Review Section : Mediation

Abstract

Mediation is a complex social process which facilitates interpersonal, intergroup, and international negotiations. However, at present, neither the nature nor the potential of mediation is adequately understood because insufficient effort has been devoted to the analysis and study of the process. In order to enhance our understanding and the potential utility of the procedure, this article presents a mediation paradigm which serves as the basis for an analysis of the process and a review of the various techniques. Subsequently, the paradigm and review underpin suggested procedures for future mediation research.The techniques utilized by mediators in facilitating negotiations are numerous and diverse. They include, for example, setting up the negotiation, separating the parties, providing advice to an inexperienced representative, offering proposals, serving as a sounding board for both sides, protecting the negotiators from third parties, and staying out of the way. Despite its variety, longevity, and seeming ubiquity, mediation remains understudied, less than understood, and unrefined. These deficiencies spring from three sources. In part, they are due to the failure of researchers to analyze the mediation process. Today, just as over a decade ago, &dquo;there is relatively little theoretical analysis of the mediation process and even fewer results and conclusions in AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author wishes to thank Dennis W. Organ, Diane Whallon, and Ricky Griffin for their critical reading of an earlier version of this paper. Requests for reprints should be sent to the author, 231 Middlebush Hall,

How mediators shape the content of peace agreements: A framework of negotiations over issues

“…In order to navigate the parties towards an agreement, the mediator can prioritize those issues on the table that have a reasonable chance of contributing a puzzle piece toward resolution. If conflict parties are reluctant to discuss challenging issues, the mediator may promote negotiations on these issues by carefully eliciting potential common ground and proposing solutions and a way forward (Wall, 1981).…”

Analysis of the Perception of Conflict and Its Positive Resolution in University Students

“…This set of conflicts that are or may be related to legitimacy, values, information, power, of a normative nature, scarce resources, expectations, self-esteem, and attribution or inhibition allow intervention through individuals or small groups to resolve them once they are brought to mediation (Wall 1981;Redorta 2007). For Moore, the general framework of analysis is essential.…”

“…Mediation and the role of a mediator as an impartial third party allow the development of positive conflict resolution strategies by facilitating informed and well-defined interventions with clear objectives (Wall 1981;Keashly and Fisher 1990). More recent research has advocated the inclusion of external ethnogarants, or mediators with cultural, historical, and political ties to key decision-makers on each side, to facilitate peace (Byrne 2007).…”

The psychology of negotiation and mediation.

“…M. Stevens, 1963). In addition, they can change the structure of a negotiation and deal with difficult constituents (Wall, 1981), handle internal disputes (Lim & Carnevale, 1990), and mediate power differences between parties (Ippolito & Pruitt, 1990). It is important to recognize that mediators do not impose agreements on negotiating parties, unlike arbitrators (Conlon & Meyer, 2004;Elkouri, Elkouri, Goggin, & Volz, 1997;Gerchak, Greenstein, & Weissman, 2004), but rather act as impartial agents to help resolve the dispute.…”

“…Mediators employ various tactics to facilitate agreements among conflicting parties, ranging from providing rewards for concessions to the use of threats for failure to cooperate (Bercovitch, 1984(Bercovitch, , 1989Carnevale, 1986;Carnevale & Conlon, 1990;Lovell, 1952;Rubin & Brown, 1975;Touval & Zartman, 1985;Wall, 1981;Wall & Lynn, 1993). Kressel and Pruitt (1985) classified interventions into reflexive, contextual, and substantive categories, specifying an assertive-passive dimension that cuts across these three content categories.…”