The Mediator as Face-Giver

Face issues under the surface can make mediation akin to negotiat-ing a minefield. This article proposes to help mediators map the terrain, uncovering critical face issues that can stymie the negotiation. The author demonstrates how, by using face-giving techniques to diffuse uncovered face issues, mediators can help move the parties through sensitive conflicts to sustainable resolution—with egos and relationships intact. It is better to give than to receive. No one knows this better than the mediator, as the giving of her skills and inventiveness is one of her princi-pal tasks. In addition to assisting the disputants by identifying, packaging, and sequencing existing issues and alternatives, and by introducing new issues and solutions that had not occurred to the disputants themselves (Rubin et al. 1994), the mediator needs to set and maintain a positive climate in which concessions can be made and, eventually, a settlement can be achieved. One of the ways in which she can accomplish this is by protecting each disputant’s “face.” The word “face ” has been used in Western writings as a metaphor for our self-image vis-à-vis the public. Face has to do with our concept o