The working committees deal, amongst other things, with the comparison of structures and terminologies, supporting companies in establishing internal conflict management systems, as well as the targeted development and exchange of policies for the systematic handling of conflict by legal and HR departments.
Working Committee 1: Collection of cases
The aim of this working committee is firstly to develop a questionnaire for documenting mediation which has taken place, then the subsequent collection and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the case data.
Leader of the working committee: Dr. Ulrich Hagel, Bombardier Transportation GmbH
Working Committee 2: Establishing mediation in the economic context / Mediation Directive
This working committee deals with current questions regarding the establishment of mediation in Germany, especially towards politics and associations. The main focus is the point of view of the participating companies as users of the proceedings. In the past, amongst other things, this group has worked intensively on the legislative procedure regarding the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive through the German Mediation Act. In doing so, the working committee formulated an early and extensive position paper for the Round Table to pass over to the Federal Ministry of Justice and also supported the ongoing process with feedback on the draft legislation. Moreover, the working committee has worked on several essay projects on the issue of legal questions relating to business mediation, including an essay evaluating the Mediation Act from a company perspective. The working committee is currently dealing with the Federal Government’s evaluation report on the Mediation Act and has submitted comments on it to the Government.
Leader of the working committee: Nils Goltermann, Deutsche Bahn AG
Working Committee 3: Quality assurance
The working committee for quality assurance deals with the qualitative requirements of company-internal mediators. Proficiency and selection procedures as well as concrete measures to assure and stipulate quality are mainly focused.
Leader of the working committee: Christiane Händel, Deutsche Bahn AG
Working Committee 4: Establishment of Conflict Management Systems
This working committee differentiates and systematises, amongst others, terminologies and concepts in the field of conflict management and conflict prevention.
Leader of the working committee: Jan Nicolai Hennemann, Sweco GmbH
Working Committee 5: Company-internal marketing (closed)
The working committee operates in terms of a cooperative exchange and develops possibilities of internal publication and marketing of mediation and other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) proceedings aiming at the long-term implementation of these proceedings.
Leader of the working committee: N.N.
Working Committee 6: External Conflicts/B2B-Conflict Management
The aim of this working committee is the development of conflict management systems dealing with conflicts among companies/parts of companies and establishing strategies to enforce these concepts. Further targets are the preparation of an overview considering appropriate dispute resolution proceedings for business conflicts and the preparatory work on criteria to select appropriate proceedings as well as an inquiry about the cost of conflict.
Leader of the working committee: Dr. Ulrich Hagel, Bombardier Transportation GmbH
Committee 7: Negotiation management
The conflict management studies conducted by PriceWaterhouse Coopers and the European University Viadrina (2005 and 2016) prove convincingly that negotiation plays a special role in the range of alternative processes for conflict resolution. Companies prefer negotiation and, in line with this, actually use it most frequently.
The negotiation management working committee has set itself the task of scrutinising the qualifications of the negotiators and the framework within which they are working. To this end, the working committee supported the study entitled “Negotiation management in companies in Germany: from intuition to the system” (European University Viadrina/European Business School, 2016), which examines the status quo of negotiation management and suggests a range of measures to address the shortcomings determined during the analysis. The full text of the study can be ordered at www.verhandeln-mitsystem.de. The members of the working committee are currently tacking the question of what incentives negotiators receive to negotiate and add value and how existing incentive schemes can be optimised.
Leader of the working committee: Dr. Felix Wendenburg, European University Viadrina
Working Committee 8: Project management for construction and other major projects (the activities of the work group are currently on hold)
The real estate and construction industry is a very conflictual sector of the economy. Conflicts represent a significant commercial risk, especially when they cannot be resolved swiftly. In addition to the options offered by extra-judicial resolution of disputes, there is growing interest in many companies within this industry in the development of conflict-prevention methods which can be applied to projects or which can be an integral part of the project management.