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Shifting The Strange Attractor: An Exploration of Chaos and Change Agency (9/26/05)
Mimi E. Lyster Chaos theory offers metaphors that can help reveal more and less effective ways of initiating, facilitating, and managing change. This paper encourages conflict management professionals to consider using these metaphors as a tool to discover patterns and leverage points that can improve the effectiveness of their interventions with businesses, organizations, or families. Understanding the theoretical underpinnings of various systems theories gives us an edge. It makes us more nimble as practitioners, and better able to transfer our skills to a larger spectrum of clients and circumstances.
A Coach Approach For Conflict Management Training (1/17/05)
Cinnie Noble It is an understatement to say that generic conflict management training is really not enough. That is, it is not realistic to operate on the basis that one to three days of training in conflict management, fully equips people to effectively manage conflict, between themselves and others, or as a facilitator/mediator. It is a great start. However, it has become increasingly clear to this trainer, that other modalities such as pre and/or post-training coaching on conflict management, a staged approach to training and other methods help facilitate, optimize and sustain learning.
Are Businesses Missing The Dispute Resolution Boat? A Study Underscores Lack of Early Intervention Usage (9/23/04)
Barry Simon For those companies who find themselves in court, the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has proven to be a win-win proposition for everyone with proven savings in money and time and a high rate of satisfaction by the parties. Yet, these same companies have not used low-cost ADR to address internal workplace disputes before they escalate into lawsuits. Why would the business community consciously choose lawsuits over ADR when they know the latter costs less and provides more benefits?
A Workplace Dispute Resolution System Creates A Winning Team (9/13/04)
Elizabeth Moreno The most highly publicized and best example of conflict in the work place is the Los Angeles Lakers. We saw throughout the season the disputes between Kobe and Shaq, Kobe and Jackson, Peyton and Jackson.The smaller organization teaches us that dissolving a team does not lead to resolution of conflicts. Building a workplace dispute resolution system creates a winning team.
Peer Conflict Coaching: Another Dispute Resolution Option (8/09/04)
Cinnie Noble Conflict coaching is a concept that combines dispute resolution and coaching principles. It is a one-on-one confidential and voluntary process in which coaches work with individual clients to help them resolve disputes and to prevent unnecessary ones. Peer coaching may be used for many reasons and in many contexts, including conflict. Peer conflict coaching is a specific process in which staff members coach others at their same 'level'. That is, manager to manager, non-manager to non-manager.
(6/11/04)
June 2004
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service recently unveiled a new agency program through which employers and unions can design and manage their own systems for resolution of disputes that cannot be addressed through collective bargaining.
The program design process known as the Dynamic Adaptive Dispute Systems is the result of an FMCS-sponsored 18-month study by a national team of dispute system design experts from academia and the private sector. The team was coordinated by FMCS General Counsel Arthur Pearlstein, who presented the study results and described the DyADS process during a recent labor-management conference organized by FMCS.
"DyADS is a centerpiece of our campaign to reduce workplace conflict and its debilitating effect on the nation's economy," said FMCS Director Peter J. Hurtgen. "Our study shows that programs developed by this process should be able to mitigate a range of disputes and improve employee morale. Ultimately, these changes in an organization's culture will lead to improved productivity, better organizational learning, and a more successful working environment."
A DyADS process requires a collaborative effort on the part of both organized labor and management within an organization, explained Pearlstein.
"With facilitation and training delivered by federal mediators," Pearlstein said, "participants develop their own process, rules and regulations for handling workplace disputes. The result is a system that is specifically tailored to the needs of each organization."
The cornerstone of a DyADS system is the creation and utilization of a neutral party - either an individual or group - selected from the existing workforce by the parties involved. Other unique attributes of a DyADS program, said FMCS officials, are the emphasis placed on inclusiveness, the sharing of information by both labor and management and an incremental approach to resolving disputes. "The DyADS process is innovative in that it involves labor and management in jointly establishing systems that will complement collective bargaining agreements," Hurtgen said. "FMCS's credibility with both labor and management and its long-term commitment to collective bargaining make us uniquely qualified to encourage and support this dispute systems design process and its use in the organized workplace."
FMCS announced that the DyADS program is being rolled out during the coming months. During this program launch period, FMCS officials said, there will be no charge for mediator facilitation services and training to any company or organization willing to sponsor and participate in a pilot DyADS program.
Source: FPMI Communications
The Internal Neutral: Why Doesn't Your Hospital Have One? (6/11/04)
Carole Houk The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, Maryland is the first acute health care institution in the nation to offer a full-time internal neutral for the resolution of health care issues. The data obtained thus far indicates that the presence of a well-trained and properly positioned internal neutral can be a highly cost-effective and efficient resource for resolving patient-provider conflicts.
