Perceptional Differences between Mediation Parties and Their Influence on Resolution of Employment Rights Disputes at the EEOC

Mediation vindicates employee rights far more often than judicial or arbitration processes. Hence, analysis of the mediation process is critical to understanding the resolution of employment rights disputes. This study examines how mediation participants' perceptions of the procedural and distributive justice aspects of their mediation influence the likelihood that an employment rights dispute is resolved. The significance of this research lies in a methodology that analyzes the perceptions of parties to the same mediation and compares their contemporaneous self-reported perceptions of the same process centered on the resolution of an employment rights dispute. The data represent the actual differences in the perception of the charging parties and respondents involved in the same mediation session. This particularized approach offers important insights into the dynamics of the mediation process that can be lost when aggregate measures (i.e., average ratings) are used