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Professional Development > ACR Trainers Resource Project > Ethics Training Activities > Activity: Quick Decisions

ACR Trainers Resource Project

Ethics Training Activities

"Quick Decisions"

Submitted by: Mary Thompson, emmond@aol.com
Time Required for Activity: Flexible
Competency Area: Performance

Instructions

In the Large Group

Describe the exercise and its purpose.
Divide the participants into small groups of four to six people.
Hand out the scenarios.
Identify an exercise leader for each small group. Give them a copy of the exercise instructions.

In the Small Groups, for each dilemma:

Get volunteers to play the specific roles.
Read the “Situation” to the group.
Have the volunteers read the “Dialogue.”
In your small group, discuss the following: What is the ethical issue?

Who could be impacted by this situation? How would they be impacted?
What should be the mediator’s general strategy for an ethical response?
What, specifically, should the mediator say?

Have the mediator and disputant(s) re-play the dialogue, this time with the mediator trying out the ethical response agreed to by the group.
Discuss the effectiveness of the mediator’s response. What, specifically, made it effective?

Ethical Dilemma 1

Roles

Mediator A
Mediator B
Party 2

SITUATION

While co-mediating a business partnership dispute, Mediators A & B meet individually with Party 1. During the session, Party 1 admits secretly taking the company financial records to an accountant for an independent audit. At the end of the individual session, Mediators A & B remind Party 1 that everything discussed will remain confidential.

In the subsequent session with Party 2, the following conversation takes place:

DIALOGUE

Party 2:We’ve never agreed on how to manage the finances. It’s been the basis for most of our arguments. I sometimes think we could use a little expert accounting help. I think that would make Party 1 feel more confident that I’ve got the right approach.

Mediator B:Well, maybe the results of the independent audit will shed some light on the financial situation.

Party 2: What independent audit?

QUESTION

What should the Mediator A say?

Ethical Dilemma 2

Roles:

Mediator
Mediator’s sister

SITUATION

The mediator has just completed a divorce mediation with two prominent citizens, Joe and Carol Bigdeal. In the mediation, it was revealed that Joe is in treatment for a serious drug problem.

A month after the end of the mediation, the mediator has the following conversation with the mediator’s sister about the sister’s 5-year old son:

DIALOGUE

Mediator: What’s my favorite nephew doing this summer?

Sister : He’s spending a week in Galveston with his best friend Timmy Bigdeal. Timmy’s dad is taking them to their condo.

The Bigdeal’s are getting divorced, so I’m sure it will be good for Timmy to get away and have some fun with a friend.

QUESTION

What should the mediator say?

Ethical Dilemma 3

ROLES

Male Mediator
Personnel Director

SITUATION

The mediator has been hired by the Personnel Director of a federal agency to mediate an employment dispute. The mediator is an Anglo and a male. In the process of setting up the mediation, the following conversation takes place:

DIALOGUE

Mediator: You mentioned that this case involves allegations of racial discrimination. Can you tell me more about that?

Personnel Director : The employee in a 30 year-old African American woman. The supervisor is a 55 year-old Anglo male. The employee claims that there is systemic discrimination against minorities and females in this agency.

Mediator : I’m concerned that because I am an Anglo male that she might feel I’m aligned with the supervisor.

Personnel Director : That won’t be a problem. The employees here are used to it. I always use mediators who are Anglo males. They tend to be much easier for most of us here to work with.

What dates are you available for the mediation?

QUESTION

What should the mediator say?

Ethical Dilemma 4

ROLES

Mediator
Wife
Husband

SITUATION

In a divorce mediation, the parties are not represented by attorneys. The parties are about to make a decision based on an assumption which the mediator believes to be inaccurate. The mediator is working in a volunteer program that requires that the mediator not give legal advice. The following dialogue takes place:

DIALOGUE

Wife : Let’s make this simple. We’ll each keep our retirement accounts.

Husband : But yours is worth $30,000 and mine is worth $10,000. That doesn’t seem right.

Wife: I know that’s right. The law is that each spouse gets to keep the retirement account they contributed to during the marriage.

I got that from my sister and she knows - she’s been divorced three times.

Husband : OK, but then I want the beer bottle collection.

Wife : I can live with that.

QUESTION

What should the mediator say?