What kinds of workplace and organizational disputes can be resolved through mediation?

A wide range of workplace conflicts are well suited to mediation, including interpersonal conflict between coworkers, tension between a manager and a team member, disputes over roles and responsibilities, communication breakdowns, disagreements about expectations or workload, and friction that arises during reorganizations or changes in direction. What these have in common is that they are often less about a single formal complaint than about working relationships that have broken down. Mediation is well suited to them because it addresses the actual dynamics at the root of the conflict, and because the parties usually have to keep working together afterward. A facilitative mediator helps colleagues hear one another, clarify what each needs, and rebuild a functional working relationship rather than simply assigning blame.