Ombudsman us usually an internal ombudsman employed by a corporation to give employees a way to raise concerns or to complain about how they have been treated by other employees or by the system generally. A corporate ombudsman can, however, be assigned the task of receiving complaints from the institution's external constituencies. In the United States, corporate ombudsmen are increasingly used as part of the conflict management systems of private, commercial corporations, press organizations, and institutions of higher education.

Early forms of the corporate ombudsman resembled government ombudsmen with their emphasis on investigating and reporting. Such ombudsmen often functioned in corporations with a public service orientation or strong contractual ties to the government, such as defense contractors, for whom public accountability was an issue. Instead of focusing on internal disputes, these ombudsman offices provided opportunities for employees to engage in confidential whistle-blowing. Although it still functions to uncover mismanagement, the corporate ombudsman model has evolved with greater emphasis on dispute resolution among employees and managers.

Rowe [1987] defines a corporate ombudsman as "a neutral and impartial manager within a corporation who may provide confidential and informal assistance to managers and employees in resolving work related concerns."

In addition to investigating and reporting on complaints by employees and providing feedback to senior management, the functions of such an ombudsman can include merely listening, confidential counseling, answering routine inquiries about company policies and practices, informal conciliating, facilitating, mediating, and general organizational consulting and problem solving. There is some tension in the ombudsman role when the office functions both as a confidential source for employee dispute resolution counseling and as a fact-finder or inspector general. The ombudsman has responsibilities both to the employee who approaches the office in confidence and to the corporation that needs feedback and recommendations. To alleviate this tension, many corporate ombudsmen limit their intervention activities to informal mediation, at the most, and do not engage in formal inquiries. Feedback to management is put in generic form that does not identify the complainant.

Ombudsmen operate outside the traditional corporate structure and independent of line management and of the human resources and corporate legal departments. The prefix corporate is gradually giving way to organizational.