HRM Practices and Mediation: Lessons learnt from the UK

Given that much of the research about the use of workplace mediation in the UK has been published in the last five years, you may be forgiven for thinking that the idea of workplace mediation is a relative newcomer to debates about how conflict should be dealt with in the workplace. This conclusion, however, would be inaccurate. Arguments for the greater use of workplace mediation as a way of improving workplace relations by moving to more informal approaches and tackling the numbers of employees who seek resolution through formal systems have been present in policy debates for decades. Despite this, just 7% of workplaces indicated that they have experience of workplace mediation (in the twelve months prior to the survey) (van Wanrooy et al, 2013:27). This presents a confusing picture of the status of workplace mediation in the UK and it is to this confusion that this chapter seeks to speak.