Third Party Intervention in Interpersonal, Group and Intergroup Conflicts

This course will focus on third party intervention in interpersonal,

group/team and intergroup conflicts. It will emphasize collaborative

approaches (mediation, consensus building, dialogic encounters) aimed to

help the parties in conflict to constructively engage with their differences.

Students will learn about different types of third party involvement, the

circumstances calling for their use, the characteristics of interventions

and their outcomes. On this basis students will learn to analyze the

conflict and select an intervention that best suits the nature of conflict, its

context and the parties' characteristics. They will also gain basic skills for

implementing some of the interventions in academic, work and

community environments.

Involvement of an external party in conflicts is often necessary to prevent

conflict escalation and channel the adversaries to a constructive path.

The course aims to provide knowledge and skills on collaborative

approaches to third party intervention. Main themes to be discussed:

1. Third party intervention: domains, types and characteristics

2. Constructive Conflict Engagement: "fitting the forum to the fuss"

3. Dialogic approaches to third party intervention

4. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

5. Mediation: principles, strategies, tactics and techniques

6. The mediator: style, competencies and the nature of practice

7. Issues in Mediation: neutrality and power balance

8. Mediation and Culture

9. Orchestrating and building consensus: third party intervention in a

system level conflicts and intergroup conflicts

10. Evaluating the effectiveness of collaborative third party intervention:

success factors, barriers and challenges

1. Introduction: third party intervention - domains, types and

characteristics

 Fast, L. (2013). A Reflexive Approach to Risk and Intervention for

Third Party Interveners. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 30 (4), 467-

491.

2. Constructive Conflict Engagement: "fitting the forum to the fuss"

 Mayer, B. (2004). Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in

Conflict Resolution, (pp. 181-214). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

3. Dialogic approaches to third party intervention

 Desivilya-Syna, H. (2011). The Role of Negotiation in Building

Intra-Team and InterTeam Cooperation. In M. Benoliel (ed.)

Negotiation Excellence: Successful Deal Making. (pp. 361-381).

Tuck Link, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing (WSP).

 Kuttner, R. (2012). Cultivating Dialogue: From Fragmentation to

Relationality in Conflict Interaction. Negotiation Journal, 28 (3),

315-335.

4. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

 Bloomgren Amsler, C., Martinez, J.K., & Smith S.E. (2015).

Christina Merchant and the State of Dispute System Design.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 33 (Supplement 1), 7-27.

 Charkoudian, L., Thompson Eisenberg, & Walter, J.L. (2017).

What Difference Does ADR Make? Comparison of ADR and Trial

Outcomes in Small Claims Court. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 35

(1), 7-47.

5. Mediation: principles, strategies, tactics and techniques

 Charkoudian, L. & Bilick, M. (2015). State of Knowledge:

Community Mediation at a Crossroads. Conflict Resolution

Quarterly, 32 (3), 233-276.

 Wall, J.A. & Kressel, K. (2017). Mediator Thinking in Civil Cases.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 34 (3), 331-360.

6. The mediator: style, competencies and the nature of practice

 Kressel, K., Henderson, T., Reich, W., and Cohen, C. (2012).

Multidimensional analysis of conflict mediator style. Conflict

Resolution Quarterly, 30 (2), 135173.

7. Issues in Mediation: neutrality and power balance

 Cora Garcia, A. (2010). The Role of Interactional Competence in

Mediation. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 28 (2), 205-228.

8. Mediation and Culture

 Bond, G. (2013). Mediation and Culture: The Example of the ICC

International Commercial Mediation Competition. Negotiation

Journal, 29 (3), 315-328.

9. Orchestrating and building consensus: third party intervention in a

system level conflicts and intergroup conflicts

 Glenn, P. and Susskind, L. (2010). Special Section Communication

and Negotiation. How Talk Works: Studying Negotiation

Interaction. Negotiation Journal, 26(2), 117-123.

 Jarraud, N.S. and Lordos, A. (2012). Participatory Approaches to

Environmental Conflict Resolution in Cyprus. Conflict Resolution

Quarterly, 29 (3), 261-283.

10. Evaluating the effectiveness of collaborative third party intervention:

success factors, barriers and challenges

 Mayer, B. (2004). Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in

Conflict Resolution, (chapter 9). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

Knowledge:

 Explain the premise of collaborative third party intervention

approaches and domains of potential use

 Analyze the circumstances calling for third party intervention in

interpersonal, intra-group and intergroup conflicts

 Describe the typology of collaborative third party intervention:

facilitation of dialogic encounters, ADR, mediation, orchestration and

consensus building

 Characterize the mediation practice: approaches, styles, strategies,

tactics and techniques

 Recognize underlying issues in mediation: neutrality, power balance,

context (culture)

 Recognize a variety of outcomes of third party intervention and their

antecedents, mediators and moderators

Skills:

 Diagnose conflict and fit third party approach to its context and the

parties

 Initiate mediation of interpersonal conflict

 Implement mediation process with two parties

 Deal effectively with the issue of neutrality in mediation

 Identify the stakeholders to be involved in consensus building among

groups

 Evaluate the effectiveness/success of third party intervention

 Reflective course protocol on at least 75% of the class meetings (25%)

 Class performance in role playing exercise (based on the lecturer's

and peer assessment) (10%)

 Final term paper: a conceptual (theory-based) and operational plan

for third party intervention in a work place, academic environment or

a community (65%)

Class performance:

Students will receive clear rating/evaluation tools and instructions. I

believe that being able to evaluate your colleagues' performance as well

as your own constitutes an important skill of the practitioner in the area

of conflict management. The main targets of evaluation will be the

students acting as third parties. To be able to evaluate each student, I

will divide them in smaller groups containing 2-3 observers (evaluators).

The rating parameters will include by and large the quality of active

listening and the level of interactional/procedural justice

(impartiality/neutrality/bias). The latter will be based on the observer's

ratings as well as of students who act as the parties in conflict. By means

of the instructions re: peer evaluation, I will emphasize the importance of

the accuracy of the evaluations. As indicated above, I will devote time to

processing the simulations and to feedback

Attendance rules

Presence in all classes is obligatory. However, up to 4 hours unexcused

absences are permitted, and up to 4 more hours of absence in case of a

formal excuse are allowed.