Mediating in hierarchical workplace conflicts

Mediators generally find mediation of hierarchical workplace conflicts difficult, as it often involves structural power imbalances. This dissertation seeks to increase knowledge of how hierarchical conflict affects how parties and mediators perceive mediation across dyads and across time. Three questions are central to this: a) How effective in the long-term is the mediation of hierarchical workplace conflicts? b) How does perceived situational power in supervisor-subordinate dyads relate to mediation effectiveness? c) Do supervisors and subordinates differ in their emotional experiences during mediation, and are mediators able to perceive these emotions accurately? To answer these questions, we rely on the literature on power, emotions, mediation, and conflict management. We introduce our research via a heuristic model (chapter one). We then present our quantitative empirical research in three chapters based on survey data we collected from supervisors, subordinates, and mediators immediately after the mediation and then one year later. Our results show that supervisors and subordinates consider mediation effective in the long run, implying the sustainability of workplace mediation as a conflict resolution tool. In addition, short-term perceptions of mediation effectiveness are seemingly an accurate indicator of long-term perceptions of mediation effectiveness. Supervisors and subordinates perceive the long‐term outcomes somewhat differently: supervisors sense greater compliance with the agreement from subordinates than vice versa (chapter two). The results also indicate that perceived power during mediation is important: the more situational power that both parties perceive, the more satisfied they are with the mediation; while asymmetry in perceived situational power reduces mediation effectiveness. In addition, subordinates perceive less situational power than supervisors and perceived situational power is a mediator between hierarchical position and perceived mediation effectiveness. Especially for subordinates, perceived situational power is important to see the mediation as effective (chapter three). Furthermore, subordinates experience more intense negative emotion during mediation than supervisors do, but an equal amount of positive emotion. Importantly, mediators perceive supervisors' positive and negative emotions far more accurately than they do the emotions of subordinates. Mediators are also more accurate in identifying negative emotions than positive emotions (chapter four).The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practicalimplications of our research and suggestions for future research (chapter five).

Jaar van publicatie:2020