Kenny, Treasa
(2019)
Workplace Mediation: An Irish Study.
In: International Association for Conflict Management, 7-10 July 2019.
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the first systematic study of workplace mediators
in Ireland. It examines the characteristics and features of workplace mediation using
a mixed methods study. The research identified, for the first time, the active
population of workplace mediators in Ireland. Mediation entered the workplace
conflict resolution lexicon from 2002-2004 at the ‘macro-level’ of State policy; at
the ‘meso-level’ through the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland, and at the ‘micro-level’
of organisations. Findings are based on qualitative data obtained from six focus
groups, with 25 participants, seven interviews with internal mediation service
coordinators and an officer of the Workplace Relations Commission. Quantitative
data were obtained from a survey of 144 workplace mediators. The findings are
consistent with the claims of the literature in a number of areas and advances
knowledge in the emerging theoretical domain of workplace mediation in a number
of ways. It shows that as workplace mediation has developed to address more
individual conflict issues inside organisations, the ‘three-stage mediation process’
identified in in the literature is more commonly a ‘six-stage’ process in practice.
Workplace mediators in Ireland are ‘general practitioners’, often combining
workplace mediation with a number of other professional activities, as well as
‘stylistically eclectic’ in their practice. Three out of four workplace mediators adopt
a short-term focus on process which achieves outcomes primarily relevant to
participants in mediation. Only one in four workplace mediators engage in practices
that influence long-term organisational outcomes such as changes in working
environments or capacity-building in conflict resolution skills.
| Item Type: |
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
|
| Keywords: |
Workplace Mediation; Irish Study; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Edward M Kennedy Institute |
| Item ID: |
15997 |
| Depositing User: |
Treasa Kenny
|
| Date Deposited: |
24 May 2022 14:18 |
| 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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