Indiana
Conflict Resolution Institute
Overview
The Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute (ICRI) at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) was established in 1997, and is dedicated to the study of conflict and dispute resolution in public and private arenas. The Institute received initial funding from Indiana University through a program called the Strategic Directions Initiative, major general support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and receives additional funding for its continuing work through grants from private foundations and research contracts with public organizations.
ICRI is dedicated to understanding, developing, and promoting dispute resolution processes and improving and contributing to the knowledge base of alternative or appropriate dispute resolution (ADR) programs. To this end, the Institute has a three-fold mission encompassing research, teaching, and service in the field of conflict resolution.
Research
The Institute conducts applied field research and program evaluation of dispute resolution processes in public organizations at all levels of government and seeks to meet the needs of both practice and theory in the fast-growing field of ADR. In terms of practice, the Institute assists clients in evaluating their ADR programs, enabling them to continually advance their processes and to understand the impacts of their programs on participants and the organization. In terms of theory, we conduct award-winning research using comprehensive and longitudinal data in conjunction with advanced analytic techniques to test both common and new hypotheses about ADR.
Many current research projects involve U.S. federal government agencies, including a longitudinal evaluation of employment mediation in the Postal Service; an evaluation of the use of ADR throughout the federal government with the Department of Justice; an evaluation of the Department of Agriculture’s ADR services; and examination of the use of ADR in enforcement and compliance activities at the Environmental Protection Agency. At the state government level, the Institute is evaluating the use of environmental conflict resolution in each of the fifty U.S. states and is conducting a pilot study of the use of mediation in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. In addition, the Institute is working with the nation’s top academics in conjunction with Tricia Jones, Editor of Conflict Resolution Quarterly to make the ‘Case for the Field’, a series of articles on the use of ADR in a variety of contexts.
For more information about ICRI's research projects, please click here.
Teaching
The Institute's affiliation with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University offers a unique opportunity to expand education in the field of dispute resolution. ICRI staff develop and implement undergraduate, graduate, continuing education, and executive education curricula designed to foster a deeper understanding and broader use of ADR processes such as mediation, facilitation, early neutral evaluation, ombuds programs, arbitration, partnering, and related consensus processes.
For more information about the teaching activities in which ICRI is involved, please click here.
Service
The Institute is also dedicated to serving its community in the field of conflict resolution. The Institute provides conflict resolution information and support for mediation services to the people in the local community and state government of Indiana and to professionals in the field. Members of the staff are involved in research to add to the clearinghouse of information on conflict resolution used locally, nationally, and internationally. In addition, the Institute staff provides mediation services and administrative support to a local, growing community conflict resolution program.
For more information about ICRI's community involvement,
please click here.
Indiana Conflict Resolution
Institute
Last updated:
July 30, 2004
Comments:
ICRI Administrator
Copyright
1999 - Indiana University,
Bloomington