Moira will present a paper titled ‘Mediating Workplace Bullying Complaints, Ensuring a Sustainable Outcome.’ at the Industrial and Organisational conference in Brisbane held from June 23rd to the 25th, 2011.
This paper introduced an Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare (OHSW) model specific to mediating workplace bullying complaints.
She reported that although mediation is one of the most common ways of addressing complaints of workplace bullying, outcomes are often not sustainable because traditional mediation models focus only the complainant / respondent interactions. In doing so the mediation fails to take into consideration the wider and systemic risk factors that may be present within the organisation, and may have contributed to the current complaint. Her paper argued that without taking these risk factors into account the outcome of mediation may not be sustainable, and further conflicts and complaints of bullying are likely.
The OHSW model of mediation provides an opportunity for all parties in the mediation to collaborate in identifying factors that may have contributed to the initial conflict, and the development of the conflict into a bullying complaint. This model also addresses a number of the dilemmas mediators are faced with when asked to mediate a complaint of bullying including, problems with definition, power imbalance between the parties, confidentiality, and post mediation interventions.
Moira reported that she has developed a full day workshop to introduce mediators to this model and assist them become familiar with the dilemmas involved in mediating workplace bullying complaints. This workshop is periodically offered through the Resolution Institute.