Business Conflict Blog

Over the transom from our good friends at the International Mediation Institute comes this announcement:

The Inter-Cultural Taskforce of the IMI Independent Standards Commission (ISC), after a year of meetings and consultation, is publishing  for comment Draft Criteria for the planned IMI Inter-Cultural Competency Certification of Mediators.

Organisations approved by the ISC as an Inter-Cultural Qualifying Assessment Program (ICQAP) will assess mediators for their mastery of inter-cultural dynamics and qualify mediators for IMI Inter-Cultural Certification. The launch of this new initiative is planned for late 2011 following a public consultation period and testing of the criteria in a pilot program.

This is the first I heard of this initiative, and all I know is what I read.  From what I read…. Read more »

Tags: ADR Institutions, Culture, Mediation, Training

This post comes from the island of Luzon, in the Philippines, where a team from the Corporate Social Responsibility Project of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has worked on a film documenting the tensions between operators of two hydroelectric dams and the communities that were inundated, destroyed and displaced during the construction of the dams.

One company ignored the communities and the other engaged them, and the difference is so palpable that you wonder why any company would ever do anything other than engagement. Read more »

Tags: conflict management, Corporate Social Responsibility, Culture, Negotiation

Over the past years, many of us have been impressed by the limitations of both institutional dispute resolution systems (i.e., courts) and their alternatives (i.e., arbitration and mediation).  At the same time, I’ve been increasingly drawn to examples found in certain societies whose shared spiritual beliefs have produced systems of dispute resolution that are consciously in tune with those beliefs.

I include in these systems the Hawai’ian practice of ho’oponopono, including pule (prayer) and mihi forgiveness); Philippine practices to end clan disputes engaging spiritual authority; traditional Chinese limitations on the prosecution of individual claims in keeping with Confucian concepts of fa and li; traditional Muslim teachings of Sulha to resolve conflicts among members of the community; civil resolution practices in certain Hindu societies; and direct mediation by elders in settings like the one described by a native of Burkina Faso.

So, this year, I am studying what I call, for want of a better term, conflict resolution processes that are “spiritually-infused.”  I intend to write a book collecting and analyzing them.  A panel on the topic will be held at the ABA Dispute Resolution Conference in Denver in April. 

I also intend to share some essays as the project goes on, both to contribute to those who share my interest and to garner critical response to make the study as rigorous and reliable as it can be.  Below please find the first such essay — an introduction, setting forth the scope and purpose of the effort. Read more »

Tags: ADR, Culture

Don’t make me swear to it, but I believe it was Karl Slaikeu who first presented to me the four stages — or, better, “declensions” — of ending a conflict.  If it was somebody else, my apology.

Which, by the way, is the first stage. Read more »

Tags: Culture