Party-Directed Mediation. Another Step Towards NonDirective Mediation

The contribution of two models is presented in this article, Party-Directed Mediation (PDM) and Negotiated Performance Appraisal (NPA) to deal with peer mediation and hierarchical mediation, respectively. Somewhat controversial tools are used such as pre-caucus and joint session in which the neutral sits apart from the parties-at a distance of four meters-thus reducing interference. An effort is made to help the parties to take more responsibility to resolve their own conflicts and offer them tools to do so, after listening to them empathically during the pre-caucus. Both models are especially useful for dealing with deep seated interpersonal conflict. Originally, they were used as organizational mediation models.