In a Nutshell
Frank
walks into Debra's office, plops down in a chair and says, "I think you
need to talk to Ray. He almost cost us the Pinnacle account.
I e-mailed him Tuesday morning asking for a project schedule for the proposal
they've been asking for and he didn't reply. So I went to his office
Wednesday, but he was headed to a meeting and told me he'd contact me later
that day, which he never did. I had to call Pinnacle Thursday morning
and ask them for another extension for the proposal. They were irate.
I don't want to be the one taking the heat from clients because Ray's not
getting his work done."
Debra
thinks she knows what the root cause of the conflict between Frank and
Ray is. With a few pointed questions to each of these two employees,
she can probably determine whether she really needs to counsel Ray as Frank
suggests. However, Debra's not going to be the one who resolves this
conflict--Frank and Ray are. Debra is going to mediate. She
wants these employees to practice handling conflict more effectively, and
to take ownership of the solution to the problem.
In This Issue
Mediation's Advantages
Whether
they realize it or not, managers like Debra have many options for managing
conflict between two employees. Mediation is one of them. Mediators
create a process through which the disputants find a resolution themselves.
However, with her authority, Debra also has the option of playing an inquisitor
role to address the issue. With a sense of what the problem is, inquisitors
ask for the information they think they need in order to reach a reasonable
resolution, and then they impose it on the disputants. Inquisitors
are expedient. But they put fairness, accuracy and the disputants'
morale at risk. Managers can also arbitrate conflict between their
subordinates. Arbitrators
are more thorough than inquisitors because they let the disputants present
the information that they believe should be considered. After hearing
both sides, the arbitrator provides a resolution and enforces it.
Managers can also use clever hybrids
of mediation and arbitration (see the June
15, 2002, LeaderLetter).
Debra
will mediate this particular conflict because (a) she has the time to invest
in it, (b) she wants Frank and Ray to be satisfied with her intervention
to deal with the conflict, and (c) she wants them to buy into the resolution.
Mediators bring disputants together and facilitate a collaborative problem-solving
processes. Compared to arbitration and inquisition, mediation is
empowering
for disputants. Disputants have more latitude for raising their concerns
and, when successful, mediation results in a
resolution that both parties have consented to.
Mediation's
Goals
When
mediating conflict, the primary
goal of all parties involved should be solving
the business-related problem. Disputants
must fight the temptation to deflect blame and assign it to the other party.
There should be a focus on the future, and on how best to improve performance.
Going forward, Frank and Ray need to know what the appropriate degree of
Ray's responsiveness to Frank's requests for project schedules is.
Maybe Ray was wrong for not being responsive enough, or maybe Frank was
wrong for making unreasonable demands on Ray's time. However, it's
more important at this stage to focus on how they should expect each other
to collaborate on crafting proposals and on similar tasks in the future.
An
important secondary
goal is to re-establish civil, constructive
communication between the parties.
The bitter feelings commonly associated with conflict often cause communication
to stop, to work through indirect channels (e.g., gossip) or to become
confrontational. Mediators require the parties to discuss business
issues in a constructive manner.
A
tertiary
goal is to restore harmony and rebuild
trust in the relationship. When
the conflict is particularly bitter, the mediation process can't completely
achieve this goal--at least not in the short-term. However, mediation
can help the disputants empathize with each other, and with a better understanding
of the other party's motives trust can be improved. We often imagine
that the people who create difficulties for us have evil motives that they
don't really have. Sometimes the mediation process is able to break
down those misunderstandings and invalidate incorrect assumptions.
Frank, for instance, didn't know that Ray had been working on higher priority
projects and that the projects previously done for Pinnacle haven't been
very profitable. Effective mediation can bring that out.
The Mediation Process
When
mediating conflict, preface the discussion by defining
winning and losing. If the disputants
enter into a mediation process with the goal of deflecting blame and assigning
it to the other party, the dialogue is unlikely to be completely honest.
In the context of mediation, "winning" means having a creative, collaborative
problem-solving process. "Losing" is failing to have that process
for any reason. In particular, disputants have to avoid the following:
* being argumentative or person-focused rather than business-focused
* withholding information
* insisting on their original position
With
that preface, the first step of the mediation process is coming up with
a clear definition of the business-related
problem associated with the conflict.
This is a very important step that is worthy of a significant time investment.
Most conflict stems from differences in (a) definitions of a problem, (b)
beliefs about the facts and priorities surrounding the problem, and (c)
opinions on the best solution. Pursuing the definition of the business-related
problem at the heart of a conflict does provide an opportunity for the
disputants to slip into counterproductive arguing. But on the other
hand, it also creates a dialogue that can create greater understanding
and significant progress toward a resolution if the parties adhere to the
principles of constructive communication. It's the mediator's role
to ensure that constructive
communication is being used. If the parties can't agree on the
facts surrounding a dispute, it might be wise to postpone further discussion
and do some fact-finding.
Having
defined the problem, it's time to engage in creative,
collaborative problem solving. The
parties should brainstorm together to try to find alternatives. Sometimes
disputants become fixated on their position (in other words, what they
originally said they want the resolution to be) and on rejecting the other
party's position. To use the mediation opportunity constructively,
the parties need to set aside those positions and search creatively for
the proverbial "win-win" solution. If no progress is being made toward
identifying creative solutions, the mediator can postpone further discussion
in order to give the problem time to "incubate" in the disputants' minds.
Once
an acceptable solution to the problem is
identified, the disputants should agree
on how to implement it.
All disputants should be committed to the solution, and all parties deserve
credit if the solution is in fact successful.
In
many conflict situations a useful final step is having a discussion of
how trust and working relationships have been damaged by the conflict and
how they can be repaired. Repairing
trust can be a complex and slow process, but apologies and reparations
for any harm done are at the core of the process.
In Summary . . .
Mediation
can be very time-intensive, so it's not the best way for managers to deal
with all employee conflicts. However, effective mediation can be
very empowering for employees, and it can help them develop stronger relationships
and better conflict management skills. In many instances, managerial
mediation is well worth the time invested.
Sources
McShane,
S. L. & Von Glinow, M. A. (2000). Organizational behavior,
(9th ed.) New York: Irwin McGraw-Hill.
Ross,
W. H. & Conlon, D. E. (2000). Hybrid forms of third-party
dispute resolution: Theoretical implications of combining mediation and
arbitration. Academy of Management Review, 25(2): 416-427.
Sheppard,
B. H. (1983). Managers as inquisitors: Lessons from the law.
In Negotiating in organizations, M. H. Bazerman & R. J. Lewicki
(eds.), pp. 193-213. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Whetten,
D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2002). Developing management
skills, (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Photo Credit
AP
Photo/PA, Nick Potts: e-mailed to me from Yahoo! News; news.yahoo.com.
About
the Newsletter and Subscriptions
LeaderLetter is written
by Dr. Scott Williams, Department of Management, Raj
Soin College of Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
It is a supplement to my MBA 751 - Managing People in Organizations class.
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