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Conflict Management E-Newsletter
March 2003 #38
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Contents:
1. Articles
2. EEOC: Religion, Age & National Origin Discrimination Filings Up
3. U.S. House Member Revives Bill to Limit Employment Arbitration
4. Training Announcements
5. ORID-A magical tool for Group Decisions
6. Disability Mediation Interest Group
7. Quotes
8. New Book: Negotiating Difficult Labor Agreements
9. EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center
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Visit http://www.mediate.com/johnford to learn more about
workplace conflict prevention, management and resolution.
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1. Articles
Alternative Discipline-Federal Agency Practices
By U. S. Office of Personnel Management
Alternative discipline (AD) can be characterized as a
form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that, like
more traditional ADR techniques such as mediation, facilitation,
etc., can be used effectively to resolve, reduce, or
even eliminate workplace disputes that might come from
a circumstance where disciplinary action is appropriate. As the term
suggests, AD is an alternative to traditional discipline--usually when
the traditional penalty would be less than removal.
Do You Have A Picture Of Jamie? — How And Why This
Works In Mediation
Nancy Kramer
There is a technique that I have developed to help the
parties to focus on the relationship and their need to nurture it.
This is a simple technique, and it seems like no more than ordinary
social chitchat.
Executive Summary of the Conflict Prevention and
Resolution Center for the USDA (FY 2001 )
Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center
There is no better time than the present for USDA to
take actions aimed at becoming an organization that
maximizes the use of collaborative approaches to solving
problems in the workplace, with other federal entities,
and with the public.
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2. EEOC: Religion, Age And National Origin
Discrimination Filings Up
Charge filings with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission alleging employment
discrimination in the private sector increased
to 84,442 in fiscal year 2002, up 4.5 percent
from the previous year, according to new data
issued by the agency. The statistics also show
that the average time for EEOC to process a
private sector charge declined to 171 days
(down 6 percent from FY2001) and the pending
inventory of private sector charges awaiting
investigation decreased to 29,041 (down 11 percent
from FY2001).
The EEOC resolved 95,222 private sector charge
filings in FY2002 - up 6 percent from the previous
year - and recovered $310.5 million in monetary
benefits for charging parties through settlements,
conciliation, mediation and litigation. One out of
every five charges filed with the agency resulted
in a "merit resolution" with a favorable outcome
for the charging party. The industries that generated
the most charge activity are retail, food services
and manufacturing.
EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez said expanded outreach and
mediation were key priorities that contributed to the
agency's success. During FY2002, EEOC offices
conducted more than 4,000 outreach, education and technical
assistance events nationwide to promote voluntary
compliance - up 24 percent from FY2001. Under the
voluntary mediation program, the EEOC resolved 7,858
charges in an average time of 82 days - less than half
the time it takes through the administrative process.
Of the 84,442 charge filings with the EEOC in
the biggest increases from the prior year were in
allegations of religious discrimination (up 21
percent), age bias (14.5 percent), and national origin
discrimination (up 13 percent). The total charge
filings breakdown as follows:
* 29,910 alleged race discrimination
(up 3.5 percent from FY2001)
* 25,536 alleged sex/gender discrimination
(up 1.6 percent from FY2001)
* 22,768 alleged retaliation
(up 2 percent from FY2001)
* 19,921 alleged age discrimination
(up 14.5 percent from FY2001).
* 15,964 alleged disability
discrimination (down 3 percent from FY2001)
* 9,046 alleged national origin discrimination
(up 13 percent from FY2001)
* 2,572 alleged religious discrimination
(up 21 percent from FY2001)
* 1,256 alleged Equal Pay Act violations
(unchanged from FY2001)
The new statistics are available on the EEOC's web
site at www.eeoc.gov.
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3. U.S. House Member Revives Bill to Limit Employment Arbitration
U.S. Representative Robert E. Andrews (D-NJ) last week
introduced a bill that would amend the Federal Arbitration Act to
limit the use of mandatory employment arbitration agreements.
Andrews' legislation, H.R. 540, is designed to give
employees more say in the use of arbitration to settle workplace
disputes. Under the bill, arbitration could be used to settle a
dispute only if an employee or employer submits a written
request for arbitration and both parties consent to the process
within 60 days.
The bill also would prohibit employers from requiring
mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment.
Andrews introduced similar legislation last March, but
the bill never made it out of the House Subcommittee on
Commercial and Administrative Law. His new bill was referred to
the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 5.
Source: ADRWorld.com
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4. Training Announcement
4.1 Trends in Organizational Conflict Management
Presentation by John Ford
Systems thinking continues to influence
how organizations approach conflict.
This interactive presentation reviews
past and current conflict management paradigms,
and explores the future of organizational
conflict management.
Trends explored include: conflict as a core
competency,the use of mediation and the emergence of the ombuds
as a best practice.
OD Network
March 17, 2003
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM in Conference Room A & B Second
Floor
1950 Franklin Street
Oakland
Contact: Ruth Greenwald
(510) 625-3229
4.2 Emotional Literacy
with Eileen Barker
Emotional issues lie at the heart of
virtually every conflict. The ability
to deal with them skillfully can be the
key to achieving lasting resolution.
Yet, emotions are often overlooked,
feared, avoided and not well understood
by mediators, much less the parties.
Learn ways to assess the role of emotion
in a conflict situation, surface underlying
emotional issues, and work with emotions
in a constructive and effective way.
