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This article is a response to several factors: the emergence of occupational stress as a main theme in a qualitative study involving parties to workplace mediation; the recognition that mediation, being underpinned by psychological stress models, can reduce occupational stress; and a lack of studies investigating mediation's potential to alleviate occupational stress. Linking mediation's main qualities to interactional and transactional models of stress, the article provides a new angle on mediation's dynamics. Findings are illustrated by extracts from interviews. Suggestions are made as to ways in which workplace mediation might be used more proactively in relation to stress.

This article critically analyzes the practice of victim‐offender mediation in district courts in Indonesia, an approach that incorporates the values of indigenous cultures and is compatible with Islamic teachings. The authors highlight the principles of child protection in Indonesia, examine the changing paradigm of legal professionals from retributive to restorative justice, elaborate on legal reforms in handling juvenile offenders, and identify constraints that hamper the implementation of victim‐offender mediation. A case study illustrates the current practice of victim‐offender mediation in the Indonesian courts.

As an emerging discipline, specialist elder mediation has been characterized by diversity, with developments in the field often driven by the needs of family members, caregivers, health professionals, and the legal fraternity rather than the consumer demands of the elderly themselves. In this environment, there is a danger that the voice of elders will be forgotten or marginalized. At its best, elder mediation can play an important role in giving voice to older participants and ensuring that their will and preferences take center stage. At worst, elder mediation could play a role in increasing the vulnerability of older people by providing a forum that gives only lip‐service to their rights. The author urges the elder mediation movement to ask, "What's in a name?" and suggests that the term elder mediation is most properly considered an umbrella term referring to the specialist knowledge of the mediators and the obligation to accommodate the participation of older people in decisions that affect them. The author argues that mediators should be specific about the process they are providing under that banner and that one way this can be achieved is through careful naming of the practice and procedures.

This article focuses on strategic political incivility intended to shut down or disrupt local arenas for public discourse. Professional facilitators who design and manage public discourse and democratic deliberation are the subject of this survey research. Survey questions elicited specific incidences of strategic political incivility and facilitators' responses to these events. The results from this exploratory study suggest that strategic political incivility at the local level may not be as unmanageable a problem for professional facilitators as media reports purport. Recommendations for improving practice emerge from this study, along with promising avenues for future research on uncivil discourse.

This article reviews the experience of community mediation centers over the last ten years, including a review of the literature and national surveys of centers and volunteers. From this literature review, a new survey was created to examine how effectively community mediation centers are meeting the social change vision and the needs of their communities. The results show success and creativity in some areas and struggles in others. The article concludes with a discussion of community mediation values and emerging areas of practice, as well as a recommendation for a research agenda.

This article presents the African Diaspora Dialogue Project (ADDP), a five‐year capacity‐building project that conducted needs assessment, dialogue groups, dialogue facilitator training, and community‐led peace‐building processes for multiple refugee communities from Africa. ADDP, conducted in the United States, was created to address historical grievances that had traveled with community members into the diaspora. Particular challenges facing refugee communities were addressed, culturally congruent peace‐building models were developed and implemented, and participants were trained to become community facilitators. A framework for dialogue was developed as well as lessons learned so that other communities may consider embarking on similar processes.

This article presents the subset of research on the enhancement of cooperation in negotiation with a focus on the intraorganizational context. It studies the long‐term effect of negotiation training and its implications for the teaching of negotiation. We chose a qualitative approach over two cycles of action research. Cycle 1 was performed in a training course with sixty‐four managers over six months. Cycle 2, using the focus group method, was carried out with eleven individuals selected from cycle 1 population over twelve months. This experiment enabled us to propose a dynamic typology of negotiator styles, which led us to suggest a number of recommendations to improve the teaching of negotiation.

This article compares and contrasts the deliverables of the Australian Reconciliation Barometer and a new methodology, reconciliation process analysis, for measuring progress toward Aboriginal reconciliation. Reconciliation process analysis draws heavily on visioning and backcasting to explore the cumulative impact of the innumerable reconciliatory gestures underway in Australia to highlight where the parties stand in relation to tipping points and shared goals for the future. The joint application of these complementary methodologies will identify not only the trajectory of Australia's reconciliatory project but, more important, the buy‐in of indigenous Australians to an ultimate vision of closure and healing.

The reflective observer (RO) model is a unique process that incorporates live observation by a trained observer of an ombudsman during a mediation session, followed by an in‐depth debriefing between the ombudsman and the RO. The clinical goal is to explore cognitive schema used by the ombudsman in decision making during critical moments of the mediation and to describe the underrecognized rationale behind seemingly intuitive expertise. During the debriefing, the exploration is guided by a protocol specifically designed to elicit personal associations, as well as tactical decisions of the ombudsman not frequently addressed in ombudsman practice or training. While research on reflective practice is common among mediators (Bronson ), less research has focused on the impact of reflective practice on the work of ombudsmen. The RO model shows promise as a personal and professional developmental tool for ombudsmen and is a novel approach for both deeper learning as well as developing higher‐order clinical interviewing skills.

AbstractThis study investigates why mediators' assertive strategies—evaluative and directive—did not generate high disputant dissatisfaction when they produced agreements. We thoroughly investigated the transcripts from fifty cases in which the mediators had used assertive strategies and attained agreement. We found that mediators did not irk disputants because the mediators complemented their strategies with four tactical approaches. First, they established their legitimacy, and when mediating they shifted their strategies (from assertive to neutral or vice versa) round by round. They also used a ratchet approach to nudge disputants toward agreement, and they took steps to reduce the disputants' aspirations.