Mthimkulu Mashiya
Mthimkulu Mashiya, a mediator accredited by Conflict Dynamics, CEDR, and DiSAC, is a former trade union leader with extensive experience as an educator. With qualifications from the University of Cape Town and Graduate Institute of Management and Technology, along with a certificate from University of Stellenbosch in Labour Dispute Resolution, he currently serves as General Secretary of the Transnet Bargaining Council. In this role, Mthimkulu oversees labour dispute resolution, collective bargaining, and manages a team of 120 commissioners. Mthimkulu has also been a task team member on the CCMA's Committee for Integrated Dispute Resolution and Law Execution since 2021.
A lot has been written and spoken about the important role played by managers in ensuring that the organisations they lead achieve their goals and objectives. Equally important is the contribution and the role of workers, through their trade unions, in ensuring that the wheels of commerce and industry run smoothly so that there is, in the words of the Labour Relations Act, the “…economic development, social justice, labour peace and the democratisation of the workplace…” that the country is sorely in need of.
Leaders, managers and their trade union counterparts bring to bear their job-specific skills and competencies gained through a combination of education and training, prior learning and hands-on experience. These are the hard skills that got them to be in the positions they occupy. To succeed and excel at what they do, they also seriously need to have and to improve their relationship skills, sometimes referred to as ‘soft’ skills although they are arguable the hardest to learn and to employ. These skills include communication skills, relationship building skills, problem solving skills, building rapport, empathy, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. These skills are skills that a trained mediator will have. In the long run, it is advisable for companies and organisations to build internal capacity and have their managers and union leaders trained as mediators. Where such internal capacity is not yet available, serious consideration should be given to calling on outside mediation specialists to assist.
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With reports of how conflict is costing South African companies billions and also how that could stunt economic growth, leaders need to be equipped with conflict resolution skills as a matter of extreme urgency. This is where mediation comes in. The wide variety of specialised communication and negotiation techniques that a trained mediator uses can greatly assist in cultivating a culture of collaboration in any organisation. |
The post-1994 democratic South Africa that we live in today is a product or outcome of collaboration and negotiations. Reference is made here to “a fascinating presentation” by John Brand on Nelson Mandela’s negotiation skills. In the world of work, there is a lot of interaction between management, on the one hand, and workers, on the other and also between management and trade unions. This interaction may take the form of collective bargaining, consultation sessions, joint decision-making sessions or sometimes just information sharing sessions. Quite clearly, negotiation is an integral part of these interactions.
It is a sad and unfortunate reality that these interactions are often characterised by undertones of antagonism, adversarialism and even violence. We must draw lessons from, and follow the example of Nelson Mandela, the negotiator. More than ever before, we need mediation to assist in creating a culture of dealing with conflicts and disputes in a peaceful and mutually beneficial way. As the Civil Mediation Council so aptly puts it here:
“… if leaders learned and used mediation skills – such as diplomacy, empathy and active listening – on a regular basis, they could resolve complex problems in a far more effective, constructive way that delivers better outcomes for their people and brilliant outcomes for their organisations.”
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In essence, mediation is about facilitating the negotiation process. What a trained mediator does is to facilitate negotiation between the parties and assist them to realise their underlying concerns and interests and for the parties to come up with solutions to satisfy and meet those interests. |
What is meant by “specialised communication and negotiations techniques?”. In the world of work, people come from different walks of life, different cultures, races and even from different religious backgrounds. In such a scenario, it is very easy for misunderstandings to arise when people communicate. That misunderstanding can easily lead to serious conflicts at the workplace. This usually happens when one person communicates one thing and another person or others perceive it completely differently. Perception checking is an example of a communication and negotiation technique that a mediator will use to deal with misunderstandings.
Last year, I facilitated a discussion in Pretoria at the head office of Transnet Engineering (TE), the second biggest division of Transnet SOC Limited. I was invited to speak about what is meant by ‘consultation’. Management had initiated a process of consultation on certain aspects of restructuring and organisation of work within TE. The unions understood that to mean the consultation process was going to culminate in an agreement before any implementation of the restructuring could take place. On the other hand, management’s understanding was that the process was more of an information sharing exercise with a view to ensure that the unions understood the direction the company was taking even if the unions did not agree.
In my facilitation, I made use of perception checking. I did this by referring the parties to the relevant chapters of the Labour Relations Act and certain decisions of our courts dealing with what consultation is to align their perceptions of what consultation really means. The facilitation went very well. The parties now have the same understanding of what consultation means.
Perception checking can also be very useful in situations where parties assign meanings to the actions of others. In 2022, during Transnet’s tense wage negotiations (which, at that stage were being conciliated by the CCMA in terms of section 150 of the Labour Relations Act), we had a particular session that went on and on, lasting until the early hours of the next day. At one point, one senior manager bought food and refreshments, ensuring that there was more than enough for trade union negotiators too. That manager was taken aback when one union leader rejected the food, saying they saw it as an attempt by management to induce them to accept the wage offer. “You cannot bribe us with food!” - he shouted. The CCMA commissioner, being the seasoned mediator that he is, diffused the situation by making use of perception checking and ultimately got the unions to understand that their interpretation of the manager’s offer was not necessarily the only or even the correct interpretation.
By making use of perception checking, a trained mediator can assist in eliminating some of the misunderstandings that can lead to conflicts. It can also be an excellent method to encourage and promote active listening, which is another communication technique in the mediator’s toolkit. In the fast-paced and highly pressurised work environment that modern day managers work under, listening - let alone active listening - is sadly not high on the list of their attributes. I have seen first hand, instances where a manager was clearly listening to correct rather than to connect with a colleague in a meeting.
During lunch break, I casually raised the topic of active listening with that manager. I was pleasantly surprised (but puzzled) when he shared some of the active listening techniques that he was well aware of; techniques like reflecting, paraphrasing, summarising, asking open-ended questions, using non-verbal cues that show understanding (nodding, leaning forward). It turned out this manager was impatient with his colleague because this colleague always arrives late at meetings and that the last time he confronted him about being late, he became defensive and aggressive instead of apologising. I then suggested that in future he should try using “I” statements with the serial late comer. I explained that instead of confrontationally asking why he is always late, or stating, “You’re always late!” the approach should be something along the lines of:
“I feel disrespected and frustrated when you do not arrive on time because the lateness means we have to re-arrange our work schedule. I really ask that everyone should arrive at the agreed upon time in future.”
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I explained that this way, the same message is conveyed but in a way that is less likely to provoke a defensive or hostile reaction from the late comer colleague. I further explained how “I” statements can diffuse potentially explosive situations because, unlike “You” statements, they are not accusatory. Using “I” statements accompanied by open, non-threatening body language can be a powerful and impactful way of building rapport with colleagues at work. Once again, that is an example of a specialised communication and negotiation technique that an accredited mediator encourages parties to use during the mediation process. |
The advancement of labour peace is one of the stated objectives of the Labour Relations Act. As one politician once observed, peace is not the absence of conflict - instead, it is the ability to deal with conflict through peaceful means. Mediation and mediation skills enable and empower disputants to deal with conflict through peaceful means. I therefore add my voice to the clarion call and say particularly to those in leadership positions, MEDIATE, MEDIATE, MEDIATE.