Article Review ADR

DIAGNOSIS ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

MEDIATION

The author stressed out that the conflicts may occur in many aspects of business of

life, i.e marketing, employment sectors, workplace and etc. Because of such conflicts

and difficulties at the organizational settings, certain measures such as arbitration and

legislation have been employed by some corporations to address this matters. Despite

of that, some of these conventional methods are proven to be financially and

psychologically burdensome because of the costly litigation, loss of energy, time and

the productivity. Because of these difficulties, a lot of organizations and corporations

have resorted to Alternatives Dispute Resolution (ADR) or Mediation schemes which

resolve the dispute out from the court - room.

Further, the author mentioned that ADR has become commonly used in Africa,

Western World, and Europe apparently. He further added that most of the

corporations have their built - in alternative conflict management and transformation

departments in this system. Recent study reported that the most basic primal

negotiation is pertaining two people facing each at the bargaining table, i.e you and

your house seller (Thompson,2001). It also proven that ADR mediation aids the

resolution of conflicts much quicker than under normal legal circumstances in many

countries.

On the other hand, where the culture that have long adopted the resolution of

disputes that centred on the long litigation process, the disputants may feel safer to

resort to that norm. Tidwell suggested that there are methods other than litigation
were used for resolving the disputes, even before the ADR movement exist. Because

of fear of alienating the offender, some claims were not brought up at all, and those

claims were raised often resolved by a host of local mechanisms such as the word

boss, the village head or family. (Tidwell, 1998). This is different from how ADR

mediation work, which has formality that legitimizes the space for administration of

justices. The author has set Centre for Effective Conflict Resolution (CEDR) in

England as example, which promoted ADR techniques to a business and legal

community.

The author further emphasized that when an adequate structures are set up for

ADR to take place effectively and efficiently, many people will realize that ADR is

the best way to save time, money and energy while keeping the business running

without the need to close shop in order to wait for the formalization of the decision

taken at the Law Courts. They wont suffer any loss and their disputes and conflicts

will get resolved at one time.

The author also mentioned that in some developing countries, the concept of

ADR in the organizational setting is quite brand-new to them. This is due to the

systematic framework structures and institutions of governance because of the fact

that the levels of institutionalization for corporations. This is the reasons why the

conflict management and resolution systems as institutional elements are mostly

non-existent in the country, which subsequently brings disadvantages to many

business sectors in general, family and companies.

The author mentioned that the current business around the globe are

systematizing ADR rapidly and profiting from it, for instance, the Georgia-Pacific

announced 2005 as the 10th year of its ADR program, which was estimated to save
the company $33 million over the years (Howard, 2007). Another example is in the

United States of America (U.S.A.) , the business sector is rapidly globalizing and

foreign investment has been increasing in the country, especially following the

election of Barrack Obama the 44th president, with effort to review the U.S policy

and expanding markets with the entire world. Such increasing alliance means that

U.S.A companies will need to adapt themselves to Western business systems and

markets. Notwithstanding with that, the USA suffered economically recently from the

loss of billions dollar due to bad governance enforced by the previous regime. Thus,

they need to strengthen existing conflict resolution systems in such situation, if there

are any, to introduce new ones, if there is such need and to generally systemize

measures that companies may have been taking unconsciously in bringing the

economy to the world class. The author further suggested that in order to achieve that,

there is need for the mediator in this case who can clarify the issues, design a way

forward with the least possible damage to the parties in disputes, to establish the line

of communication which may have been lost in the process of litigation job loss.

The author stressed out the benefit of ADR in workplace in the next paragraph

such as ADR is henceforth has the advantage of being useful in order to resolve

family problems, commercial issues, disputes, incompatibilities at workplace, and

industrial conflict. He also mentioned that it is confidential, private and without

prejudices as the mediator facilitates a solution. He or she is there to build bridges

between opposing parties to the disputes therefore it is the process that aims at

attaining win-win situations. No one is completely light and no one is completely

wrong. He also added that it is paramount importance for a mediator to be able to

analyze the situation, render a decision that will benefit all involved and be able to

design a back - up plan in the case of rejection of the decision by either party.

THERAPEUTIC TRUST-BUILDING APPROACH

The author also explained about the therapeutic trust - building approach in this article.

He briefly mentioned that before examining these mechanisms, it is necessary for the

parties involved to look at the general understanding of conflict and the types of

conflicts that have been encountered and expressed by both parties, as the corporate

culture had implications for conflict management and resolution schemes at the

company.

He further added that there were certain reservations towards referring to conflict

using adversarial words such as disagreement, confrontation, fight or the like for

instance, it was more likely it was articulated as a difference of opinion. The main

type of conflict that is encountered at these two partners is task-conflict, which can be

defined as an awareness of differences of opinions pertaining to a group task1 The

author considered that task - conflict is beneficial since it provokes careful

consideration of important task goals and their accomplishment after he compared it

to other types of conflict in the organizational setting. The task - conflicts are

professional by nature and as long as those who experience them have the same level

1
Jehn K, Mannix E (2001). The Dynamic Nature of Conflict: A Longitudinal Study of Intragroup Conflict and Group

Performance. Acad. Manage. J., 44(2):

of professionalism, they contribute to the company achievements and cannot be

mediated in law courts.

The author explained on process conflicts which he defined it as an awareness of

controversies about how task accomplishments proceed more specifically with issues

of duty and resource delegation. He explained further that the process conflicts can be

beneficial like task - conflicts but can also take on a detrimental turn, if not handled

properly or if let to escalate too much.

The author move on and explained about awareness of interpersonal

compatibilities. He defined it as relationship conflict is of a personal nature and is

always detrimental for the workplace. The reason why it is detrimental is because

people are not able to look beyond their personal differences or animosities,

disregards what the issues might be. Thus, it is inevitable that productivity, efficiency

and general climate of the workplace will be negatively influenced by such conflicts.

The author then further added that because of these conflicts, the mediation is the

solution to achieve disputants’ objectives. He opinionated that the professional

mediators build relationships, make space for the venting of emotions, clarify the

proper issues, identify the parties needs, help the parties to hear what each other is

saying, uncover hidden agenda, check parties commercial, personal and technical

agenda, identify previous settlements, offers and identify settlement strategies on

contrary to Court of Law. He concluded that his role as mediators was to help parties

search for the best alternative to negotiate settlement while at the same time highlight

the cost of continued litigation and arbitration through shaping proposals that meet the

other party’s needs.

 As the major benefits of mediation are an opportunity to settle privately, saving

money and time in contrary to many Court of Laws, it is what makes mediation a

negotiated process that can lead to settlement

Furthermore, he also added that ADR provides the parties with the opportunity to

design their own solution which is in contrast with litigation or arbitration. In

mediation the parties have full say over the final result. And they decide their

outcome. Through the mediator, they work together and not against each other

maintaining, restoring and rebuilding, if possible their relationships. There is no one

to take decisions which would affect the end result of the process. Other than that,

mediation is informal and non-confrontational; its confidentiality is guaranteed at all

times. Mediation also gives the parties concerned the chance to settle on their own. It

is the missing dimension in the solution of disputes which is, all inclusive, but at the

same time, it shows parties to the conflict, that they are sole artefacts of their own

settlement.