A Psychological Toolbox for Mediators: From Theory and Research to Best Practices
Maslow’s law of the instrument describes the common phenomenon that once we discovere a way to solve a problem, we tend to use this solution over and over again regardless the specific situation at hand. Especially when the cognitive and emotional load is
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A Psychological Toolbox for Mediators: From Theory and Research to Best Practices Klaus Harnack
“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”- Abraham Maslow (1966)
Maslow’s law of the instrument describes the common phenomenon that once we discover a way to solve a problem, we tend to use this solution over and over again regardless the specific situation at hand. Especially when the cognitive and emotional load is high, we are more likely to rely on available heuristics (Gigerenzer and Todd 1999). Considering that conflict situations are often cognitively and emotionally loaded, the disputants tend to use available heuristics, for instance the fixed pie assumption (Harinck et al. 2000): the tendency to share divisible goods in a 50-50 manner without considering the underlying interests. As the mediator facilitates the process of conflict resolution, it is the task of the mediator to be aware of these tendencies and to make sure that parties do not fall prey to these heuristics, and instead make parties focus on the underlying interests. The present chapter selects, illustrates, and transforms psychological theories and empirical findings into applicable tools to furnish the psychological toolbox of practitioners in the field of mediation whether it be full time mediators, or managers in the role of mediators. More specifically, the intended use of these tools is to facilitate and enhance the mediator’s capability to sound out and recognize the possible resources that parties can offer to the process. Furthermore, all tools are designed to support the mediator in his strive to make issues more comprehensible to the parties and to fit their cognitive states (e.g. adjusting the level of detail for the cognitive needs of the parties). All tools require the mediator to take a very active stance. Setting up an efficient personalized toolbox is a life-task. Once we discover a new tool and start using it, the tool broadens how we view a conflict and enriches our skills to form conflict related hypotheses and to uncover individual motivational stances and underlying interests (De Dreu and Carnevale 2003) as well as the psychological obstacles parties face in conflict (De Dreu et al. 2009). Suddenly, all
K. Harnack (*) Institut für Psychologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 K. Bollen et al. (eds.), Advancing Workplace Mediation Through Integration of Theory and Practice, Industrial Relations & Conflict Management 3, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42842-0_4
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these prior nails turn into screws, clamps, and rivets, thereby enabling the mediator to become a better craftsman in his profession as a conflict analyst and catalyst. A good mediator constantly adds new tools to his toolbox and with time, some tools emerge as more applicable than others do. This stresses the notion that the appropriate use of tools in mediation is a dynamic and flexible activity, which requires
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