Towards a Theory of Close Analysis for Dispute Mediation Discourse

Abstract

Mediation is an alternative dispute resolution process that is becoming more and more popular particularly in English-speaking countries. In contrast to traditional litigation it has not benefited from technological advances and little research has been carried out to make this increasingly widespread practice more efficient. The study of argumentation in dispute mediation hitherto has largely been concerned with theoretical insights. The development of argumentation theories linked to computational applications opens promising new horizons since computational tools could support mediators, making sessions quicker and more efficient. For this, we need tools for close analysis of mediation discourse in order to explore the argumentative activity in depth, and ultimately get an accurate image of how dialogues unfold in this particular context. This paper therefore aims at laying the foundations of a theory of close analysis for discourse in dispute mediation. Theories provided by the literature serve as a basis for argumentative analyses of transcripts of mediation sessions in order to deliver a clear image of the argumentative structure. Analyses of the argumentative strategies in mediation discourse will allow for the development of a dialogue protocol that can be used to develop operational models which can be embodied in software to help make the mediation process easier and more effective.

Excerpts Taken from the Corpus

• 1 George: Viv, Eric, I’d just like to start by thanking both of you for agreeing to come to the mediation in the first place. We thought it might be useful if we just ran through a couple of the things that we’ve already talked about in the pre-mediation meetings, but just so that everybody is comfortable with it. Could I just check first of all, I’ve actually used Eric and Viv, is it all right if we use Christian names, first names?

• 2 Eric: Yes, that’s fine with me. Absolutely

• 3 Viv: Yes, that’s fine.

• 4 George: Excellent. I think the first point we’d like to make is that we are not here to judge either of you. It is not our role to make decisions on your part. It is not our role to decide whether you’re right or wrong. We are here to help you to arrive at a solution that you both can agree with and in our experience those are the ones that tend to work, whereas if we impose from the outside, they tend not to work. Does that make any degree of ...?

• [...]

• 5 George: So we’re not limited to today, as we said before. But it’s very much up to you two to just tell us whether you think this is being useful, positive. If it is and you want to carry on, then we’ll spend the time.

• 6 Viv: Okay.

• 7 Eric: Okay.

• 8 Viv: We’ll give it a shot.

• 9 Eric: I’ll give it a go.

• 10 George: Okay, great, thank you. When we met, we talked about the possibility of each of you taking perhaps five or six or seven minutes, just to give your view of how you think this whole thing started. What you might hope to get out of this mediation process, and just to do that for each other, you may feel that the other person is absolutely what this is about. But you may actually find that you have different perspectives and that’s fine. That, we find, is quite a useful way of just starting the ball rolling and then you’ll have the opportunity to pick up on what’s been said and talk backwards and forwards. Wouldn’t that be an idea?

• 11 Viv: Yes, okay.

• 12 Eric: Certainly on my part, because I’m confused about what all this about anyway and I’ve been told to get involved in this process.

• 13 George: Okay.

• 14 Eric: Although I’ve entered into it voluntarily, I’m not really...I’m genuinely confused about what Viv is accusing me of.

• 15 George: Okay. All right. So would you be happy just to carry on Viv, would you happy if Eric used that as a starting point for a couple of minutes to explain how he thinks and how he feels? And then you’d have the same opportunity.

• 16 Viv: Yes, that’s fine by me.

• 17 George: Are you sure?

• 18 Viv: Yes, yes.

• 19 Mildred: It might be worth adding, George, just at this moment, when you are speaking, if we could ask the other party just to listen and listen without interrupting and then, of course, you get the opportunity to do the same. I would ask you, Eric, when Viv’s speaking to do the same. Is that all right with you?

• 20 Eric: Well, to be honest, you know, as I said, I’m confused about what the problem is in terms of where I’ve gone wrong or whatever in terms of management style and whatever and so I would rather that Viv told me what she thought the problems were and then I can try and understand what it’s all about, basically.

• 21 George: Okay.

• 22 Viv: So you’re saying you want me to start?

• 23 Eric: Yes.

• 24 Viv: Okay.

• 25 George: Would that be all right with you?

• 26 Viv: Yes, that’s fine.

• 27 George: All right, thank you.

• 28 Viv: Well. Where to start? I just feel that any suggestions I make, you’re constantly questioning what I do.

• 29 Eric: I don’t think quite fair really, because after all, it’s a new job and you’re just into what’s a very complex organizational process that we run here and you can’t expect just to be able to come in and just start off right away. If you make a mistake or something, you know what the position’s like, you have to go back to square one

• [...]

• 30 Mildred: Okay. Thank you for that. Eric do you want to say a bit about why you’re here today and what you would want to achieve?

• 31 Eric: Well, I think Viv’s being unfair, because, as I said earlier on, that Viv’s just new into the job, it’s a complex job. If errors are made early on, then we lose time and that puts everybody back. I think in the team meetings that we’ve had, Viv is new and instead of listening, she just tends to just, bull in a china shop kind of approach, and this kind of destroyed the team that I built over years. The whole kind of way the group’s working is just completely gone haywire since she arrived because she’s just too aggressive. I think she’s just too forceful and the rest of the team are just, I think, anyway, are just not reacting well and it’s making my job more difficult because I’m busy enough. Viv was supposed to come in and help me and take some of the load and as far as I can see at the moment I’m having to mentor her, while having to do my day job, while I’m having to solve all the problems that’s she’s creating within the team and it’s just making my life a misery, actually and that’s the way things are at the moment.

