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Subject: Conflict Management E-Newsletter #27 |
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Conflict Management E-Newsletter
April 2002 #27
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Contents:
1. Articles
2. Federal ADR Resources
3. EEOC Enforcement Data: FY 2001
4. Jury Verdict Information: 2000
5. Conflict Resolution Bibliography
6. eCollaboration Resources
7. Quotes
8. Game Theory
9. New Book: Negotiation Skills for Managers
10. From the courts
11. Workplace Section Newsletter (ACR)
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1. Articles
Workplace Violence: Paranoid or Prepared?
By Kimberly K. Larsen, Esq.
Workplace Violence costs American employers
not only in dollars and cents, but also in a significant
loss in productivity. It is estimated that American
businesses lose approximately 36 billion dollars per
year as a result of workplace violence. This figure
includes monetary costs from lost productivity, legal
fees, settlement costs and jury verdicts. Out-of-court
settlements for lawsuits arising out of workplace violence
average $500,000, with jury verdicts averaging about
$3 million.
Transforming Conflict Interactions In The Workplace: Documented
Effects
Of The USPS Redress Program
By James R. Antes, Joseph P. Folger, Ph.D., Dorothy J. Della Noce
Resolving Employment Disputes Through Mediation
By Michael J. Roberts
Few controversies are more damaging to a business than a dispute with
an employee. In today's environment, a single major employment
dispute can result in the erosion of substantial assets because of
legal fees and a potential jury award.
Lessons from Everest:
The Role of Collaborative Leadership in Crisis
By Dori Digenti
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2. Federal ADR Resources
The University of North Carolina,
Institute of Government
A well-organized, annotated listing of Federal Alternative
Dispute Resolution resources is available at:
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3. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
Fiscal 2001 Enforcement Data
Statistics taken from state and local governments
and the private sector compiled by the EEOC show
that there was an increase in discrimination charges filed against
employers to its highest level since the mid-1990s.
The types of discrimination with the highest rate of
increase in FY 2001, compared to the prior year,
were allegations of discrimination based on age
(one and one-half percent increase) and disability
(one-half percent increase). All other types of charge
filings either declined slightly (less than one-half percent)
or remained level compared to FY 2000.
"The incidence rate of age and disability discrimination
appears to be on the rise with the graying of America,"
said EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez.
"Employers must be vigilant in preventing such characteristics
from being factored into their employment decisions."
In addition to the rise in workplace bias filings, the
FY 2001 data also show:
* The private sector pending inventory of charges
(backlog) decreased by five percent from the previous
year to 32,481 - the lowest level in nearly two decades.
* The average charge processing time for private sector
charge filings stood at 182 days - a 34-day decline
from FY 2000 and the lowest level since the early 1980s.
* The average time to resolve a charge through voluntary
mediation was 84 days - a drop of 12 days from the
prior year.
Of the 80,840 total charges filed with EEOC, the most frequent
types of discrimination alleged were based on:
* Race - 28,912 or 35.8 percent of all charge filings.
* Sex/Gender - 25,140 or 31.1 percent of all filings.
* Retaliation (all statutes) - 22,257 or 27.5 percent of all filings.
* Age - 17,405 or 21.5 percent of all filings.
* Disability - 16,470 or 20.4 percent of all filings.
Other types of charge filings included allegations based on:
* National Origin - 8,025 or 9.9 percent of all filings.
* Religion - 2,127 or 2.6 percent of all filings.
* Equal Pay - 1,251 or 1.5 percent of all filings.
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4. 2000 Jury Verdict Information
Out of the 105 reported jury verdicts in employment
cases, employees prevailed in 47 of those cases.
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5. Conflict Resolution and Peace Building:
A Selected Bibliography
This bibliography is intended as a starting place
for your research on conflict resolution, dispute
processing, and peace building. It has been
compiled from various sources including lists
created by instructors, researchers and practitioners
from Canada, the United States, Australia,
New Zealand and South Africa.
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6. eCollaboration Center
This portal will link you to a constellation of virtual
learning and collaboration tools and information
about those tools. Learning Mastery is partnering
with a number of advanced tools makers like IBM/Lotus
and Webex to link you to the latest media for ecollaboration.
C3 LearnNet members can access our QuickPlace web
collaboration space and web conferencing center from
this page. You are invited to also browse our resources
on collaboration and learning.
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7. Quotes
"Our task now is not to fix the blame for the past, but
to fix the course for the future."
John F. Kennedy
"Genuine listening ability is one of the few true forms
of competitive advantage."
Feargal Quinn
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8. Game Theory
Game theory addresses serious interactions using
the metaphor of a game: in these serious interactions,
as in games, the individual's choice is essentially a choice
of a strategy, and the outcome of the interaction depends
on the strategies chosen by each of the participants.
On this interpretation, a study of games may indeed tell
us something about serious interactions. But how much?
William King's Game Theory Page
Prisoner's Dilemma
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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9. New Book
Negotiating Skills For Managers
By Steven Cohen
McGraw-Hill 2002
Negotiating Skills For Managers is written in a
down-to-earth style and is based on my work with people
from more than forty countries and a wide range of
business sectors. In it, I tell stories about
negotiations I have experienced or heard about from
friends and clients.
Like other titles in the Briefcase Books series,
Negotiating Skills For Managers is formatted to make it
easily accessible for people reading it for the first
time as well as folks wanting to look at particular
negotiation issues again. Each chapter ends with a
checklist relating to its learning points and the book
itself ends with a detailed index of covered topics.
While there are many negotiation books on the market,
Negotiating Skills For Managers differs in that it is
derived from practical experience rather than academic
analysis. It does not present a litany of personal
triumphs, but rather a broad range of practical
analytical suggestions.
The preparation process included in the book, as well
as in TNSC's training programs, The Interest Map(c),
has been assessed by a French-based management
consulting firm. According to their analysts, for each
15 minutes a negotiator spends developing an Interest
Map s/he is likely to save about four hours of
negotiating time.
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10.1 E-mail Barrage Is Ruled Trespassing
In December 2001, a California appellate court
upheld a decision that allows employers to seek
court orders against mass e-mail campaigns that
may interfere with company computer systems
and worker productivity.
In a 2-1 decision, the California Court of Appeal
ruled that a former Intel engineer was trespassing
when he used Intel's e-mail system to send mass
e-mail messages insulting the company to 29,000
employees on six occasions since being fired in
1995. The court found that the deluge of e-mail was
not protected speech.
The case has drawn sharp criticism from free speech
advocates who claim that the decision will be used
to silence speakers who disagree with a company's
policies or tactics.
(Intel Corp v. Hamidi No. C033076 (December 10, 2001))
10.2 American Express Settlement
A settlement of a sex- and age-discrimination suit
will cost American Express $31 million, according to
the Washington Post. The suit was filed by 17 women
who say they were denied promotions and fair pay.
Thousands of women at the company, not just those
that sued, may receive payments. The company would
also have to provide diversity training and increase
the number of women in certain job functions.
A judge has not finalized the settlement.
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11. Workplace Section News - Winter 2002
The newsletter of the Association for Conflict Resolution
Workplace Section
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12. Feedback and Subscriptions welcome
If you have any suggestions, tips, or other comments,
send an e-mail to johnford@mediate.com.
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