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48 The Mediation Process settlement also initiate activities that facilitate mediator entry. The following workplace dispute illustrate"s such action: Two managers were in conflict over how a job was to be performed. A third manager-a peer-was uncomfortable with tension in the office. He talked to a fourth person in the office, a woman with no authority over the disputing managers, and asked her to intervene. Lincoln (1976) described a school desegregation conflict in which a mediator was invited by the mayor and the school superintendent to mediate between two hostile groups of stu- dents-one group black, and the other white-that were threat- ening to vandalize school property and physically harm each other. Although the secondary parties were not directly in- volved in the negotiations, they clearly had high stakes in the outcome. Secondary parties occasionally have authority over the people in conflict and will intervene to encourage disputants to mediate. Mediation organizations often establish referral rela- tionships with judges, lawyers, court clerks, police officers, and personnel in planning departments, social service agencies, and educational and public interest organizations to route disputes to mediation. Secondary parties not only refer cases to mediation but may also influence the probability of settlement. Bench refer- rals by judges, prosecutors, public attorneys, and police officers have a higher rate of settlement than referrals from community social service agencies, legal aid organizations, or governmental agencies (Cook, Rochl, and Shepard, 1980). The prospect of a litigious alternative is probably a significant factor in the influ- ence of a referral source on the probability of settlement. Par- ties realize that if they do not reach an agreement in mediation, the case will probably go to court, an undesirable alternative in many instances. Interventions initiated by the mediator are common in complex community disputes that are public in nature, in- volve multiple parties, and do not have a set of defined primary actors who can request mediation. In this form of entry, the me- diator usually learns of the dispute from published written ma-