Conflict Management Coaching at the Transportation Security Administration (10/19/09)
Cinnie Noble, Scott Becker, Sam Slosberg
In 2003, the Transportation Security Administration, (TSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, initiated the development of an Integrated Conflict Management System (ICMS), as part of an innovative Model Workplace Program. A Conflict Management Coaching Program (CMCP) emerged early on as one of the many unique service delivery components of this ICMS. This article discusses how this innovative program was designed and addresses how the CMCP has emerged as an integral component of TSA’s ICMS.

The Art and Science of Summarization in Mediation (10/06/09)
Diane Cohen
There is often nothing more important to a successful mediation than insightful summarization of the parties’ perspectives.   2 Comments

Mediation of Staff Concerns with College President to Be Webcast (9/22/09)
Keith Seat

The president of Florida Keys Community College has brought in a professional mediator to address staff concerns in several days of mediation sessions, culminating in a public session which will be webcast. Concerns range from complaints of staff intimidation and retaliation by the president to over-reporting the number of students for purposes of state funding.

KeysNet (August 29, 2009)

Mediation Disguised In The Dispute Process For Public Works In Qatar (7/06/09)
Chandana Jayalath
Parties prefer a mechanism that does not call the employer as their ‘disputant’ may be because the employer is everybody’s paymaster or the potential source of future jobs. Parties also appreciate speedy, flexible and fair outcomes, rather than too formal procedures that are time and money consuming. Consequently, parties have realized the importance of solving their conflicts of opinion, both commercial and contractual, at the ‘employer’s level internally. This is where in-house settlement comes into play in the context of public works in Qatar.

ACRG-NY July Recap: World Bank’s Office of Mediation Services (7/06/09)
Jeff Thompson
For those who miss the monthly NYC-DR Roundtable Breakfast meetings sponsored by ACRGNY and John Jay College due to schedules (yes, we are all very busy conflict resolvers) or due to locations (I guess everyone can not be in New York City), I plan to write a recap of each gathering I attend. I hope you enjoy, and feedback is always welcome!

Ombudsman ADR: The 6 C’s Of Sociocratic Peace Building (6/15/09)
Clayton Gilman
The 6 C's; communication, complaint, cooperation, consensus, consent and coordination act as mental milestones for facilitators and mediators in group oriented conflict management scenarios. Increasingly the Sociocratic process of self governance is gaining popularity in all sizes and types of groups in North America and is becoming the preferred structure for processing issues, disputes and complaints. The 6 C's support this process between small to very large groups.

Mediation of Complex Sex Abuse Case Against Hospital Begins Second Year (4/15/09)
Keith Seat

Over 135 plaintiffs claiming sexual abuse as children by a doctor entered into mediation in March 2008 with the hospital they claim failed to stop the abuse. The court hoped the mediation would be concluded by the end of 2008, but it may continue for months more. The doctor worked for the hospital from 1963 to 1993 and died in 1998. Large amounts of child pornography were found in 2007 in the doctor’s former home. State legislation is being considered which would extend the statute of limitations when new evidence is uncovered that could not reasonable have been discovered previously, which could impact about 40 to 50 plaintiffs.

Hartford Courant (March 8, 2009)

Contextualizing Disruptive Behavior in Health Care as a Conflict Management Challenge (2/23/09)
John Ford
Disruptive physician behavior has been defined by the American Medical Association as “personal conduct, whether verbal or physical, that affects or that potentially may affect patient care negatively.” It is assumed that disruptive behavior by health care workers impacts quality of care and patient safety. How best to respond to disruptive behavior is less clear. This article explores the utility in framing disruptive behavior as a conflict management systems challenge.   2 Comments

Negotiating Unemployment: Hope for Laid Off Lawyers (2/16/09)
Victoria Pynchon
The last recession is vivid in my own mind because an AmLaw200 /1 law firm laid me off in the Spring of 1992 - a year after the recession's "official" end in March of 1991.

EEOC Reports Jump in Filings, Slight Increase in Mediation (1/21/09)
Keith Seat

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a 15 percent increase in job bias charges last year, for a total of over 95,000 private sector filings in fiscal year 2008. Its National Mediation Program obtained nearly 9,000 resolutions in FY 2008, a 2% increase for the year. In addition to non-monetary relief, the EEOC recovered $124 million for complainants through mediation. The mediation program maintains its very high user satisfaction rate of 96.5 percent. Employers continue to enter into Universal Agreements to Mediate with the EEOC, with the total rising by 14 percent during 2008, to 1,450. In its Federal Sector Mediation Program, the EEOC noted that parties in over 18,000 EEO cases in federal agencies participated in alternative dispute resolution, which was nearly half of all cases.

National Underwriter Property & Casualty (December 8, 2008) (Subscription Required); EEOC FY2008 Performance Report

Delaware Joins EEOC’s Universal Agreement to Mediate (1/07/09)
Keith Seat

Delaware is the second state to enter into a Universal Agreement to Mediate with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, following New Mexico in October. Based on Delaware’s formal agreement to resolve disputes through mediation, all eligible discrimination charges filed with the EEOC naming Delaware as respondent will be sent to the EEOC’s mediation unit.

