Multicriteria dispute resolution through computer‐aided mediation software

In: Mediation quarterly: journal of the Academy of Family Mediators, Band 7, Heft 2, S. 175-189

Abstract

AbstractMediation as an approach to conflict resolution benefits as much from the process of bringing adversaries together as it does from the specific outcome. Mediation calls for great creativity in providing alternatives for harmonious resolution. Almost any issue that involves two or more competing approaches can benefit from the use of computer‐aided decision making. Thus, expert systems software might include software that incorporates what good decision makers implicitly do in preventing or resolving disputes. This article emphasizes dispute resolving, whereas other related literature dealing with computer‐aided counseling emphasizes the dispute‐preventing purpose. The idea of working with multiple alternatives and multiple criteria in an easily manipulated spreadsheet format leads to super‐optimum solutions that exceed the original best expectations of the disputants. That same essence can be applied not just to computer‐aided mediating but also to computer‐aided counseling, negotiating, advocating, evaluating, predicting, assignment of people to tasks, sequencing of events, and other related skills and activities. Achieving superoptimum solutions may not require the assistance of computers, but computer assistance can facilitate such solutions, assisting those who are not experts to increase their skill level and enabling experts to do even better.