Browsing by Subject "Mediation"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Pilot Project in Collaborative Leadership: Skills and Strategies for Consensus Building, Mediation, and Problem Solving
    (Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program, 2008-04) Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program
    In 2006, the Federal Highway Administration, the Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program, and The Keystone Center began work on a pilot program aimed at these objectives: 1. Training transportation officials in collaborative leadership; 2. Providing a venue for those officials to exercise leadership, solve problems, and move stalled projects to completion; 3. Demonstrating that mediation is an effective tool in resolving conflict over transportation projects; 4. Providing a model that can be replicated elsewhere. Staff from these three organizations worked together to develop a one-day training program in collaborative leadership; establish criteria for selecting a transportation project that could benefit from the application of collaborative leadership and mediation; identify projects that fit the criteria; select the most appropriate project; train transportation officials working on the project; and mediate the dispute. In January 2007, transportation staff from Blue Earth County, Minnesota, nominated County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 26 for mediation and agreed to participate in the pilot training program. The project met the criteria as established prior to the application process - urgency, likelihood that the dispute could be settled in three sessions, and willingness to mediate. In a one-day training session, the local, state, and federal transportation officials focused on interest based problem solving, the mediation process, the principles and practices of collaborative leadership, and specific application of all three to the Blue Earth County case. Although the training and mediation seemed to have succeeded in helping the participants reach an agreement that would be implemented, the county unilaterally cancelled the agreement without notice to the other parties. The pilot failed to achieve its ultimate goal - an implemented agreement - but did achieve some of what the project team set out to accomplish. Despite the outcome, the project team continues to believe that, with some modifications, a training-mediation program has strong potential to be useful for other transportation projects. The project team included Tom Sorel, Julie Skallman, Cheri Marti, Jan Lucke Mike Hughes.
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    Social support mediates the relation between attachment and responses to potentially traumatic events
    (2013-09) Shallcross, Sandra Lynn
    Insecure adult attachment is consistently related to posttrauma functioning, but this relation has rarely been examined prospectively across a wide range of potentially traumatic events (PTEs). In addition, the mediating mechanisms for this relation are not yet fully understood. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to assess whether pretrauma attachment orientation would predict changes in functioning following a PTE. The second aim was to determine whether social support would mediate this relation. Undergraduate students (N = 1,084) completed pre-PTE measures of psychological and social well-being at Time 1 (T1); 73% (N = 789) completed a follow up survey 2 months later (Time 2; T2). Those who reported experiencing PTE between T1 and T2 completed a final follow-up survey 4 months after T1 (Time 3; T3). Insecure attachment orientation predicted increases in PTSD, psychological distress and aggression, and decreases in social functioning from T1 to T3. These relations were mediated by perceptions of social support reported at T2. These findings have important implications for research and practice with populations exposed to potentially traumatic events.
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    A Within-Person Evaluation of Decision Making Logics as Mediating Mechanisms in Episodic Work-Family Conflict Decision Making
    (2017-10) Urs, Lalitha
    Increased workforce diversity, technological innovations, and globalization are some of the diverse macro-environmental factors that have changed the very nature of work. While many organizations have adopted flexibility initiatives with the intention of enabling better employee management of work and family demands, this flexibility has come at a cost. Blurring of boundaries between work and family domains, and greater work-family customization by employee are some of the unanticipated consequences of initiatives that were intended to reduce demands but only make additional demands of the employee’s attention. Consequently, ‘making work and family work’ represents a persistent concern among many working individuals. Although research on work-family decision making has acknowledged that individuals intentionally allocate resources to different domains to achieve desired outcomes, research has only recently begun to examine the antecedents of and process by which individuals resolve work-family conflict episodes. While recent research has found that contextual factors influence whether the work or family role is prioritized, the mediating processes underlying these decisions have yet to be examined. This study contributes to the literature by examining the episodic work-family decision making process to evaluate decision making logics as mediating mechanisms of work-family decisions. It adopted a daily diary method to examine episodes of work-family conflict and drew on theoretical frameworks to evaluate the decision making logics namely, the logic of consequences and appropriateness (March, 1994) as potential mechanisms at the within-person level. The study found evidence to suggest that a concern for consequences and concern for complying with role appropriate behaviors may mediate the relationship between contextual factors, such as role pressure, support and activity importance, and the decision to prioritize either work or family. Essentially, short-term penalties associated with non-participation in certain activities, especially in the work domain, are associated with prioritizing work over family while benefits accruing from participating in activities, in the family domain are associated with prioritizing family over work. Further, a need to comply with certain role expectations and the need to maintain positive relationships with the other individual in the activity may also be associated with individuals prioritizing activities, especially in the family domain. Additionally, the study examined whether role salience moderates the relationship between activity importance and decision to participate in an activity and found no interactive effects on the decision to prioritize work or family. Work-family conflict is a pervasive concern for most employees and managing episodic instances of conflict is an important part of achieving work-family balance. This study provides insight into why individuals may decide to prioritize work or family in certain situations during episodic conflict. Although over 80% of US organizations offer some form of flexibility (Kossek & Michel, 2011), research finds that most management policies and practices aimed at reducing work-family conflict levels are associated with weak or ambiguous effects (Kelly, 2008; Kossek & Michel, 2011) given ambiguity about the direction of interference experienced. This study adds to research on episodic conflict and a better understanding of which can lead to greater insight into how practices may be modified to reduce conflict and improve outcomes for individuals.