In Justice, InAccord - Softcover

Ries, Shauna; Harter, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1621417417 ISBN 13: 9781621417415

Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc., 2012

Synopsis

In Justice inAccord speaks to the need for people to find fairness and dignity in their search for justice. Whether within couples, companies, or countries, there are inevitable conflicts. Mediation is presented as an alternative to costly, time-consuming litigation. The inAccord model allows disputants to identify the emotions that naturally accompany conflict. Parties are empowered through Touchstone Skills that facilitate dialogue leading to conflict resolution. Research surveys provide evidence for the efficacy of the model.

About this title

About the Author

Shauna Ries, President, Mediators Without Borders, is a graduate of the University of Denver where she earned a Master's degree in Social Work and post graduate study in Marriage and Family. She completed Mediation through a partnership program between Arcadia University International Peace and Conflict Studies Program. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and worked in private practice and served at Project PAVE and Southern Pacific Railroad as a Mediator and Family Clinician.
In 1994, Mediators Without Borders began as RMA, a leadership, communication, facilitation, stress management and conflict management organization offering individual, family and corporate training. Shauna has also co-authored the book, Quality of Life, published by William Morrow publishing. She is a faculty member at Omega Institute, along with training mediators both nationally and internationally.
 
Susan Harter, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Denver, where she served as the Head of the Developmental Psychology Program. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and was the first faculty woman in the Psychology Department and served as Chief Psychologist at the Yale Child Study Center.
 She came to the University of Denver (DU) in 1974 where she developed a battery of self-report instruments that are in widespread use in this country and abroad and are very effective in intervention and program evaluation research.
Dr. Harter served on National Institutes of Mental Health research grant review panels and has been a member of several editorial boards for the top journals in the field such as Developmental Psychology, Psychological Review, and Psychological Bulletin. She received the highest scholarly honor that DU can bestow upon a faculty member, the John Evans Professorship Award, for national and international recognition in one's chosen field of research and is recognized as one of the top 50 developmental psychologists in this country and abroad.

From the Inside Flap

In Justice, inAccord speaks to the need for people to find a sense of fairness and dignity in their search for justice, when faced with inevitable life conflicts. These include miscommunications within couples and families, companies, or countries. Shauna Ries, a cofounder and President of Mediators Without Border, and Susan Harter, a renown research professor of Psychology, present the inAccord Model of Conflict Resolution. The authors dedicate their book "to all of those in search of justice."

A model of mediation is presented as a viable pathway to conflict resolution. They argue that mediation, in many cases, represents an appropriate alternative to lengthy and time-consuming litigation, which can break the banks and backs of earnest citizens who are simply seeking fairness and justice. Most conventional legal approaches to a conflict, where opposing lawyers represent each party, rob disputants of any active role in the process, diminishing them, often creating more rancor between the two parties.

The inAccord model of mediation departs from traditional legal approaches to conflict resolution by actively engaging the parties in the search for a solution to their particular dispute. Empowerment is a major feature of the mediation process. With the help of a mediator, disputants are encouraged to find their own personal voices in order to play an active role in together resolving the conflict at hand. Empowerment acts in consort with a second principle of the inAccord model, transparency. All parties are encouraged to communicate from an authentic stance based on increased self-awareness as well as an increased appreciation for the perspective of the other party. Through both empowerment and transparency, the mediator guides the disputants, facilitating movement to a negotiated agreement.

Toward this goal, the mediator introduces three Touchstone Skills that promote such movement, reflecting, reframing, and questioning. These skills prepare the disputants to effectively negotiate with one another, by increasing self-awareness, engendering compassion and an expanded awareness of the perspective of the other disputant.

A novel component of the inAccord approach to mediation is its emphasis on the role of emotions that each party experiences around the conflict. Recognition of these emotions at the outset of the mediation process is necessary in order to achieve any successful resolution. Disputants' emotions are not merely inferred by the mediator but are directly assessed through self-report surveys of disputants' own subjective evaluation of their feelings. Two classes of emotions are identified, those viewed as empowering (e.g., optimism, hope) in contrast to those that are disempowering (e.g., depression, despair). The inclusion of survey instruments heightens the disputants' awareness of each others' emotions and also allows for the research evaluation of the effectiveness of the mediation process itself. For example, the results of the first empirical study are dramatic, revealing that by the end of mediation, empowering emotions have increased in strength whereas disempowering emotions decreased in strength.

The heart of mediation is captured in four stages, during which disputants also complete surveys that address both their understanding and satisfaction with the skills that are facilitated by the Touchstone Skills. In Stage 1, disputants share their respective perspectives. In Stage 2, they develop an agenda and generate possible options. In Stage 3, they develop joint solutions and an initial agreement. In Stage 4, they craft the final Memorandum of Agreement. The first author, Ries, has put in place many economically-sustainable Alternative Dispute Resolution Centers in this country and abroad to teach these mediation skills. The authors end with a powerful commentary on the implications for justice and peace, whether on the personal, the organizational, or the global stage.

Edition details

• Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1621417417
• ISBN 13: 9781621417415
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312