Margaret S. Herrman is the founding CEO of Herrman Group, a consultancy that helps people make decisions. She is also the founding co-principal investigator of the Mediator Skills Project at the University of Georgia. She recently retired as a Senior Associate and Director of Dispute Resolution Services at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government also at the University of Georgia.

"Margaret Herrman and her team have done an admirable job of sorting through what we know and what we don't know about the mediation of interpersonal disputes. They have built a comprehensive model integrating dozens of pertinent variables that seeks to link antecedent conditions, mediation practice, and short and long-term outcomes. Herrman has assembled contributions from many of the stars in the mediation field who examine the comprehensive model through the lens of framing and frame reflection, narrative, facework, interpersonal power, emotion, Social identity and organizational management. The Handbook of Mediation while not prescriptive, offers a 'platform for further theory testing' that will surely play an important part in helping to determine what makes mediators and mediations program effective." Lawrence Susskind, MIT-Harvard "The Blackwell Handbook of Mediation is an enormously important contribution to research, scholarship, and reflective practice. In a field marked by a vast range of intellectual traditions and arenas of practice, Margaret Herrman and her contributors have given us an indispensable resource and guide. - erudite, balanced, and respectful of dissenting perspectives." Kenneth Kressel, Rutgers University "Peggy Herrman's book is a solid presentation of the best current thinking and research in our changing field. She has done brilliantly what good mediators do: present the different perspectives, define the issues, and ask, "where do we go from here?" Betty McManus, National Conflict Resolution Center "Judging from the quality of the contributions to the Handbook, Herrman's model is a smashing success."-- Howard Gadlin, in the AAA Dispute Resolution Journal

• Acknowledgements. Notes on Contributors..Part I; Setting the Stage for a Dialog.1. Introduction(Margaret S. Herrman).2. Mediation from Beginning to End: A Testable Model (Margaret S. Herrman, Nancy Hollett, and Jerry Gale).Part II: Mediation and Negotiation Set in Their Contextual Frames.3. Examining Mediation in Context: Toward Understanding Variations in Mediation Programs (Craig McEwen).4. Policy, Practice, and Politics: Bargaining in the Shadow of Whitehall (Janet Walker and Sherrill Hayes).5. The Role of Antecedent and Procedural Characteristics in Mediation: A Review of the Research (Roselle L. Willer).6. Applying the Comprehensive Model to Workplace Mediation Research (Brian Polkinghorn and E. Patrick McDermott).7. Restorative Justice Mediated Dialog (Mark S. Umbreit and Robert B. Coates).Part III: Exploring Powerful Internal Dynamics.8. Mediation as Framing and Framing within Mediation (Barbara Gray).9. Does the Model Overarch ten Narrative Stream (John M. Winslade and Gerald D. Monk).10. A Facework Frame for Mediation (Stephen Littlejohn and Kathy Domenici).11. Mediation and the Forfold Model of Justice (Donald E. Conlon).12. The Dynamics of Power in Child Custody Mediation (Donald T. Saposnek).13. Emotion in Mediation: Implications, Applications, Opportunities and Challenges 9Tricia S. Jones).Part IV: Extensions.14. Preempting Disaster: Pre-Mediation Strategies to Deal with Strong Emotions (Danile L. Shapiro).15. The Meaning of "Social" in Interpersonal Conflict and its Resolution (Sandra Schruijer and Leopold S. Vansina).16. Manger as Mediator: Developing a Conflict-Positive Organization Dean Tjosvlod and Fang Su).17. Mediation and Difficult Conflicts (Morton Deutsch).18. Enhancing Mediator Artistry: Multiple Frames, Spirit, and Reflection in Action Neil H. Katz).19. Of Time and the River: Notes on the Herman, Hollett, and Gale Model of Mediation (Kevin Avruch).20. Mediation at the Millennium (Dean G. Pruitt).21. A Trainer Responds to the Model 9Zena D. Zumeta).22. Conclusion (Margaret S. Herrman).Index of Citations.General Index.