200 Years; Resolution of Conflict Through Communication

from communication center university of texas at austin this is two hundred years crop in the year nineteen so the american republic celebrates its two hundredth anniversary as a part of the us bicentennial program at the university of texas at austin two hundred years explores the past present and future dynamics of history's longest living democratic society this weekend two hundred years we will be talking about the resolution of conflict through communication with various williams owner of the embargo on the commonly carafano jurisprudence in the university of texas school of law donald w zacharias professor of speech communication an assistant to the president and family are ross vice president and provost at ut austin dr ross he had the opportunity to resolve conflicts through communication or negotiation unique united states of america you know if you've been varying degrees and others if

it were for example italy would have you know we're a very far reaching on communication not only a federal crime but to mold public opinion and on the other a high expectation in american society the dispute can be years of gruesome form of communication i think it's rather basic to the society most people feel an increasing number are taking an active role in finding a way to resolve conflicts that they encounter in their personal life whether it be within the institutions that they are members are more and their relationship to government or there were jewish to what extent have legal conflicts what extent are they use wrecked more than most people realize not only do we have what some people well known that in the process of failing automobile accident claimed by

negotiation but in many instances in our government we have set up specific prosthesis for the resolution of conflict short of having to go to some form of process like a hearing before an agency or before ct the term resolution of conflict is an interesting term in might be relatively new in it's used for our listeners might like to know what the terms have been replaced with this term resolution to conflict levy is one important distinction and made recently and most people are not going to the collision of believing that what we should do to talk about how to manage conflict rather than resolving the assumption here is that conflict is inevitable and certain aspects of it very good as long as you don't get to the point where you focus so much on the conflict the nomination so i think it's important from my point of view that a rape to think about finding ways to manage it so that something productive comes out of the exchange don the whole life and a lot of

conflict of course that's what it is and that's all we have certainly given much attention to the concept of managing rather than resolving conflicts because some conflict in the law continue forever and were a lot of fed up for a calm we verify their arms with regard we've already have fallen morally on the evolution and i think that most of our experience whether the un to ensure national election and then the comfort of the recurring or almost a continuing state of affairs and recruiter major question mark with both of you as you get interest groups in conflict or individuals in conflict ridden how do you prepare for the interests of the very the whole have a great labor management oh

either recall on what one really active ingredients are those who have a direct interest in that particular time let me give a poetic going to prefer that we to think that at least in our society are dedicated to the proposition that freedom in the long run will work out and that we try to keep public control of that conflict and low level as possible solve the problem because the public must get into these disputes at various points and i think probably the clearest example we have recently of the need for the public to move in had been in the environmental area in the consumer area and here we have the court opening the doors in the administrative body opening the door to a public interest groups to come in and represent the public viewpoint as the decisions are made in this is a great development and that's all to the good it's quite clear that there's likely to be some individual

discomfort while the conflict is being handled but i think over all military was pointing out societies interest usually is very much involved where you have rapidly rising prices in some areas are one segment of the public will respond to give an example of something that occurred recently everyone is affected by rising food costs there's a concern about what's happening to the farmer i understand one farmers organization and now worked out an exchange on a limited basis where an urban family goes out and spend the weekend on the farm and actually work along side the farmer and say something about what's involved in his personal investment and understand and understand it and respected there and bring mink farmer in the town of let him see what happens in urban cities he says today with a family but the important thing is that something that we find very

important in handling conflicts and that's dealing with the individuals perceptions of what's happening what the problem is because we have such an incomplete amount of information so that this kind of exchange there is one example of what happens within a society as we attempt to understand a problem and manage the inevitable conflict and pricing innocent second ad for a mormon i've done a lot of the arbitration a labor dispute and we always urged the parties to come to what they call a submission agreement which is in agreement with what the issue is and oddly enough in a high percentage of the cases where they have come to such an agreement when you get into vacation discover that the agreement isn't accurate they never really had yet defined scope of the issue and this is certainly one of the most incredibly important aspects of settling disputes because most people don't realize what they're fighting back i recall one instance and i like to hear you come from your own experience where and an exchange between labor and management

