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Finding a home for classes or setting up a dispute resolution program varies depending on the setting and the environment in which you are working. The rules differ depending on the conflict management, mediation, ADR or dispute resolution orientation of your discipline and setting. While there is an organization that is devoted to materials on the topic (http://www.crenet.org/) you may find this summary more applied and accessible in some areas.
This web page discusses approaches for several environments in which dispute currently seems to have a substantial home, some with proposals, suggestions and thoughts, some with links, some with just a note. The thought is to give people ideas of where to start and where to consider going, not a complete blueprint. In the proposals that are made, I acknowledge that because of discipline lines most suggestions will not be “complete” from a theoretical view and will be limited to the discipline. In addition, some areas are extremely mature and I only note them with links to established resources (e.g. education and crenet.org).
I would appreciate comments and suggestions. The areas discussed below are (in alphabetical order):
Business (conflict management)
Discussion.
Law Schools are by far the easiest program to set up. Out of the “top ten” law school programs, more than half have implemented the “Missouri Plan” and the complete plan, program details, class room materials and aids are all available to any law school that wants to use them. The only modification I would make to that approach is to add a more substantive negotiation option and for that I would advise individual law schools interested in fully teaching mediation to consult with Fred Moss (of which, interestingly, there are two Fred Mosses in Dallas who teach or have taught in law schools and/or dispute resolution. If you find the wrong one, I’ll be glad to point you to the right one).
The Missouri Plan approach involves integrating ADR concepts into existing
classes in addition to direct instruction. The entire process and some excellent
reflections have all been published in related journals (law
reviews).
After reading them, I really don’t find myself disagreeing
with what they are doing. If
this is your area of interest, start with their documents and read through
the September 1998 issue of the Florida Law Review (Volume 50, Number 4,
pages 583 to 760).
Continuing Education oriented programs I have discussed at
http://adrr.com/adr9/043a.htm.
Dispute Resolution (as an undergraduate minor) is a growing
area, and a natural one for many college campuses, often as a subdivision
of a sociology or a law and justice program or as a part of the general studies
program. A proposed curriculum
is at
http://adrr.com/adr9/041a.htm.
Before attempting to start such a program (rather than a sub-set) I would
be certain of institutional support.
Sociology is an interesting field and a natural for conflict analysis and dispute resolution applications, especially in the wider context. A dispute resolution program in that context is one that provides students with tools and foundational understanding and is intended to prepare students to have an impact in the area of public policy. The Cornell Graduate Minor is headed by a sociology professor (see http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/PeaceProgram/minor.html) as is the Humboldt program (see http://www.humboldt.edu/~isadr/staff.htm). The classes I recommend that you consider in deciding how to work into starting a program are:
INTRODUCTION TO CONFLICT ANALYSIS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION: This class
is an introduction to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It examines
definitions of conflict and dispute resolution. It surveys, briefly, thinking
about human behavior and social systems as they relate to the origins of
conflict and the role of conflict in social change it considers appropriate
responses to conflict at interpersonal, intergroup, community, and national
levels. However, the class focuses
on foundational elements, including mediation and conflict management so
that students can understand these terms and processes when exposed to broader
concepts and applications.
INTRODUCTION TO NEGOTIATION: This class introduces negotiation concepts.
While it covers the basics of understanding needs and attempting to
build stable resolutions, it addresses the broader theory of negotiation
and the techniques and approaches used by professional negotiators as well
as normal human patterns of reaction as they apply to casual
negotiators.
PUBLIC POLICY NEGOTIATION: This class introduces the methods by which
public policy disputes are mismanaged and managed, including how third party
neutrals are used and how managers can apply conflict resolution techniques
and principles to developing conflicts. While the focus is on the processes
by which environmental, developmental and other public disputes are successfully
resolved by the use of third parties, the class also addresses how conflicts
are magnified by poor responses and how individuals involved in such disputes
can channel or affect the process.
PATTERNS, PATHOLOGIES AND
PARADIGMS: This class surveys
human behavior and social systems as they relate to the origins of conflict
and the role of conflict in violent and peaceful social change in the context
of human social patterns and paradigms.
Where the introductory class is foundational and focuses on mediation
and direct (small group/employment settings) conflict resolution, this class
takes the broader theoretical approach.
PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES:
Understanding war and
peace, includes simulations.
SEMINAR ON FACILITATION
INITIATIVES: This seminar surveys
facilitation initiatives and how one participates in or initiates
one.
Business (conflict management) is a growing
field. Most of the early action
was in labor related and in Industrial and Labor relations (e.g. see PERC
at Cornell
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/depts/icr/)
but the current significant focus is on the Academy of Management’s
Conflict Management Division (at
http://aom.pace.edu/cmd).
For a professor’s web site
see
http://www.kenanflagler.unc.edu/faculty/directory/53.html.
For an academic division that approaches conflict resolution from the perspective
of law faculty in business schools, see
http://cba.unomaha.edu/faculty/mohara/web/ADRopen.htm.
