A Matter of Feelings: Mediators’ Perceptions of Emotion in Hierarchical Workplace Conflicts

Abstract

Emotions play a central role in the process of conflict and resolution. For a mediator, it is important to recognize emotions correctly and act upon them. Whether interventions are appropriate depends to a large extent on the ability of mediators to accurately perceive the emotions of conflict parties. Particularly in hierarchical labor conflicts, this can be challenging, since subordinates tend to hide emotions while supervisors tend to express them. In this study, we investigated if subordinates and supervisors differ in their emotional experience during mediation and whether mediators perceive these emotions accurately. To this end, we compared the extent to which disputants experienced certain emotions with the extent to which mediators perceived these emotions. Data were collected through surveys of mediation clients and mediators in hierarchical labor conflicts in the Netherlands. As expected, subordinates experienced a higher level of negative emotions during the mediation than supervisors did. Positive emotions, however, were experienced to a similar extent by both supervisors and subordinates in mediation. Mediators perceived supervisors’ emotions more accurately than they did subordinates’ emotions. While supervisors’ emotions were positively related with mediators’ perceptions, this was not the case for subordinates’ emotions. Furthermore, mediators were more accurately perceiving supervisors’ negative emotions than their positive emotions. Implications for mediation theory and practice are discussed.

Feeling powerless and finding support: dynamics of power perceptions and empowering interventions in legal conflicts

“…For mediators especially, who guide negotiations, it is important to ask parties what their perceptions of power are. Research suggests that it may be more difficult for mediators to perceive the experiences of low power parties (Kalter et al, 2021), further supporting the potential importance of measures as used in the studies presented here. Studies 2 and 3 suggest that those who experience a power disadvantage can particularly benefit from legal information and third parties could use this to even the balance during preparatory stages.…”

“…In interdepartmental negotiations in manufacturing organizations, low power departments saw high power departments they negotiated with as more contending than the highpower departments saw themselves (Nauta et al, 2001). And, in mediation in hierarchical labor conflicts, low power parties expressed less satisfaction than high power parties after the mediation process, experienced more negative emotions, and were more affected by experiences of uncertainty during the mediation process (Bollen et al, 2010;Kalter et al, 2021). Negative emotions experienced by the low power party, but not by the high-power party in hierarchical labor conflicts also went unnoticed by mediators (Kalter et al, 2021).…”