i can recall where overtime was something that was very desired by worker a few years ago and therefore over time was considered write something that he'll demand that i can recall a few years later and some dispute the workers did not want to engage in overtime didn't care what the play was that they value their free time so they're changing values within the society and there comes the question of whether overtime pay and the right and privilege or an obligation that's been an issue then issuing many such cases and the answer that i can give you is that really depend on what the parties work out there are still businesses today we're over time is considered to be a choice acquisition end person who had more seniority or who has at the moment the least overtime gets it but there are still other businesses that you say where they won't be forced to work overtime and the parties work without actually have they work out their collective agreements they also found confirmed

for you're going to create new job opportunities with ford overton region no question that going back to the conference of management <unk> of conflict where are the ingredients for good management of conflict between dr between institutions or individual american worker with us but part of that is having a defined level where the confrontation or the conflict why with a mechanism for dealing with it and go home from records to have higher authority i think the great mistake of universities make when they were faced with conflict or confrontation word to

below almost immediately and therefore had no records that any part of the land in our dealing with confrontation and conflict that there are we can apply in situations are not namely that were leveled the dry year conflict management or comfort them which of course we haven't really the key key example of the labor management relations where we have developed at that by that grievance procedures each dispute escalated to a higher level when it's not fatal at the lower level and many of them drop off and fell at each level as they go up and so there is a long period negotiation with changing faces as you go through the process of trying to settle a dispute and that this is just the opposite of what happened in the universities and if we had had procedures under which these things could've been talked and talked and talked at higher level we certainly might've had a wholly different situation through as well as i think there is another

parallel that i like to come here it's true that we have evolved a system as there is this credit and labor management relationships we are in the process that i believe in developing something similar for the consumer one of the frustrations that occurred that when someone who though he has been mistreated in a business exchange he looks for somebody to talk to we personalize conflicts we've got to have an outlet of some kind unfortunately for the person who's gotten the conflict he often has to turn to the lowest level in that that you know aren't true isn't trained to deal with conflict and so he doesn't know how to fish here complain of the person at the checkout counter for example in a grocery store made catcher a considerable amount of flak from consumer and that may very well not be trained in how to listen to it and instead becomes very defensive and

further antagonize is a concern so a lot of organizations are now developing training program it's to teach their employees how to receive a conflict how to respond to an undo button on so that can reveal a fair hearing but i think we're going to see an increase as the frustration of all they were you know in terms of their individuality that we need to show they organize the need to have a lawyer the void and with that brand of innovation for you and never go through legislation to try to protect those mortgage interest of the consumer and general and corporate and very important role for the role of government and conflict resolution as you led

to white and try to regulate it and the protector of the year where you're feeling about the legislating are laying out of rules and regulations and a lot of anticipation of conflict and therefore in an effort to protect the interest of the earth well i think eventually essential and i think we must make a distinction between the anti regulation other words the rules of what you can advertise or how truthful something that they had the procedure regulations are too high heeled are regarding the conflict i think it's the larry that most people don't realize exist for example much of the feeling of government negotiations and it isn't just that is the ruling you will follow as matters get more complex you get more and more negotiation to sell one of the characters and whether they have a fair

proposal plea bargaining in criminal law all of these things are matters of negotiations and certainly there should be a procedural ruling guidepost as to how you go about this but this is more important than the substantive rule because of substantive rule is firm and in fact there's no room for negotiation so i think we need to place more emphasis on the procedure the profit of negotiation and communication it's very important in the process you're talking about many people are not prepared to bargain i've often wondered if the person who successfully organization may not be an individual who have learned now his whole socialization out of bargain with with various individuals not in a formal sense but has learned certain procedures and how you ask how you present your case how you argue for a persuasively if he hasn't they developed a system that

makes him personally more effective and therefore more successful when he find himself in a bargaining situation and so he welcomes an opportunity to bargain whereas other people of pull away from there and our studies now that we have some insight into what the communication behaviors are embarking there's a rule for example someone has referred to the plumbers principal at the time to bargain about a price on for performing a job is when your basement full of water are not after some services are worth more before they rendered that after and so when an individual is in a better bargaining principle that you can enter into grocery classical and unknown lawn that partnership agreement by itself causes and things of that nature but the devil as a listener is not a i'm not familiar with those procedure family if there's one thing that we had difficulty doing indeed open the mind a lot

