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The impact of personality structure on workplace mediation outcomes
About the session Workplace mediation has emerged as a distinct discipline over the last three decades. The majority of studies consistently suggest that situational variables influence the mediation outcome more strongly than personality variables. Jenny is currently completing PhD research at Curtin University of Technology on the impact of personality patterns on workplace conflict and mediation outcomes. The overall aim of this research is to investigate how personality and defense styles impact mediation outcomes. This research integrates organisational and clinical models of psychology and has been approved for candidacy for a PhD in Psychology at Curtin University which is being supervised by Dr. Jan Grant, Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Curtin University Western Australia, Australia. The concept of a person’s capacity to cope with a mediation intervention is unexplored in workplace mediation literature. In most cases the criteria that mediators use to proceed with mediation are situational. Workplace mediators report however that it is easier to resolve workplace conflict with some people more than others, irrespective of the situation. Based on general research in the field of personality structure and conflict resolution capacity it is anticipated that evidence of distinct personality patterns (eg avoidant, dependent, histrionic, narcissistic, compulsive and paranoid) will be correlated with lower levels of personal well being as a result of workplace mediation. The overall objective of the research is to identify personality structures that do not obtain effective outcomes from generic mediation models and to provide tailored strategies for mediators to accommodate specific personalities. Jenny will also provide some strategies about how to work with partcipants that have difficult personality patterns. Podcast: Listen to Jenny talking about this session (7 mins) >>
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Audio recording: Listen to this session (40 mins) >> Jenny Ellison
Jenny is a psychologist who specialises in counselling, consulting, training and coaching in the workplace.
She is currently completing PhD research at Curtin University of Technology on the impact of personality patterns on workplace conflict and mediation outcomes. Her research draws on her Master in Industrial Psychology and subsequent Master in Psychology (Counselling) degrees as well as her clinical experience and consulting work with PPC Worldwide.
Jenny has provided training in a wide range of programmes, including the PPC workplace programme “Nipping it in the Bud”, which has been running in partnership with the Department of Education and Training WA since 2000. This programme, which provides mediation services to staff in conflict, was set up to train those with leadership positions in the Department to manage workplace conflict.
Jenny recently presented the preliminary results of her research at the 9th National Mediation Conference, hosted in WA in 2008, drawing a large audience of interested mediation practitioners from legal and other disciplines. Her current research provides informative clinical and organisational principles to guide practitioners on the impact of personality on workplace mediations outcomes, with practical strategies to assist mediation practitioners to adapt a generic approach to workplace mediation to individual differences of clients within the workplace.
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