NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF WORKPLACE MEDIATION

For the most part, the idea of mediation in the workplace is to find a reasonable means of solving a dispute in a manner where all parties involved get a reasonable and fair result. But, it is this idea of "reasonableness" that often produces negative effects.

Perhaps the strongest negative concerning mediation of conflict comes in gender and/or racial bias. As diversified as the workplace in America is these days, such bias can cause severe frustration and anger. Statistics show that gender bias, for one, is prevalent. A recent study shows that "in 557 suspension casesaother things equal, male arbitrators were 74% more likely to sustain the grievances of female grievants than male grievants" (Bemmels 1990 513).

Of course, when it comes to mediation among various ethnic and racial "sides" of a dispute, the negatives can often be described as the mediator's simply not understanding the position of a worker who is of a different race or ethnic group than the mediator. We see the same sort of conflict in African-Americans' feeling that scholastic tests are skewed toward the white majority. It might be easy