Empowerment

Whose Dispute Is It Anyway?

Empowerment. The word dates to the mid-17^th century, but contemporary usage began with the civil rights movement in the 1960s. This usage — increasing the political and economic power of individuals or groups — has since found even more widespread application.

Today, empowerment finds common use in contexts as diverse as healthcare (patient empowerment), the workplace (employee empowerment), and the security of local communities (neighborhood watch). Mediation is a further expression of empowerment in the context of conflict resolution. In an age when people feel less control over their lives, mediation places parties in control of their disputes. It empowers them to reassert themselves as the principal decision maker in any resolution they choose to make.

When people encounter conflicts they can’t readily resolve themselves, they seek help. Typically, they either retain attorneys and proceed with litigation, or they meet with a mediator. The prevalence of empowerment movements in almost every aspect of modern life suggests that mediation is generally the better choice.

Litigation and arbitration, in contrast, disempower parties to a dispute by placing influence and decision-making authority in the hands of attorneys, judges, and arbitrators, none of whom must live with the consequences of the resolution that they’ve created. For people in deeply personal disputes, this loss of control and the accompanying sense of helplessness make the experience of their conflict even more distressing. This, in turn, makes the conflict still more adversarial, and so the vicious cycle continues. Mediation reverses the cycle. It is the empowering alternative.