Business mediation and conflict management: keys to the evolution of the American model

Managing conflicts efficiently has become a universal concern (Lipsky et al., 2003). Beyond the well-known fact that conflicts are consubstantial to life in society, today we must bear in mind that interpersonal relationships are antagonistic and at the same time complementary, that the world has become globalized, and that conflicts, in many cases, are much more complex than before. In short, we live in a constant paradigm shift and "when the paradigms change, the world itself changes with them" (Khun, 1962). The cases of three large American companies (COCA-COLA, PECO Energy and ScheringPlough) are cited, among others, as representative examples of the 1990s that, leading very different sectors, but with a shared dissatisfaction with the traditional formulas for conflict resolution, generated new and successful internal organisational management models. The development of this new area of management in the large US organisations was, in its day, a new reality for the organisations, and led to the conduct of several applied studies led by research groups from different universities, models to be followed today, due to their methodology and because of the effective and conclusive results they have provided. This paper aims to summarise the main conclusions of these studies in order to provide the keys to the shift towards efficient management of conflicts in the business environment that happen, on many occasions, as we will see, by the proper use of mediation in a given company´s conflict typology.