Abstract
Emotions play a central role in the process of conflict and resolution. For a mediator, it is important to recognize emotions correctly and act upon them. Whether interventions are appropriate depends to a large extent on the ability of mediators to accurately perceive the emotions of conflict parties. Particularly in hierarchical labor conflicts, this can be challenging, since subordinates tend to hide emotions while supervisors tend to express them. In this study, we investigated if subordinates and supervisors differ in their emotional experience during mediation and whether mediators perceive these emotions accurately. To this end, we compared the extent to which disputants experienced certain emotions with the extent to which mediators perceived these emotions. Data were collected through surveys of mediation clients and mediators in hierarchical labor conflicts in the Netherlands. As expected, subordinates experienced a higher level of negative emotions during the mediation than supervisors did. Positive emotions, however, were experienced to a similar extent by both supervisors and subordinates in mediation. Mediators perceived supervisors’ emotions more accurately than they did subordinates’ emotions. While supervisors’ emotions were positively related with mediators’ perceptions, this was not the case for subordinates’ emotions. Furthermore, mediators were more accurately perceiving supervisors’ negative emotions than their positive emotions. Implications for mediation theory and practice are discussed.
Highlights
Conflicting parties often experience emotions during mediation
Hypothesis 1 states that (a) subordinates experience a higher level of negative emotions during the mediation than supervisors do, and that (b) supervisors experience a higher level of positive emotions during the mediation than subordinates do
The results indicate that, as expected, hierarchical position is significantly related to the experience of negative emotions during mediation (r = −0.54, p < 0.001)
Summary
Conflicting parties often experience emotions during mediation. One of the factors contributing to a successful mediation is that mediators acknowledge these emotions and set up a process to manage them (Jones and Bodtker, 2001; Bollen and Euwema, 2014; Ladd and Blanchfield, 2016). This could pave the way for conflict transformation and parties’ positive evaluation of the mediation (Jameson et al, 2009, 2014). In order to effectively handle emotions, mediators need to be accurate in perceiving them. Are mediators able to achieve this? Several studies show that people have difficulties to accurately noting and “reading” emotions, though some are more “emotionally intelligent” than others
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