Solving conflicts in Non Profit Organisations

We at "Einigungshilfe - Das Mediationsbüro" are here to help partiges in conflict, to find their way back to one another. This is particularly important in conflicts in the non-profit sector.

Conflicts arise in social or scientific institutions, in the cultural sector and in civil society, just as they do in all other organizations where people work together and may cause trouble.

However, they are often harsher than elsewhere, as in addition to the usual lines of conflict, the companies expectation of ideals plays an important part: helping, research, art, society. Sometimes this makes it more difficult to deal with organizational grievances or with colleagues who are perceived as less committed or even disruptive in achieving the common goal. Managers also often define their role differently than in profit-oriented companies. And everyone, employees as well as superiors and sponsors, work under the constraints of a tight labor market, i.e. a heavy workload for the individual.

Identifying and discussing these interrelationships in your specific organization, in your team, can in itself be a great relief. Conflicts in particular often point to fundamentally shared values, and you can reawaken their unifying power through mediation in the non-profit sector - in addition to the other benefits of mediation, like self-efficacy and cooperation.

Get in touch with us!

Conflicts in non-profit organizations can be resolved with mediation or other mediative methods. Whether between individual colleagues or in a team, whether in the voluntary or full-time sector, or at the boundary between the two.

Mediators support you in a mindful and structured process to improve your communication and to find suitable solution. Emotions are allowed to have their space so they can be processed in a meaningful way. The focus is on the parties involved as independent actors with their own interests.

You and your colleagues know best which misunderstandings need to be clarified and which solutions need to be found. This is why we mediators keep a low profile in terms of content, but manage the mediation process in a structured and empathetic manner. Like this, we ensure that everyone involved knows which aspects of a solution are important to whom.

The result? On the one hand, solutions are achieved for the specific conflict that are tailored precisely to your organization and your specific situation. On the other hand, by improving communication, good long-term cooperation at the workplace becomes permanently possible. And it doesn't matter whether your workplace in the company is in the secretarial office or the management, in the warehouse or on the supervisors board.

You can resolve incipient friction, hardened or even escalated conflicts with mediation at the workplace.

Please feel free to contact us!

Bringing people into contact is a matter close to our hearts. And precisely when it is most difficult: in conflict. When contact breaks down, communication becomes aggressive and anxiety-ridden, and in business it is often cold and superficial. When crucial genuine communication at the workplace no longer can take place. 

Only good communication enables productive cooperation and good results. Throughout and after the mediation, the employees still benefit from sustainable health and loyalty to the company.

We know that everyone can cooperate, and even wants to cooperate. This is difficult to imagine in a conflict. Our task is to make it possible to speak honestly and to really listen, to get to the heart of the matter using proven and humane methods, to make the interests of those involved clear to each other and thus to arrive at creative solutions - cooperatively, of course. Through mediation, successful cooperation and trust are made possible. This cooperation and trust can then continue to have a lasting effect at the workplace.

We would like to contribute to this.

Get in touch with us!

First of all, you can contact us at any stage of a conflict. Regardless of whether it is just "grinding", a conflict is very virulent or sick notes and resignations have already started - we will be happy to discuss the possibilities of mediation and the next steps with you as team leader, employee representative, HR manager, management or board member.

To begin with, we will call you and the main parties involved to familiarize ourselves with the situation. In more complex cases, we may also carry out an appropriate conflict analysis. Based on this, we will make you a concrete offer so you can make an informed decision about mediation in your company or team.

For the actual mediation, the parties involved meet with the mediator at your company, in the mediation office or in a conference room to discuss the conflict. Depending on the case, such a conflict resolution can last between half a day up to two days. Then we will have a follow-up after six months. Only in special situations are several sessions necessary. 

On the basis of a careful clarification of objectives

• a common view of the conflict is developed, 
• criteria for the solution are developed,
• agreements are reached.

This may be followed by team or organizational development.

We guide you safely through the process, but leave the design of the specific solutions entirely in your hands. You know best what works for you.

Let's talk about it!

Mediation is the only procedure in which conflicts can be dealt with comprehensively: Conflicts are always on the factual level and the relationship level. Thus we work in business mediation on these two levels at the same time, together with all parties involved. Which other process could do that?

By working out solutions on the factual level and simultaneously clarifying misunderstandings and working through anger on the relationship level, your cooperation is sustainably improved.

We guide the team members and managers involved safely and effectively through the mediation process. This doesn‘t just avoid injuries and clears up resentment, it also creates synergies, i.e. a "win-win" (*example for explanatory text), and even enables sustainable agreements to be reached on teamwork.

Mediation in the workplace has a number of advantages:

• The specific conflict is resolved; work can continue efficiently.
• Those involved feel more at ease at the workplace and therefore complete their tasks freely, as the conflict no longer ties up mental and time resources.
• The working atmosphere is much more pleasant after a conflict is resolved through business mediation, and productivity is higher as a result: frictional losses due to conflicts are avoided.
• Professional communication improves in the long term, due to the parties involved talking to each other effectively and naturally.
• Those involved, especially managers, receive further training in business mediation to learn how to deal with conflicts constructively. This conflict management competence will be available to them in the long term, even beyond the specific conflict. 
• Conflict-related underperformance, sick days and resignations no longer occur.

In mediation, the relationship between colleagues is improved and optimal solutions are found.

That's what we stand for.

Please feel free to contact us!

Conflicts like everywhere else...

In colleges, universities and research institutions such as those on the Blue List, the Fraunhofer, the Max Planck Institutes or the Helmholtz Centres, conflicts can arise at the workplace just like in any other organisation.

... plus competing system logics

However, there is also a tension between two different system logics that must be taken into account at the same time: 

The logic of science, where principally all scientists* should have equal chances of asserting themselves on the basis of the better argument, the more creative idea or the more convincing research approach. This requires a great deal of freedom of movement for the individual scientist. 

The hierarchies which have to decide the allocation of resources (money, working hours, research infrastructure, etc.) and enforce their decision. 

There are extensive projects for which collaborations need to be organised, with disciplinary superiority and subordination relationships. Not an easy task for managers! Conflicts can easily arise, for example, when employees - often highly qualified themselves - feel unduly limited in their research activities, while managers try to achieve a stringent overall line for their group or institute.

Solutions

These conflicts can be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. All parties involved can recognise both logics as mentioned above: It is important to find a good balance between them, for the necessary framework conditions to be set correctly for the scientific goal to be achieved. Mediation is suitable for any kind of conflict, if it’s between individuals or a team clarification for a larger group. We also offer tailor-made management coaching and all other methods of mediative conflict management.