Professional Documents
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What is it about?
Third-party intermediaries are people, organizations, or even nations (in an international perspective) who
enter a conflict to try to help the parties de-escalate or resolve it (Burgess, 2004). Formal intermediaries
are people who are professional conflict resolvers and who are hired specifically to do that job. They may
be professional mediators, arbitrators, facilitators, or judges, who work privately or with a government
agency.
Informal intermediaries are people who find themselves in an intermediary role, but it is not something
they usually do as a profession.
Conflict
Conflict is inherent in groups and in organizations. It can arise from a variety of sources (Cummings, T.
&Worley, C., 2001):
• Personality
• Task orientation
• Perceptions among group members
• Competition over scarce resources.
Yet despite the existence of conflicts in the various levels of interactions, it is important to note that
conflict is neither good nor bad.
Conflict can:
• Enhance motivation
• Enhance innovation
• Lead to better understanding of ideas and views
Conflict styles
Episodic model of conflict:
• Occurs in cyclical stages, identified as episodes.
What organizational issues and concerns are being addressed by third-party interventions?
Intermediary roles?
There are a number of intermediary roles that individuals play. Bill Ury (2000), identifies ten (10) such
roles:
• Provider (of needed resources)
• Teacher (to give new ideas for how to resolve conflict, or at least for new ways to approach it)
• Bridge-builder (brings people together where they can get to know each other better)
• Mediators (helps parties work out their problems themselves)
• Arbitrators (listen to both sides then make a decision about what should happen)
• Equalizers (empowers the lower power group(s), so that they can negotiate more effectively with
the other party)
• Healers (help parties apologize, forgive, and become reconciled)
• Witnesses (who observe what is going on and call attention to injustice)
• Referees (who try to keep both sides to “fighting fairly”)
• Peacemakers (keep the parties apart so they don’t fight (at least physically) at all
Formal or informal, the most visible and recognized intermediary roles are mediators and arbitrators.
• Mediators seek to have the parties themselves develop and endorse the agreement.
• Arbitrators are most interested in outcomes and have the power to render a binding decision.
Models
Escalation
Episodic model of conflict Mediation Negotiation breakdowns
model
Preventing ignition of conflict by arriving
at a clear understanding of the triggering Identifying the issues Reducing tension Discussion
factors
Sources:
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2001). Essentials of Organization Development and Change.
Harvey, D.F., & Brown, D.R. (2006). An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development. London:
Prentice Hall.
Thompson, L., & Lewicki, R.J. (1999, 2001). Five cures for negotiation breakdowns.