The Essential Guide to Workplace Mediation and Conflict Resolution: Rebuilding Working Relationships

by Doherty, Nora

• ISBN13: 9780749450199
• ISBN10: 0749450193
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Kogan Page Ltd

Summary

The Essential Guide to Workplace Mediation and Conflict Resolution examines the nature, process, uses and skills for employing and using mediation. The authors examine what mediation is and how it can be successfully applied to resolve issues, by presenting a range of techniques and case studies. Applicable to not only one-on-one conflict, but also team and at board room level, it is written firstly for those people in organizations who are in the front line and who have daily to anticipate, pre- empt or defuse conflicts in the support of productive working relationships. It is also for those who are already mediators or those who are training to become mediators.

Author Biography

Nora Doherty is one of the leading UK independent consultants in the field of workplace mediation for businesses and organizations, founder and Director of Professional Mediation Resolutions (PMR) Ltd, and she has been a mediator and trainer for many years Marcelas Guyler is a business trainer, communications and development consultant, workplace mediator, and principal consultant of the Mediated Cultures and Resolutions Group (MCRG)

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Workplace mediation	p. 5
So what exactly is workplace mediation?	p. 7
A working definition of mediation	p. 7
The underlying principles of mediation	p. 11
Where does workplace mediation come from?	p. 16
An example of a breakdown in a workplace relationship: Wendy and Mark	p. 23
Wendy and Mark and a complaint of bullying	p. 23
So how do organizations respond to conflict?	p. 24
Just how does mediation work?	p. 27
The six-step model of mediation	p. 28
Confidentiality in mediation	p. 41
Mediation and levels of listening	p. 43
Finding your way around conflict resolution: what is special about mediation?	p. 46
The nature of 'conflict'	p. 47
The elements that can divide	p. 48
The principles that unite	p. 49
Dispute resolution methods	p. 50
A comparative continuum of workplace interventions	p. 53
What is special about mediation?	p. 53
How mediation can be used within organizations	p. 57
Mediation when working relationships break down	p. 57
Mediation as an informal resolution within personnel policies	p. 59
Mediation after a formal investigation has taken place	p. 62
Mediation as part of your customer or client complaints procedure	p. 63
Workplace mediation for teams	p. 66
So what lies behind team conflict?	p. 67
Conflict scenarios: how will team dysfunction be manifest?	p. 70
Team mediation is not an 'away day'	p. 70
What is team mediation?	p. 72
Who should facilitate a team mediation?	p. 73
When team mediation should be considered and when not	p. 75
Organizing a team mediation	p. 77
Team mediation and group dynamics	p. 83
Looking at group dynamics	p. 83
Mediation and sub-personalities	p. 88
Dealing with cultural differences: prejudices, assumptions and discrimination	p. 92
Mediation and group scapegoating	p. 94
Team mediation and 'ghost figures'	p. 97
Introducing mediation into your workplace: mediation providers, personnel policies and mediation practice in the organization	p. 100
Who is going to carry out the mediations?	p. 101
Where do you find external mediators?	p. 102
How do you select internal mediators from your staff?	p. 103
What training will internal mediators need?	p. 105
Supervision of internal mediators	p. 105
How will mediation be part of your personnel policies?	p. 106
Dissemination of mediation throughout your organization	p. 109
Mediation in action: case studies of real life workplace mediations	p. 111
Case studies of workplace mediation between two employees	p. 113
A mediation for a complaint of bullying against a manager	p. 113
A mediation for a complaint of sexual harassment	p. 116
A mediation between two colleagues sharing an office and alleged racism	p. 117
Moving through the eye of the storm and the art of the impossible: a mediator's view of the process	p. 119
Case studies of workplace mediation with teams	p. 122
Team Case Study One: a team with multiple problems	p. 122
Team Case Study Two: a mediation between senior managers and two teams	p. 126
Case studies of workplace mediation for boardroom conflicts	p. 132
Mediation for a family manufacturing firm between directors - father and son	p. 132
Mediation for an international company between the chairman and the managing director	p. 134
The philosophy and processes of mediation: in support of conflict managers and organizational development	p. 137
Why do conflicts arise? Some universal, individual and interpersonal models	p. 139
Stress, threat and conflict: 'hardwired for a fight...'	p. 139
Stress and conflict in the contemporary business environment of change	p. 141
Individual perception, life-stances and conflict	p. 143
Personal responses to conflict: passive / aggressive / assertive	p. 147
Interpersonal conflict styles and tactics: a summary	p. 149
Avoiding negativity for mediators and conflict managers	p. 152
Why and how should managers respond to conflict?	p. 154
'Conflict costs': managing conflict effectively saves money	p. 155
Anger and how to handle it	p. 155
Managing your mind-talk	p. 157
Reframing inflammatory language: turning poisons into honey	p. 160
Changing an impasse into a win-win solution	p. 164
Resolving everyday conflicts quickly with the Brief Mediation model	p. 164
The philosophy of mediation and the business of empowerment	p. 169
'May you live in interesting times'	p. 169
So where are organizations headed in the 21st century?	p. 171
Mediation and the business of empowerment	p. 172
Empowerment and responsibility within mediation	p. 173
'Beyond mediation': the culture of mediation and organizational development	p. 176
Mediation as a culture and the 'co-entrepreneurial' business	p. 176
The mediation process and 'mediated business solutions'	p. 178
Conclusions: the last word	p. 182
Contacting the authors	p. 185
Bibliography	p. 186
Index	p. 193
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