Early Intervention: The First-Half Of The Conflict Cycle (5/31/04)
Rian Thomas The psychic and monetary costs associated with resolving conflict in the first-half of the conflict cycle are dramatically less than the costs incurred in the second-half. Consequently, it is time that we begin to make a clear distinction between the first and second-half of the conflict cycle.
Labor Union Tackles Workplace Conflict (3/10/04)
Samara Shever Ripps Tension between two co-workers becomes disruptive and both face disciplinary action. A supervisor and employee cannot resolve personality differences. A union member does not agree with the union representative’s strategy in resolving a grievance. These are workplace issues that labor unions confront daily. What can a labor union do to help its members resolve conflict?
I Found A Lump, Now What? A Creative Way to Resolve Conflict With Breast Cancer Patients (1/26/04)
Pamela K. Embury This project was developed to focus on developing a creative response to conflict for women diagnosed with breast cancer. My own experience suggested that conflict was inherent in the institutional processes and third party roles that surround this diagnosis. Since my own diagnosis in April 2002 at the age of 38, I have become consumed by research for the resolution of conflict surrounding the diagnosis of breast cancer and my own experiences have been a catalyst for this project.
The Tipping Point: Managing Conflict to Create Culture Change in Health Care (1/05/04)
Debra Gerardi In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell identifies the factors that have proven effective in creating a "social epidemic." The spread of ideas throughout society is analogized to the spread of a virus. As the awareness increases, the development of the field of health care conflict management will spread like an epidemic throughout the world. And those who are "infected" with the virus, will find themselves a part of an exciting and humanizing chapter in the historical evolution of the culture of health care.
Organizational Conflict Management Check Up (11/24/03)
John Ford Are you concerned about the health of your organizations conflict management system? This diagnostic questionnaire is easy to complete in less than 10 minutes and provides valuable insight into how your organization is dealing with conflict.
(8/12/03)
August 2003
The American Bar Association presented the Lawyers as Problem Solvers Award to the Department of the Air Force at an Aug. 8 conference in San Francisco, according to an article in Air Force Print News.
Joseph McDade, deputy general council for dispute resolution for the Air Force, said the American Bar Association dispute-resolution department is holding up the Air Force legal team as an example for public- and private-sector legal departments to emulate.
Alternative dispute resolution is a method to resolve conflicts that involves the parties working with a trained arbitrator rather than going to court. Conclusion often comes more quickly and at less cost when using this approach.
For example, McDade said, the Air Force was in conflict with an aircraft-maintenance contractor. The Air Force chose to employ ADR instead of going to court when it appeared that litigation could take up to five years.
The Air Force put an ADR process in place and resolved the conflict in months rather than in years and prevented almost $94 million in liability to the contractor, according to the article.
ADR is used in both the public and private sectors to resolve disputes. Within the federal government, no other agencies use ADR with as much breadth as the Air Force, McDade said.
The Air Force's legal team uses ADR to handle contract disputes, labor-management issues and EEO issues. The service has more trained ADR mediators - approximately 460 - than any other agency, and has the only senior-executive positions dedicated to ADR within the Department of Defense, Air Force Print News reports.
Source: FPMI
Is Your Alternative Dispute Resolution Program a Flea-Dip? (7/21/03)
Melissa Janis Like a flea-dip, alternative dispute resolution programs are often regarded as a single dose cure-all. The intuitive appeal of ADR and the anecdotal evidence of program success make ADR seem a panacea -- just establish the policies and procedures, and ADR will work its magic with your employees.
ADR Plus One:Developing ADR Practice Through Coaching (5/11/03)
Ross Brinkert Coaching is a powerful concept that has roots in this nation's
love of sports. In recent years, coaching has been used to make sense of a
variety of different supportive relationships. Conflict coaching is one
type of coaching relationship. It can be used in anticipation of an
interpersonal conflict or to make a thorough assessment of a conflict that
has already occurred. Conflict coaching fosters an individual's clarity for
how a conflict shapes.
Integrating The Internet Into Conflict Management Systems (5/05/03)
John Ford The reality is that the use of email and the Internet have created new challenges and opportunities for organizations in their management of organizational conflict. The challenge of integrating the Internet into conflict management systems should not be a defensive response driven by the fear of litigation. Rather, it should aim to maximize all the Internet and email have to offer as new access points, new options, and new support structures for enhancing the satisfaction of employers, employees and the customers they serve.
On Being An Ombuds: Considerations And Suggestions For Practice (4/28/03)
Rick Russell This paper will examine the considerations
that go into establishing an Ombuds Office within an organization, what
constitutes the usual requirements to allow the Office to perform its functions
effectively and some strategic considerations about how to implement such
a plan. The paper identifies a number of pitfalls that may be encountered
along the way and concludes with some suggestions of what an Ombuds Office
can and cannot reasonably be expected to accomplish.
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