about it's about the fact that the law is not clear and precise and just a series of rules but it's a matter of negotiation shading zooming in and changes and all of this leaves room for negotiation and communication and basically the life all the way down a path where we resort to war with increasing frequency in many many ads but there were a road the entirety of my day to record as you've ever evolving conflict that they're going to be taken with much greater frequency are we in danger of failure i remember so well the five hundred the name or what they really do is create conflict rather than a revolver

our way back the tuition where we're going to eventually come to conclusion that the people would have been working for other people during the plea bargaining come very much public attention and i think there are those who are wondering whether the equally well with other people involved in doing that we are the predictions i'm very aware of who i am not take those two onto a degree i think that it is fair to say that there is a reasonable danger or at least we ought to be about submitting everything to the legal process in a little prices simply can't stand this burden i think that the more likely in for that we are in one of those periods where we become quite app i mean using a lot of our problems and then we will move into another period where we develop other devices becomes the law the condo were burned out perfect example of this again in the labor where we

have to solve problems in the courts and then we developed procedures within the labor management picture itself to take care of those problems and we're going to have to do this with respect to consumer problems and environmental problems and university and school problem as well and i think we're in the process of doing this so i think it's something we need to be concerned about volatile think that it's something on the basis of past history that we will be able to work out now i am not one to say that we shouldn't be using the courts for the purposes of course because what we're doing is going through a revolution of protecting the rights of each individual whereas in the past there has been too much freer to protecting writer to a certain individual and this is one of those times when we have to go through the agonies of making our law work better and they're the picture the good one in that sense i wouldn't the local question in this instance

because i think there are a substantial value conflicts that our society is trying to deal with and that is jerry suggests that what was the clarification of their other mechanisms will come and improving that will enable buster worked out this agreement to end conflicts and i agree the confusion of the theater before the vote and the procedure and that really although that one hand we now find the reported to the court for decades and for a conflict we're with you and look at that i'm working with the report to completely

unraveled after what the jury what cannot take on your controversial issue in a plea bargain i don't see how our legal system can even for the plea bargain we simply cannot try all of these cases now the answer is there for that we have to work out a mechanism to honor which we do not allow plea bargaining to be used as a means of favoritism to certain individuals but it subjectively apply but to wipe out plea bargaining because of you is the same old problem we have every weren't the friday that if there is a problem that is subject to abuse we were wiped out the whole issue and we just can't do it because it's an issue in society we have to live with creating conflict certainly and in lots of areas and the important thing in public life the methods by which individuals can have a grievance grievances settled

without going into the formal process and i think that's increasing and i'd i would say on behalf of businesses businesses come to recognize and many instances that it has gotten a position of rising costs in an overhead is very high and so it's necessary to find a way to help the consumer just through that process and to present the story in such a way at the consumer understand the problems of business as well so i think many organizations that certainly and labor there have then clear instances of manufacturers are supporting and training for its labor leadership so they would understand the problems more clearly a management and i think that will happen even morning and consumers do we find perhaps that the courts are like squares is art of individuals who can no other avenue of communication with the reason they said the wage should be rex the

reason that we've had the court so deeply involved lately is that we have not had the other avenues of communications for consumers for various disadvantaged groups of song so they had to go to court right away if we had had the other avenue that would've had to use the formal slow and expensive process to the courts what was the writer vindicated and they are getting vindicated be the other way they're going no i would hope so and i think we see example trade associations for example of companies police their own membership because they realize that if they have somebody who is carrying on unfair practices that reflects upon the entire industry and so they have taken the lead in many instances under pressure yes and because of their concern for their own self image is they have instituted licensing procedures or some other procedure whereby they tried to correct their own image and provide care practice today that we

can for you we're not going to have a society in the future we will not have a conflict and then they will have greater conflicts as it becomes more complex and we've been talking about this week on two hundred years of a revolution are probably the management of conflict through various venues of communication and we can anticipate that a development of newer and better avenues those solve our problems in the future our panelists have included jerry williams orderly unbound john become a chair so jurisprudence at the university of texas school of wall donald w zucker iris professor of speech communication and assistant to the president and family are roth vice president and provost at ut austin that's a direct we're for two hundred years two hundred years as part of the united states bicentennial program at the university of texas austin is a continuing series of weekly conversations about the past history's longest living democratic

two hundred years is produced by katie is joined by communication for an association with the news and information service all at the university of texas longhorns radio network