Online Mediation Techniques for Conflict
Introduction
The definition of online mediation is frequently as context-specific as the problem that it is attempting to address. Mediation is frequently regarded as the final step in the resolution of disputes.
Mediation is a process in which two or more parties negotiate with the help of a neutral third party.
Skilled third-party mediators can assist lower the emotional temperature in a negotiation. They can promote effective dialogue, discover hidden interests, provide face-saving options for movement.
Suggesting solutions that the parties may have ignored as well.
However, it’s possible that you and the other party are in separate geographical areas. Perhaps your disagreement started with an internet transaction and you’ve never met.
Various start-ups began offering e-mediation or online mediation services to businesses and the general public in the late 1990s.
Techniques
Though firms frequently employ online mediation to handle high-volume, long-distance problems (such as disagreements between eBay customers), the range of disputes that can be mediated online has grown to encompass workplace and family conflicts involving persons who live in the same area.
Mediators and service providers employ a variety of “platforms,” the procedure is typically handled by e-mail and telephone, video conferencing, and real-time conversations being less. The mediator oversees the process as the parties exchange documents via email.
According to Ebner, early investigations of online mediation have found it to be an efficient method of resolving disputes. It is convenient since it allows participants to join whenever they have the time. Furthermore, e-mail exchanges can level the playing field between disputants who normally dominate conversations and others who are more reticent.
Online Mediation and its Success
Of course, significant online mediation training and substantive competence, as well as a sharp analytic talent, are essential. However, professional mediators believe that developing rapport is more vital to good online mediation than using specific meditation techniques and tactics, according to a survey conducted by Northwestern University law professor Stephen Goldberg.
Of course, Goldberg’s responders could only report on their own perceptions of why they succeeded. A third party or the parties themselves could have very different explanations. Indeed, one of the foundations of online mediation is to work quietly so that the parties leave feeling as if they came to an agreement primarily on their own, a method designed to strengthen their willingness to uphold the agreement.
In a previous study, mediator Peter Adler and his colleagues discussed “the breaks, breakthroughs, and windows of chances lost or found” to explain their success. Participants in the identical cases, on the other hand, only remembered the mediators for “opening the room, making coffee, and introducing everyone.”
Benefits of Online Mediation
The advantages of mediation are clear and obvious. It’s not only less expensive and faster, but it’s also less stressful, which is critical in these trying times. Even in sectors like clinical negligence, mediation is starting. However, in a period when social distancing and lockdowns are the norms, mediation is impossible.
Currently, organizations frequently use e-mediation to address high-volume disputes and situations involving significant distances. Conflicts between eBay or Amazon consumers are an example.
Emails, phone calls, video calls, and real-time chats are all common ways for online mediators to communicate. Email is used to send documents, but they frequently become part of an e-discovery process. This online form of mediation has a number of advantages over traditional mediation.
Factors
The parties typically take a breather before making impassioned declarations due to the slower speed of addressing the situation through emails and other textual means. When they’ve calmed down, they’ll be able to react when it’s convenient for them.
Mediations find time to formulate superior solutions if they are not in a heat of a moment which can be detrimental to their knowledge skills. Mediators who prepare well will make better judgments.
Where one party may be dominating in nature or owing to class, financial, social, cultural, or physical factors, an online conversation levels the playing field.
Conclusion
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, communication specialists frequently state that nonverbal communication accounts for 80% of all communication. These nonverbal clues frequently exacerbate rather than resolve the situation. People pay significantly more attention to the ‘tone’ of a voice than to the content of the voice.