Rooney, Greg (2019) The value of mediator soft skills to modern commercial practice. Journal of Mediation & Applied Conflict Analysis, 6 (1). pp. 781-788. ISSN 2009-7170

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Abstract

This paper explores the nature of change in modern economies due to their growing interconnectedness and implications this has for the way professions such as mediation and legal services carry out their business. It argues that the biggest upheaval has been the rise in the commercial value of trust over that of competitive and adversarial behaviours and that this requires, in turn, that dealing with conflict takes account of the inherent human complexity found in trusting relationships. It contrasts the role of mediators in dealing with complexity and ambiguity with that of other professions, notably in the legal sphere. It notes attempts within the legal profession to rebadge itself away from litigation to dispute resolution and to promote evaluative mediation and semi-determinative processes as the pre-eminent conflict resolution process. It argues that the traditional non-evaluative ‘process’ approach to mediation is far more in tune with the modern collaborative economy and concludes that the legal profession should seek to learn from it and seek to adopt the soft skills of the mediator.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	mediator soft skills; commercial practice; dispute resolution; interconnectedness; relationships of trust; business relationships; trust;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Edward M Kennedy Institute
Item ID:	10947
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.33232/jmaca.6.1.10947
Depositing User:	Kennedy Institute
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2019 11:37
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Mediation & Applied Conflict Analysis
Publisher:	Maynooth Academic Publishing
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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