Moreover, mediation offers a relatively inexpensive process far more flexible and creative than the courts, where civil lawsuits are resolved with money, she says. Mediation can resolve money issues, she adds, but it also can address the non-monetary grievances, the psychological stumbling blocks that arouse hostility and often keep people at odds. The skill of the mediator is to clarify what the issues really are and develop options to resolve the dispute. Mediation holds promise for large and small businesses, she says, particularly in an era when workplace violence is increasingly commonplace. For these small businesses, affordable and fast conflict resolution helps their bottom line.
Companies often are slow to embrace the mediation process to resolve internal disputes.
O'Brien blames that partly on a corporate culture of denial, in which supervisors feel that workplace turmoil reflects badly on them. As a result, many supervisors are neither prepared to deal with conflict nor willing to seek outside help when it occurs. Gradually the word is getting out. Of the business disputes brought to the mediation center, employment conflicts represent the fastest-growing category, O'Brien says. Most business disputes still arise between different companies.