Conflict Resolution
We often find a deep-rooted conflict underlying the disputes that are referred to us.
This could be:-
- A history of 'bad blood' between parties to a commercial contract, or between particular individuals within each organisation, as a prelude to a "winner takes all" court or adjudication battle;
- Unsatisfactory workplace relations over a period of time culminating in an over-hasty dismissal and/or a discrimination claim;
- Poor communication and misunderstandings between neighbours leading up to party wall or boundary disputes, or nuisance claims;
- Disappointed expectations in intimate relationships which are either not articulated at all, or in such a way that apportions blame, with the result that one party seeks to end the relationship and split up the family and its assets; or
- Unwillingness to allow full political rights to a significant proportion of a country's population, thus providing a pretext for invasion, war, and seizure of control of a country by armed groups claiming to represent the oppressed group.
Formal processes such as litigation, arbitration and adjudication encourage the parties to articulate the dispute in hand. Details of any underlying conflict are then dismissed as irrelevant unless they are part of the dispute before the tribunal. The decision finally given on the dispute often becomes another milestone in the ongoing conflict.
'Alternative' processes such as mediation in theory provide more latitude to address any underlying conflict. In practice, time constraints (often dictated by costs constraints) tend to mean that the focus remains upon the immediate dispute. The underlying conflict may, however, become more apparent to the parties as a result of engaging in a mediation process.
Co-mediation by a mediator with a legal background and a mediator with a background in the subject matter of the conflict can prove beneficial. The parties must however have the will to address the underlying conflict as well as the immediate dispute. A conflict will usually have drawn in other people besides the disputants, and they may need to participate in the process as actors rather than solely as advisors or supporters of one or other of the disputants. We can provide such mediation teams with the expertise to deal with the conflicts that we have cited as examples above.
