ABSTRACT
Negotiation has been described as 'a distinctive social process of decision-making'. When two parties negotiate, they engage in a problem-solving process in which they attempt to reach a joint decision on matters of common concern over which they are in conflict, disagreement or dispute. An invaluable processual analysis of negotiation and mediation, derived from empirical research in the sphere of labour relations in the Us and in dispute resolution processes in East Africa respectively, is described in the work of stevens and of Gulliver. The two processes of negotiation, the cyclical and the developmental, are interconnected intimately, yet there is a logical appropriateness in discussing the cyclical process first. The stages of mediation follow these stages of the negotiation process – a process of discovery and clarification, the essence of which is learning through a series of exchanges of information. Shuttle mediation is commonly used in international disputes and, on occasion, in community, commercial, family, environmental and labour relations disputes.
