Schools and ADR Opportunities

Schools are integral institutions to today's society--they educate our children, they are the social stomping grounds where our children learn much more than "the 3 Rs," they employee many talented hard working folks, and they can be social hubs for the communities in which they reside.  Not surprisingly, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) opportunities can abound in these multifaceted environments!  Gearing up for the new 2012-2013 school year, the Summer 2012 Dispute Resolution Magazine is devoted to discussing how mediation and other forms of ADR intersect with the school environment.

Effect of Belief in Bias

An interesting note in the September 2012 ABA Journal:  belief in bias or belief in the existence of negative stereotypes about a group to which you belong, can block your success.  Research by Steven Spencer, psychology professor at the University of Waterloo shows that when a group of students were told men do better on a graduate level math test, the men in fact did better.  However, there was no difference if the students were told there was no score difference based on gender.

AFSCME Can't Force Arbitration

Back in July -- I know, this is dangerously close to 'old news' but it's still an interesting tidbit -- Judge Beatrice Brickhouse of the Second Judicial District concluded that a local AFSCME chapter could not force the City of Albuquerque to arbitrate under a compact signed in the latter days of the outgoing Chavez administration.

Mediation Community Marked by Rich Diversity of Background and Perspective

The Winter 2012 quarter of ACResolution Magazine has a very nice series of articles addressing how mediators' various professional backgrounds affect their conflict resolution work.

The issue offers a refreshingly pragmatic view point, in my opinion.  In the past few years, LinkedIn and other professional discussion groups have reflected some serious "crisis of faith" amongst alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practitioners, as we weigh the relative merits of competing mediator styles, and struggle to define ourselves within this very broad and indefinite system of processes and techniques called ADR.  

To me, much of this chatter calls to mind the admonition that we mind our own row, not that of our neighbors.  Not only do we not need to comment on and critique the different ways our neighbors have of doing things, we also do not need to judge ourselves against our neighbors.  What I appreciated about this ACResolution issue is that it neatly eschews the whole discourse of whose way is better, by simply recognizing that we ADR professionals are all uniquely shaped by our backgrounds and experiences. 

Do We Care More about the Niceties than Conflicts of Interest and Incompetency?

As a neutral Administrative Law Judge and arbitrator, I have had some hot-headed uncivil litigants appear before me over the years.  Sometimes I have threatened them with sanctions: mild, administrative stuff, such as excluding argument or evidence which the incivility concerns; halting the hearing; or--in extreme cases reflecting a pattern of disrespect--excluding counsel or their client from the hearing.  Generally, though, I chalk it up to that just being what advocates do.

Recently though, I have had cause to wonder if  society and/or the bench is going through a bit of a metamorphosis on this issue.  The April 2012 ABA Journal notes

Cultural Issues in Conflict Resolution

In Have Gavel, Will Travel, Honeyman and Cheldelin (2008) note the increasingly global and cross-cultural aspect of conflict resolution. Indeed, society itself is increasingly global and cross-cultural, so it should come as no surprise that conflict is increasingly cross-cultural.  This is all relevant for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practitioners because we must always be aware of and sensitive to diversity and cultural competency issues.   We must provide ADR services, including conflict resolution education, that respect the

Mediating Workplace Bullying Claims*

As I have previously written, bullying is a hot topic today.   Cleaning House and Cleaning Up Our Acts - Anti-Bullying Legislation, and Bullying Legislation, Revisited.  As such, it is natural for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practitioners to move into this field.  However, caution should be used in doing so, and practitioners should consider in each case whether mediation is appropriate and, if so, what it should look like.

In the Fall 2011 issue of the ACR Conflict Resolution Quarterly, Vol. 29 No. 1, Moira Jenkins asks Is Mediation Suitable for Complaints of Workplace Bullying? Although she herself does not appear to come to any firm conclusions, the article raises a number of helpful points to be considered by managers and individual ADR practitioners consider the issue.  First, as Ms. Jenkins observes, bullying is often not well defined, and in the workplace bullying may be confused with a number of other activities that are similar but nonetheless distinct.