• 32 Viv: I’m sorry.

• 33 Eric: I’m sorry if that’s the way it comes over, but you want me to be honest, so that’s the view and that’s kind of the way it is.

• 34 Mildred: What would you like out of today?

• 35 Eric: Well, I would like Viv to become part, a productive member of the team. Because we are a team and, you know, Viv was appointed to be my equal. I’ve no problem with that, but the thing is and my time is coming to a close, so to speak and we do need continuity in succession and things like that. But the bottom line is, instead of helping me, it’s hindering me, it’s making my life more difficult in terms of my workload and that’s contrary to what the whole business was about.

• [...]

• 36 Eric: It’s my team.

• 37 George: It’s your team, exactly.

• 38 Mildred: Maybe.

• 39 George: There are obviously discussions that need to happen around the team. Would that be a fair statement?

• 40 Viv: Yes.

• 41 Eric: Oh, I want Viv to be a productive member, but it’s not for me to actually...

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• 42 George: Yes. The other thought that occurred to me is, it strikes me you may have slightly different views about the role of, let’s call it, Team Leader and Number Two.

• 43 Viv: Yes.

• 44 George: In gaining our experience when job descriptions are written down, they don’t necessarily translate into what’s written on the paper. What perhaps you intended and what perhaps, you believed. The other thought that occurs to me is that it might be useful at some point just to return to this whole thing of, either the job description or possibly what Mildred was just referring to, which is this notion of transition.

• You’ve both mentioned the idea that you’re not going to be here forever, what’s the point of this Number Two, so perhaps what might help is a look at how that transition might work, what you would like it to achieve. What Viv would like it to achieve and see how the two can be married together. Would that be a fair...

• 45 Viv: Yes, I think it’s vital, actually.

• 46 Eric: I think it’s all based on the job description, that the idea was that Viv would come in and learn the job in terms of, it is a complex job, as I said, the business, fill in these forms, again, there’s forms you have to fill in and if you don’t do it correctly then we have to start again.

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• 47 George: [...] Therefore, if one could look at this, you may actually find that there are very natural stepping-stones. We have a big issue here, which is how you take over a role, can we break it down?

• 48 Eric: My view is that Viv is trying to take on everything at once, and that as I said is the basis for what I’m thinking.

• 49 George: So, a plan, that broke it down to give you some feeling of timing, some feeling of...

• 50 Viv: And trust. Some feeling of trust that I can do the job.

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• 51 Viv: I mean, I do have a string of qualifications, you know, I have done other jobs, and I need to be able to, to be allowed to prove myself. That’s it I suppose.

• 52 Mildred: You need to prove yourself.

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• 53 Eric: Well, I can see that is a way forward and certainly that, as I said, that finance project is the one that takes up the most of my time as it’s the most complex. But I’m just a bit reluctant to hand over to Viv at this early stage, because of the complexity and if you make a mistake, you waste such a lot of time. But I don’t know whether Viv thinks that she’s up to it or whether you think you could handle that project.

• 54 Mildred: What about if we perhaps separate it, had a bit of time and we spoke with each of you to look at the finance project and just see our different expectations and what you would see dealing with that project and then perhaps when we had a picture from both of you, if both of you came back to discuss your different pictures. Do you think that would work?

• 55 Eric: Well anything to make it simpler. Which I’ve never had time to look at, actually looking at how we do the fundamental, then that would obviously save time. But again, I don’t know whether Viv could handle that she has the ability.

• 56 Viv: Well come on, you employed me, surely you thought I had the ability to, you know. But...

• 57 Eric: Well I did, so there is a way forward then. But I can also check on how she’s doing the project and if she’s succeeding with it and that will give me a milestone, an indicator of her.

• 58 Viv: I would quite like to just maybe take time out to look at what my job description was, actually, and from that, given what we’ve been talking about, it might signal up to me the key points that I want to clarify with you and see what your opinion is. Whether I’ve read it, whether it’s been hieroglyphics to me, or whether I’ve got it right.

• 59 George: It’s quite possible and again, it’s our experience in this sort of situation, it’s all about expectations and where your expectations and Viv’s expectations match, you have happiness and a smooth life and everything works well. Where they don’t, there is conflict, there is uncertainty, there is confusion and those are the sorts of things that contribute to having this sort of discussion.

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• 60 Viv: Yes, I mean there’s no point in me just doing this, because to Eric, that would just be my wish list. I need to be thinking about; we need to meet in the middle, somewhere.

• 61 Mildred: You think a joint meeting might be a good idea? Again, once you’ve got your wish list?

• 62 Viv: Yes. After we’ve got my stuff down, if you can get Eric to put his stuff down and then we’ve got something concrete to look at and if there’s huge gaps, well, we may have a major problem, we may not be able to resolve this.