April 4 & 5, 2003
Friday, noon to 7pm; Saturday, 9am to 5pm
Sonoma State Campus
$165 PSY 490-3966
(415) 925-0900
4.3 Discarding Labels That Block Relationships:
The Key to Creative Conflict Resolution
with Jack Hamilton and Elisabeth Seaman
Most conflicts on the interpersonal level arise
from miscommunications that stem from one person's
unfounded assumptions about another's words or
behavior. Such assumptions often lead to highly
charged emotions -- anger, hatred, bigotry, and even
violence. On the international level, breakdowns in
communication and the volatile emotions that accompany
them can escalate to organized warfare.
Resolving conflicts requires looking within at
our unconscious assumptions, identifying distorted
views of individuals we have feared or disliked,
listening more carefully to these "adversaries,"
replacing negative labels with new understandings
and starting fresh.
April 5
9:30 am to 5:00 p.m.
222 High Street,Palo Alto.
$60/person. Bring a
bag lunch; drinks will be provided.
To register calling Samantha Schoenfeld at
at (650) 328-7756.
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5. ORID- A magical tool for Group Decisions
ORID's power comes from exposing and applying the
human "inference ladder" of reasoning. That's the
conceptual ladder that your reasoning process
"climbs," usually subconsciously and instantaneously, between
the time your senses receive any kind of stimulus
and the time you act on that stimulus.
Here are four of the ladder rungs:
1. Selective Perception: Every person filters some data
out and lets other data in.
2. Emotional reaction: We each have immediate positive or
negative emotional reactions to most all stimuli.
3. Sense-making: Everyone assigns meaning to data based
on our unique filters (beliefs, drives and experiences).
4. Action: We take actions based on our own inferences
about data.
Here is a dramatized example of how we reach personal
decisions:
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6. The "Disability Mediation Interest Group"
is a once-per-month free on-line discussion of mediation
of disability, reasonable accommodation and performance
issues in the workplace.
Call or Email Facilitator Debra Dupree
for more information:
Toll-free: 888-222-3271
Cellular: 619-417-9690
E-mail: debra@mediationworks.com
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7. Quotes
"Just as the seed of health is in illness,
because illness contains information,
your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge
if you explore them."
Marilyn Ferguson
"The goal is the creation of an environment
that fosters and sustains a culture of conflict
competence, where all who experience conflict feel
comfortable to raise it, knowing it will be dealt
with respectfully and responsibly."
Jennifer Lynch
"Unlike top management at Enron, exemplary leaders
reward dissent. They encourage it. They understand
that, whatever momentary discomfort they experience
as a result of being told they might be wrong, it
is more than offset by the fact that the information
will help them make better decisions."
Warren Bennis
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8. New Book
Negotiating Difficult Labor Agreements Made Easier
Negotiating a labor-management agreement in the
federal sector can be a daunting task for individuals
who have not been involved in this process since the
Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1978. The
extensive list of decisions by the Federal Labor
Relations Authority is so numerous that the average
person working in this field has difficulty knowing
all of them.
The Bargaining Book, FPMI's new publication that is
based upon Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act,
gives readers the knowledge needed to make this task
easier. It is designed for all members of the
negotiating team, whether experienced, newly
appointed, labor, management, or observer. The
Bargaining Book is written in a unique style with
explanatory material, multiple choice questions, and
answers that provide a thorough explanation of the
reasons the designated answer is correct and the
others choices are wrong.
The author, Philip A. Varnak, spent 32 years in the
federal sector and negotiated his first
labor-management agreement in 1967. As he notes, "Good
negotiators are made - not born." Varnak retired from
the federal service in 1997 and continues to be
involved in federal labor relations through his
consulting business and by presenting training courses
for FPMI.
The Bargaining Book provides in-depth coverage of the
following topics:
* Statutory requirements to establish union bargaining
rights
* Effective planning and organization of bargaining
teams
* Anticipating proposals
* Ground rules, permitted topics, prohibited topics
and permissive topics
* Negotiability determinations, official time and
grievance procedures
* Arbitration and unfair labor practices
* Partnerships and other cooperative labor management
situations
* Use of Interest-Based Bargaining
* Impasse procedures and Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service
* Post-negotiations and contract implementation
The Bargaining Book, which sells for $15.95 per copy
(shipping and handling already included), is a MUST
for each negotiating team member, both union and
management alike. It can be ordered directly online
from FPMI at https://www.fpmi.com/bargaining_book
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9. EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center
EPA Headquarters Workplace Mediation Program
In January 2000, EPA began a pilot program offering
mediation as an alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
technique for resolving headquarters workplace
grievances and discrimination complaints. Mediation
is a confidential, informal process for bringing
disputing parties together with a neutral third party
to attempt to work out a mutually satisfying solution
to their problem. The experience of other federal
agencies with workplace mediation programs is that
between 60% and 70% of disputes mediated are routinely
settled through mediation. This not only saves
valuable human and financial resources, but also
encourages better working relationships and morale.
If an acceptable agreement is not reached, the
aggrieved applicant or employee maintains any existing
rights to file a formal complaint or grievance.
Parties in mediation are able to have union, legal or
other representation of their choice during the
resolution process. The Workplace Mediation Program
is administered by the Conflict Prevention and
Resolution Center.
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send an e-mail to johnford@mediate.com.
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friend or colleague.
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