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online mediation

What is online mediation?

Online mediation relies on at least some use of information technology and is a voluntary process of mediation.

Online mediation can be a completely automated through a dispute resolution system with computer-prompted information gathering, decision making based on disputants’ inputs, and no interaction from a third party at all.

However, it’s more likely to involve the “delivery of personalized, individual, as-close-to-traditional-as-possible mediation—at a distance,” say the authors of Advancing Workplace Mediation Through Integration of Theory and Practice—Jennifer Parlamis, Noam Ebner, and Lorianne Mitchell.

Although workplace e-mediation is often conducted between parties who are located far apart, it can also incorporate in-person meetings.

Originally, online mediation relied primarily on text-based communications, such as email. But thanks to videoconferencing services such as Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts, parties can now easily and cheaply communicate with one another in real time, while also benefiting from the visual and vocal cues that video conveys. Still, e-mediators continue to use email, text messaging, automated systems, the telephone, and other forms of technology to converse and coordinate during the mediation process.

The following items are tagged online mediation:

Harvard Mediation Intensive

Posted by & filed under Harvard Mediation Intensive.

Led by mediation experts Audrey Lee and Alain Lempereur, the Harvard Mediation Intensive delves into mediation principles and processes through interactive presentations and hands-on exercises. From employment and business disagreements to public and international conflicts, you will discover effective ways to enable parties to settle their differences across a variety of contexts. … Read Harvard Mediation Intensive

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Training: Mediation Curriculum

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

In 2009, we collected many types of curriculum materials from teachers and trainers who attended the Mediation Pedagogy Conference. We received general materials about classes on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as well as highly specific and idiosyncratic units like Conflict Resolution through Literature: Romeo and Juliet and a negotiating training package for female managers … Read More

Negotiation Research You Can Use: Moving from In-Person to Online Mediation

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Laptops, smartphones, databases, and project-management software have become common tools of the negotiation trade. Meanwhile, even as online dispute resolution has risen in popularity, online mediation remains elusive, with mediation being a largely technology-free zone, with smartphones often turned off and tucked away. “The field of mediation has proved surprisingly resistant to technological influence, an island … Read More

Methods of Dispute Resolution: Building Trust in Online Mediation

Posted by & filed under Dispute Resolution.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, mediators and other negotiation practitioners often insisted on meeting in person, convinced that online methods of dispute resolution lack “the human touch”—the warmth, energy, body language, and other subtle factors that build essential ingredients in conflict resolution, including trust, empathy, and rapport. But when lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions took hold in the … Read More

Tips for Teaching Simulations Online: Q&A with David Seibel

Posted by & filed under Pedagogy at PON, Teaching Negotiation.

Check out the video from our recent session on teaching simulations online to pick up tips for running negotiation exercises remotely! Apprehensive about using role-play simulations in your remote or online blended course? Pick up tips on how to make simulations run smoothly over video, including how to best manage breakouts, run multiparty simulations, report results, … Read More

Using Online Dispute Resolution to Resolve Workplace Conflict

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

Many people are working from home these days, but that doesn’t mean disputes between employees have evaporated. In fact, the inability to hash things out in person might exacerbate long-simmering conflicts and leave people feeling even more alienated from one another. The stress we’re all facing from the threat of COVID-19 and disruptions to daily … Read More

How Your Organization Can Benefit from Mediation Techniques

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

If you manage people, disputes will show up at your door. The marketing VP protests that the budget cap you and your new finance VP proposed is hindering a research initiative you supported. Two young sales representatives are embroiled in a turf war. Your administrative assistant is upset because the HR director won’t approve the … Read More

How to Turn a Maybe Into a Yes

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Adapted from “Closing the Deal,” by Michael Wheeler (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter. You’ve followed the negotiation guidebooks to a T, uncovered the parties’ key interests, brainstormed creative solutions, and even developed good rapport with your counterpart. You’ve done everything right…but you still don’t have agreement. How do you turn the other … Read How to Turn a Maybe Into a Yes