Conflict Mediation

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This is a very interesting question! I think that anyone at work who demonstrates his or her expertise will be recognized for a certain level of power and relied on for input. The more confident an employee has in his or her level of expertise, the greater his or her power becomes for the organization. For example, I started out one job as a customer service representative for a garden center and quickly demonstrated my level of expertise and knowledge to customers in the field of water gardening. People began coming into the shop on the days that I was scheduled just to seek my advice on how to set up and operate their water gardens, and I was soon respected in the fact that I knew what I was doing and people valued my expertise in the subject as well as relied upon me to guide them to find the right product for their needs. Over time this expanded to include advising senior management on various service problems as well as what to focus on for new products for customers. When management began asking my opinion and advice, I realized that my attributes became apparent to them and I was a valuable employee.

People can develop their own power currency by doing the following:

- Develop skills in the areas most in need by the company
- Let co-workers and management know what expertise you can offer
- Never get in over your head by pretending to be an expert in something that you are not
- Use evidence to support your conclusions so others will trust your judgment and expertise
- Share expertise freely and commit to actually helping with
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- What are the differences between forms of trust and active distrust? How can a "business relationship" approach assist disputants in a conflict situation where there is low trust or high distrust?

Trust focuses on the belief in reliability, truth, and ability in someone or something whereas active trust focuses on non-truth, doubt, and having no confidence in someone or something.

Trust is something that a person or a company has to earn through reputation or history. Trust is also something that can easily be taken away with one bad decision. Obviously, the higher levels of trust, the great the chances of success in the business sector.

Unfortunately, most business relationships involve a certain level of mistrust. In the beginning of a business transaction (where mistrust is present), a business needs to develop explicit and detailed agreements between each other, put as much communication as possible in writing, show little emotion when in negotiations, and remain as neutral as ...