Designing a Dispute Management System
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DESIGNING A DISPUTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR GROUNDWATER DISPUTES IN ONTARIO A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by DAVID VAN VEEN In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts September, 1999 O David Van Veen, 1999 National Library Bibliotheque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. fue Wdlirigtori OltawaON KlAW OciawaON K1AW Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fllm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retaim ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts Grom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be p~tedor othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent être imptimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT DESIGNING A DISPUTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR GROUNDWATER DISPUTES IN ONTARIO David Van Veen Advisor: University of Guelph, 1999 Professor R.D. Kreutzwiser The purpose of this thesis is to investigate water conflicts and to develop a dispute management system to resolve local water disputes in Ontario. This system, which encompasses a nwnber of dispute resolution techniques (DRTs) and some related conditions for their use, aims to help people involved in water disputes diagnose a dispute to determine when and why to select and use dispute resolution technique(s). Dispute factors or contextual influences that describe conflict situations, such as the number of interested parties and financial limitations, were evaluated to determine when and what DRTs are appropriate in water dispute situations. A two round iterative swey, utilizing people with experiences with local disputes, was used to determine how dispute factors motivate the selection of dispute resolution technique(s). The results indicate that, in the context of a majonty of dispute factors, less formal DRTs of mediation and negotiation were preferred, over more formal approaches, such as arbitration and litigation, as a first attempt toward reaching a settlement. However, if less forma1 DRTs prove inadequate, more formal techniques are preferred for reaching an agreement with the provision of looping back to less forma1 techniques. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A heartfelt thank-you goes to Dr. Reid D. Kreutzwiser for his patience, advice, assistance, and concern, as my advisor. The hours spent editing and consulting will not be forgotten. Our fnendly chats, your encowaging words and sorne mean stick handhg in the corners will be fondly remembered. Also, a big thank-you goes to Dr. Rob de Loe, my cornmittee member, for contrïbuting his insights, hours of patient editing, eye opening flowcharts, and enthusiasm. Guys, 1 couldn't have asked for a better pair to work with. I would like to thank the many respondents who contributed valuable time and effort to complete some lengthy questionnaires. It was through contributing your opinions and thoughts that enabled this research to be successfiilly completed. This research was made possible through the fuiancial assistance of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural AfXairs (Environment and Natural Resources Program) and the Latornell Scholarship Fund. Last, but not least, a big hug and very special thanks to my wondefil wife Margaret who encouraged me through some stressfiil times. Honey, these last couple of years will be remembered fondly because of yow love, your smile and your support. 1 love you very much and 1 couldn't have done it without you. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................ i .. TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................... II LIST OF TABLES........................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................ vii LIST OF BOXES ........................................................................... vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.................................................... 1 1-1 RESEARCH CONTEXT ........................................................ 1 1.2 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH .................. 4 1-3 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS .............................................. 4 CHAPTER TWO: CONTEXT FOR THE RESEARCH ........................... 6 2.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................... 6 2.2 CONFLICT THEORY AND THE ROLE OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION .................................................................. 6 2.2.1 Attitudes Toward Conflict .......................................... 7 2.2.2 Confiict, Human Needs, Values, and interests................... 9 2.2.3 Conflict and the Nature of Power .................................. 14 2.2.4 Public Disputes ....................................................... 15 2.2.5 The Role of Conflict Resolution .................................... 16 2.3 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND THE RESOLUTION OF LOCAL WATER DISPUTES IN ONTARIO .............................. 20 2.3.1 Water Disputes in Ontario ........................................... 20 2.3.2 Conflict and the PTTW Program ................................... 22 2.3.3 Summary ............................................................... 24 2.4 DISPUTE SYSTEM DESIGN ................................................. 24 2.4.1 Designing Dispute Systems for Resource Disputes .............. 29 2.4.2 Preliminary Dispute Factor Classification Scheme.............. 33 2.5 SUMMARY ...................................................................... 35 CHAPTER THRJ3E: RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................... 37 3.1 INTRODUCTION....................... ... 37 3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH ..................................................... 37 3.3 "DISCOVERING COMMON GROUND" A TWO ROUND ITERATIVE QUESTIONNAIRE ........... .......................... ....... 39 3.3.1 The First Round Questionnaire ..................................... 40 3.3.2.1 The Pilot S tudy ............................................. 42 3-3 -2 The Second Round Questionnaire.................................. 43 3.3.2.1 Part One: Importance Testing of Dispute Factors..... 43 3.3 -2.2 Part Two: Selection of Dispute Resolution Techniques for Dispute Factor Statements ............ 45 3.4 THE RESPONDENT GROUP ................................................ 49 3.4.1 Selection of Respondents............................................ 49 3 A.2 Number of Respondents ............................................. 51 3.4.3 Background Characteristics of the Respondent Groups ......... 52 3.5 ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE DATA ................................ 55 3.6 SUMMARY...................................................................... 58 CHAPTER FOUR: EVALUATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE DATA ............. 60 4.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................... 60 4.2 BACKGROUND DISPUTE FACTORS ..................................... 61 4.2.1 Experience with Background Dispute Factors .................... 61 4.2.2 Importance of Background Dispute Factors ...................... 63 4.2.3 Selecting a Dispute Resolution Technique for Background Dispute Factor Statements .......................................... 66 4.3 SITUATIONAL DISPUTE FACTORS ...................................... 70 4.3.1 Experience with Situational Dispute Factors ..................... 70 4.3.2 Importance of Situational Dispute Factors ........................ 72 4.3 -3 Selecting a Dispute Resolution Technique for Situational Dispute Factor Statements.......................................... 74 4.4 CAPABILITY DISPUTE FACTORS ........................................ 77 4.4.1 Experience with Capability Dispute Factors ............. .. ..... 77 4.4.2 importance of Capability Dispute Factors ........................ 79 4.4.3 Selecting a Dispute Resolution Technique for Capabiiity Dispute Factor Statements .......................................... 81 4.5 WATER RESOCTRCE DISPUTE FACTORS ............................... 85 4.5.1 Experience with Water Resource Dispute Factors ............... 85 4-52 importance of Water Resource Dispute Factors .................. 87 4.5.3 Selecting a Dispute Resolution Technique for Water Resource Dispute Factor Statements.............................. 90 4.6 SUMMARY...................................................................... 92 CHAPTER FIVE: DESIGMNG A DISPUTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM..... 96 5.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................... 96 5.2 DEFIMNG THE WHEN, WHAT AND HOW OF THE DISPUTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM................................................... 97 5.2.1 Determining an Initial Selection for a DRT ...................... 98 5 .2.2 Respondent Reasons for Selecting DRTs ......................... 102 5 .2.3 Respondent Selections for Second Choice DRTs .......... .. .... 105 5.3 SYSTEM OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION TECHNIQUES ............... .. 106 5.4 PROPOSED DISPUTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ...................... 109 5.5 PRINCIPLES OF THE DISPUTE MANAGEMENT