Case: Mediating a Dispute

Objective

To practice mediating a dispute between two employees in the role of manager.

Problem

Joe Newcomer assigned a major project to Fred Staid and Sally Ambitious. The project involves assessing and realigning the process for ordering and retrieving purchased items from the warehouse to ensure that they are delivered in a timely manner to the customer service desk for pick up. The problem has been vexing Joe for weeks, exacerbated by the vacancy of the team leader position for the customer service desk. Joe was stretched thin and was not able to focus on the problem the way he would like. He felt confident that Fred and Sally could manage the assignment and would provide the ideal mix to creatively and carefully improve this process.

Joe selected Fred because he has an analytical mind. He thought Fred would have a lot of good ideas about how to improve warehouse efficiency. Fred also takes a deliberate, methodical approach to addressing problems. Joe selected Sally for her energy. In contrast to Fred, Sally tends to operate from good instincts about how to improve processes. Many of these instincts have led to the successful implementation of processes that have greatly improved efficiency in the warehouse. She is a go-getter and would be a good balance with Fred’s more methodical approach.

Convincing Fred and Sally to work together was not an easy task. Although they generally get along with one another, they had not worked closely together until this project. It would be the first real test of their relationship. Having learned from Professor Justice a process for encouraging collaboration, Joe spent time individually with Fred and Sally convincing them that working together would produce positive results for them and the organization. In doing this, Joe had to address each party’s concerns regarding the additional workload this project created, reservations each had about his or her ability and role in taking on the assignment, and personal perceptions each had about the other and his or her working style. Slowly, Joe was able to persuade them to take on the challenge.

This working arrangement worked great—for about five minutes! It was not long before Fred and Sally were griping about every little thing. Sally kept jumping in to address problems, and Fred kept telling her to hold on and take some time to think things through. Further, it became evident that Fred and Sally had completely different ways of communicating and working. There were also evident differences in culture and values.

After a week, Fred and Sally each approached Joe separately and begged to be removed from the assignment. Joe decided to set up a meeting to talk with both of them about the project and their difficulties in communicating.

Procedure

Two options are available for selecting players for this role-play: (1) three students volunteer to play Joe, Fred, and Sally, respectively or (2) all students form groups of three and divide the roles of Joe, Fred, and Sally within each group.

If the first option is selected, the students who volunteered will role-play a scene in which Joe attempts to mediate the dispute between Fred and Sally. Prior to doing this, divide the class into three groups and have each group assume one of the three roles. Each group should coach the selected student on how the character should behave during the mediation as suggested by the scenario and the role profiles. Group members should also discuss strategies about how each character would approach the mediation. The groups should take no more than ten minutes to do this. The selected students should then role-play the scenario in front of the class. All other students will observe the role-plays and critique whether the efforts to mediate were successful. Allow approximately fifteen minutes for this process.

If the second option is selected, each group of three students should role-play the mediation. Allow approximately ten minutes for each student to prepare for the meeting, and approximately fifteen minutes for the mediation process. After all students have finished their role-plays, the class will reform and discuss the challenges they faced when engaging in the mediation process and whether their efforts were successful.

With either option, additional facts may be created, provided they are consistent with the scenario and role profiles. Further, to set the stage and help the players get a sense of how each party is behaving and reacting to one another, Fred and Sally should engage in appropriate griping, complaining, and arguing for a couple of minutes. Joe should then attempt to engage them in a mediation process based on the process outlined in this chapter. All characters should play their characters sincerely and should be neither unquestioningly agreeable nor arbitrarily disagreeable. Rather, they should agree only to solutions based on principles consistent with their characters. Also, Joe’s goal should be to convince them to achieve an outcome on their terms and try to avoid imposing his own suggestions for resolution.

Case Questions

In class, discuss the following:

1. How successful was Joe in facilitating a process for mediating the dispute without imposing his own outcome on the parties? (Note: Whether a successful outcome was achieved in this exercise is less important than how the process of mediation was used to bring the parties together to discuss the problem, identify interests, explore options for resolution, and work toward resolution.)

2. What went well in the mediation process?

3. What challenges did Joe face in attempting mediation?