Can Mediation Work in My Office?

If your company or agency has an established mediation cadre and policy on conflict resolution resources, you are in luck!   The management of your organization has recognized the benefits of reduced workplace conflict.  Familiarize yourself with these services and don’t hesitate to utilize them.  It may also be helpful to refer co-workers who have shared their issues with you to this resource.

If your organization does not currently provide these services it could be beneficial to you to open up that dialog.  Ask your manager, “If you could eliminate or reduce lost productivity due to workplace conflict, and help to avoid litigation costs would you be interested in hearing more?  I bet they say yes.

Mediation (and the suite of ADR resources) offers organizations a way to increase their conflict management skills, practices and processes for raising issues, improve communications, resolve concerns and solve problems.

Workplace mediation can be made available to all employees, is fair and impartial, flexible and informative, voluntary, safe and is a tool for informing, educating and reducing workplace tension.

We can do our job better when we manage and resolve workplace conflict.

Do you think you will approach your workplace with this information?

Theresa Doty is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.