NCJ Number
118526
Date Published
1988
Length
201 pages
Annotation
Written for managers, dispute resolution professionals, organizational consultants, and others, this text explains how to design a dispute resolution system that will help handle conflicts on an ongoing basis and avoid destructive confrontations.
Abstract
The guidelines are based on the experience of the authors and others in designing dispute resolution systems for business, government, community organizations, families, and nations. An overview distinguishes the three main ways of resolving dispute: to reconcile the disputants' underlying interests, to determine who is right, and to determine who has more power. The analysis concludes that an interests approach is less costly and more rewarding than a rights approach. The guidelines show how to provide interests-based procedures for use whenever possible, as well as low-cost rights procedures and low-cost power procedures. The steps involved in moving toward such a system, the basic principles of system design, and methods of gathering support and motivating people to use the changed procedures are also detailed. A case example involving dispute systems design and operation in the bituminous coal industry is described. Chapter notes, index, and appended model rules for grievance mediation in the coal industry.