ORGANIZATIONAL MEDIATORS SIDING WITH OR AGAINST THE POWERFUL PARTY

Instead of being impartial, a mediator may side with one party as a fu nction of the disputants' power differences, the mediator's legitimacy judgments, or the disputants' capacity to sanction the mediator. Acco rding to the power balancing theory, a mediator sides with the party t hat has a power disadvantage vis-a-vis the other party. The theory on siding postulates that the mediator sides with the party having more l egitimate claims and/or more sanction capacity. A questionnaire study showed that organizational mediators side with the less powerful rathe r than the more powerful party, especially when this weaker party has equal rather than less capacity to sanction the mediator. Thus, the te ndency to balance power is moderated by the mediator's self-interest. Additionally, mediators tend to favor the party they see as more legit imate.