Posts Tagged ‘ADR’

WBI Survey: Mediation and Workplace Bullying

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

MEDIATION AND WORKPLACE BULLYING
WBI 2011-D Instant Poll

At WBI, we have always argued against the adoption of mediation or other alternative dispute resolution practices for bullying resolution. The source of our resistance is twofold: (1) often the bullied target who is already compromised and often emotionally wounded is mandated to participate, and (2) workplace bullying is a form of violence, non-physical and sub-lethal, but interpersonal violence nevertheless.

Violent relationships cannot be mediated. Mediation requires that both parties are rational and capable of gaining an empathic understanding of the needs and intellectual interests of the other party. In bullying, only one party is rational. The other’s interest is tainted by her or his need to dominate the other party. There is no equal footing at the start. One does not mediate domestic violence. There is no halfway in the gulf between parties when one is under assault by the other.

In a 2011 WBI Instant Poll, 473 respondent/bullied targets completed a survey exploring how effective was mediation.

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