Mediation: What is It?
Mediation is a process of conflict resolution in which an impartial third party helps people in dispute make informed decisions to resolve their differences and learn skills for future conflict resolution. It is a goal-oriented process that encourages respect, fairness, privacy, self-determination and concern for the needs of all participants.
Mediation encourages the parties to be fully informed about their matters. It focuses on information relevant to the immediate and future, not the past.
Mediation emphasizes common needs and interests, not diverse positions. The mediator assists the parties with clarifying their needs, generating options for their solutions and negotiating agreements that they believe are fair and workable.
The Role of the Mediator
The mediator is a third-party neutral whose role is to conduct the mediation process in a way that encourages full disclosure by the parties, open and honest discussion among them and, if possible, reconciliation of their matters in dispute. The mediator at no time acts in any other capacity(ie: therapist, counselor, lawyer, etc.). This role is clearly defined by the mediator and understood by the parties at the outset of the mediation.
Success in Mediation...
Mediation is successful because parties feel a sense of procedural justice- a concept that states simply that parties will be satisfied with an outcome, win or lose, if they believe that the process was fair. They are more likely to believe a process to be fair when they are given the opportunity to be heard fully and participate actively, in a respectful environment where they have control of the outcome. These effects are independent of the economic results and engender lasting solutions.
"Conflict that occurs in organizations need not be destructive,
provided the energy associated with conflict is harnessed and directed
towards problem-solving and organizational improvement."
-Robert Bacal
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