A two‐year collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and advisers from the major national organizations of mediators produced a job analysis relevant to mediators involved in interpersonal disputes (i.e., divorce, community, formal parent‐child mediation, etc.). One byproduct of the job analysis is an extensive list of the knowledge areas and skills important to effective job performance. This essay defines the knowledge and skill areas that emerged from the analysis.

Academy of Family Mediators.
1998
.
Standards of practice for family and divorce mediation
. Lexington , Mass :
Academy of Family Mediators
.
American Arbitration Association, American Bar Association, Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution
.
1995
.
Model standards of conduct for mediators
. New York and Washington
American Arbitration Association, American Bar Association, Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution
.
Foster
,
M. R.
1998
.
Effective job analysis methods
. In
Handbook of Human Resources Management
, edited by
S. E.
Condrey
. San Francisco :
Jossey Bass
.
Flanagan
,
J. C.
1954
.
The critical incident technique
.
Psychological Bulletin
51
:
327
358
.
Gael
,
S.
1988
.
Interviews, questionnaires, and check lists
. In
The job analysis bandbook for business, industry, and government
, edited by
S.
Gael
. New York :
Wiley
.
Herman
,
M. S.
,
N. L.
Hollett
,
D. G.
Eaker
,
J.
Gale
,
K.
Fogarty
, and
M.
Foster
2001
.
Supporting accountability
.
Unpublished manuscript available from the Mediator Skills Project, Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia
.
McCormick
,
E. J.
1976
.
Job and task analysis
. In
Handbook of Industrial and organizational psychology
, edited by
M.D.
Dunnett
, Chicago :
Rand‐McNally
.
Neilson
,
L. C.
and
P.
English
1996
.
Practice, certification and training standards
, prepared by the Standards and Certification Committee, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Family Mediation Canada.
Silbey
,
S. S.
1993
.
Mediation mythology
.
Negotiation Journal
9
(
4
):
349
353
.
Taylor
,
A.
1994
.
The four foundations of family mediation: Implications for training and certification
.
Mediation Quarterly
12
(
1
):
77
88
.
Test Design Project
.
1993
.
Interim guidelines for selecting mediators
. Washington :
National Institute for Dispute Resolution
.
Test Design Project
.
1995
.
Performance‐based assessment: A methodology for use in selecting, training, and evaluating mediators
. Washington :
National Institute for Dispute Resolution
.
This content is only available as a PDF.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the use is non-commercial and the original work is properly cited. For a full description of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0.