There is also an excellent position paper ALSB ADR Positon Paper on Need for ADR in Business (posted with permission).
INTRODUCTION TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION: This class is an introduction
to the field of conflict analysis and resolution. It class focuses on
foundational elements, including mediation and conflict management from a
manager’s perspective so that a student has useful skills, understandings
and applications.
INTRODUCTION TO NEGOTIATION: This class introduces negotiation concepts.
While it covers the basics of the broader theory of negotiation, it
focuses on direct applications the techniques and approaches used by professional
negotiators in labor and business.
SEMINAR ON [SPECIFIC FIELD]:
This seminar applies the foundational information and knowledge to
the conflict resolution needs of a particular field to provide the perspective
and tools that a consultant or manager needs to be able to understand and
apply. Examples include health care, EEOC, Power and Influence in Organizations,
Team Leading,
For perspective,
Negotiation and Conflict
Management,
Public
Affaris Dispute Resolution,
and Managing
Organizational Conflict are classes taught by CMD
members. Often conflict management
is seen as a sub-division of Organizational Behavior and a willingness to
teach the intro OB class is a large plus for anyone interested in teaching
in such a
program.
Legal Studies (law and justice) is often seen as the natural
home of conflict resolution. The
leading discussed program of this type is at Brenau University (the web page
being:
http://www.brenau.edu/sfah/humanities/ConflictRes.htm). Often, interdisciplinary groups take
their shelter in law and legal studies (e.g. the Marquette University Center
for Dispute Resolution Education which was created in 1993 as an
interdisciplinary academic center that combined the fields of law, business,
psychology, sociology, political science, health sciences, education, and
communication in order to develop a program, web page at
http://www.marquette.edu/disputeres/).
The University of Arizona is
also a leader in hosting conflict resolution under the school of justice
studies (on the web at
http://www.asu.edu/copp/justice/index.htm
or
http://www.asu.edu/copp/justice/home.htm).
For other perspectives see
http://www.alsb.org/.
CAMPUS MEDIATION CENTERS: this is a participatory class that includes orientation, training and participation in a campus mediation center.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: this class introduces and discusses restorative justice in the dispute resolution context.
INTRODUCTION TO DISPUTE
RESOLUTION: this class surveys
ADR and the dispute resolution field.
Government/Political Science is exemplified by the Bryn Mawr
program at
http://www.brynmawr.edu/depts/peace/.
The best known professor in this type of program is William Warters in the
Wayne State College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs (see
http://www.mtds.wayne.edu/campus.htm). An example of a mature program is
PARC at Syracuse in The Maxwell School
of Citizenship and Public
Affairs or the University of New Mexico School of Public Administration
(at http://www.unm.edu/~spagrad/).
For a professor’s page,
see
http://ncinfo.iog.unc.edu/programs/dispute/index.html.
Education: See
the UMass program (at
http://site.www.umb.edu/forum/1/Dispute_Resolution/res/overview.htm)
for a good start. This is a huge area as teachers are trained to reduce
conflict. The entire area of
Peer Mediation is encompassed in the education realm and the topic is beyond
the scope of this simple paper but is well addressed at
http://crinfo.org/k12.cfm. CRENET
was focused on this area
(http://www.crenet.org/).
Religion (peacemaking).
Visit the Mennonite centers for that (or some of the other
groups). This is beyond the
scope of this article, but you should be aware that there is an entire field
centered in religious peacemaking which is why I mention it here.
http://www.justpeaceumc.org/home.htm
is an excellent website in this regards.
Other areas include Psychology (a professor’s
web page is at
http://gobi.stanford.edu/facultybios/bio.asp?ID=115)
and Economics (visit
http://unt.edu/).
Conclusion.
There are two different ways that dispute resolution may be addressed in a program. The first (as in a law school) is dispute resolution as a useful sub-set of the program rather than a definite focus. Just as business schools include business law without being law schools, many programs benefit from including some elements of dispute resolution in the education that they provide their students.
The second way to address a dispute resolution program is as a core program (either as a minor as at Cornell or as a major, as at Brenau). These can be under the roof of an existing discipline, as a reinterpretation of the discipline (e.g. ICAR and sociology) or as a cross-disciplinary approach.
The advantage to the first approach is that the classes and instruction provide immediate, direct benefit to the students. Negotiation and conflict management skills can make life calmer, more friendly and peaceful – immediately, and the same skills are often very useful in employment, in academia and in the real world. Your major is intended to get you hired, dispute resolution skills will often get you promoted.
The second approach has its benefits, but its limits as well. I admire the programs that are striving to succeed in this area, especially those that provide academic minors to undergraduates and graduates.
In either case, the
After
word.
In designing classes or in building a program, keep in mind the students
who benefit from your classes or who might be attracted to them, on every
level.
Copyright
2001 Stephen R. Marsh |
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This Website is by Stephen R.
Marsh
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