US State News (November 19, 2008) (Subscription Required)

Say Cheese - Cracker Barrel Signs Mediation Agreement with the EEOC (1/06/09)
Jeffrey Krivis, Mariam Zadeh
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. have signed a Universal Agreement to Mediate (UAM) to resolve workplace disputes prior to an EEOC investigation or potential litigation.   1 Comment

Managerial Mediation And Arbitration (12/29/08)
John Ford
I will always be indebted to Dan Dana for introducing the concept of the manager as the mediator to me. Dan was the pioneer who blazed the trail. In this short article I want to consolidate and reiterate his fundamental insights, and of course add my two cents!

New Mexico First State to Join EEOC’s Universal Agreement to Mediate (12/02/08)
Keith Seat

While over 1,200 employers have entered into Universal Agreements to Mediate with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, New Mexico is the first state to do so. With New Mexico’s formal agreement to resolve disputes through mediation, all eligible discrimination charges filed with the EEOC naming the state as respondent will be sent to the EEOC’s mediation unit.

Bizjournal.com (October 31, 2008)

Attendance of Mediation by Union Representatives (11/10/08)
Arnold W. Zeman
In this post, I try to respond to the questions put to me as a transformative mediator by David Bleiman, a Scottish union official, in his comment on my post, “Stages in the Mediation Process”.

President Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (10/21/08)
Jeffrey Krivis, Mariam Zadeh
On September 25, 2008, 18 years after his father signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 into law, President George W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (”ADAAA” or “Act”).

Bullies At Work (10/14/08)
Bill Eddy
Workplace bullying is a growing international problem. It is more than a one-time incident. It is a pattern of behavior between a bully and another worker which can demoralize, isolate and trigger illness in the target of the bully.   7 Comments

Helping Employees Help You Help Them (10/06/08)
Victoria Pynchon
Earlier this week I was asked the following question by a concerned General Counsel: how can we help our employees grapple with on-the-job justice issues without leading them to believe that our proposed solutions are untrustworthy.

Business Mediation:A Better Way To Resolve Workplace Conflict (8/11/08)
Marta J. Papa
In a situation where there is no process for eliminating conflict other than litigation, resentments build up and productivity plummets. Currently, we are seeing a trend toward solving conflict in the workplace through mediation rather than litigation or other more traditional methods of dispute resolution.   1 Comment

Mediation Gaining in Employment Disputes as Arbitration Declines (6/18/08)
Keith Seat

Employers are increasingly turning from arbitration in employment disputes, due to the increased costs of discovery, potential for rogue outcomes that cannot be appealed, and uncertainty over whether mandatory arbitration provisions will be upheld. With overtime litigation continuing to increase around the country, many defense lawyers are encouraging clients to turn to mediation instead of arbitration. Wage-and-hour litigation increased over 200% between 2001 and 2007 and overtime lawsuits have displaced employment discrimination as the most common form of employment litigation.

The National Law Journal (June 9, 2008) (Subscription Required)

EEOC Continues to Focus on Mediation of Discrimination Charges (4/07/08)
Keith Seat

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a 9 percent increase in job bias charges last year, for a total of nearly 83,000 private sector filings in 2007. In addition to non-monetary relief, the EEOC recovered over $290 million for charging parties through administrative enforcement and mediation, compared with $55 million through EEOC litigation. Employers continue to enter into Universal Agreements to Mediate with the EEOC, with the total rising by 15 percent during 2007, to over 1,200. The EEOC’s National Mediation Program has a user satisfaction rate of 96 percent, meaning that nearly everyone using the program would do so again.

Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc. (March 5, 2008) (Subscription Required)

Workplace violence blog committed to making employees safer (2/11/08)
Diane J. Levin
PART27.com, a web site dedicated to providing resources that help organizations, companies, and agencies create safer workplaces, also publishes Workplace Violence, a blog that delivers news and links to resources for employers and others seeking ways to address and prevent violence at work. Among the stories covered recently are: “Bullying bad for business“ “Bullied at work: practice costs productivity, health” and New European report highlights emerging...

The Conflict Skilled Organization (11/26/07)
Lynne Eisaguirre
What is the common denominator in most organizational conflict? The leaders have not spent enough time and energy thinking about culture —that invisible glue that holds organizations together and determines organizational effectiveness. Especially lacking is a failure to think about how they want the culture to address and resolve the inevitable conflicts each organization faces on a daily basis. A lack of agreement about a common culture frequently shows up as constant and intractable conflicts.   1 Comment

Outside Mediators Best in Workplace Disputes (10/31/07)
Keith Seat

Using a mediator who is independent, rather than on staff, and not identified with either side is a key qualification in resolving difficult workplace disputes. An outside mediator may more effectively address problems on both rational and emotional levels, by assisting the parties in viewing issues more clearly and helping them address strong feelings in a safe environment, as well as providing other benefits of mediation.

Gulfnews.com (UAE) (October 2, 2007)

Bursting the bubble: cultivating dissent in the workplace (10/15/07)
Diane J. Levin
According to a recent BusinessWeek poll, 90% of executives and middle managers believe that they perform in the top 10%. (This effect, known as positive illusion bias, is not confined to managers alone: it can be found among drivers confident that their reflexes are superior to those of others on the road, trial attorneys certain that they have the stronger case, and negotiators with an overinflated sense of their own prowess at the table.)Given how widespread this phenomenon is, and how...