Antecedents and Effectiveness of Mediation Strategies: The Intervention of Presidents of Joint Committees in France

The purpose of this article is to identify strategies developed by mediators, as well as their antecedents. Based on a quantitative survey conducted with 51 Joint Committee Presidents acting as mediators at the professional branch level, this research brings two main results.

Firstly, it distinguishes between two strategies developed by the mediator: the support strategy and the interventionist strategy. The former allows the mediator to bring parties in conflict to agreement. Conversely, the latter has no direct effect on the resolution of the agreement. However, our results show the existence of an indirect effect of an interventionist strategy. Furthermore, this is shown to be effective when it is associated with a support strategy.

Secondly, the intervention of a third-party expert or authority, as a follow-up to the parties’ activities outside the mediation room, facilitates the interventionist strategy, while the parties’ competence, especially when there is regular contact with these parties, is linked to the support strategy. Going beyond descriptive approaches, this work promotes a better understanding of the mediator’s behaviour, reflecting dynamic and complex interventions during the mediation process.

This research reflects a new starting point in understanding the dynamics of mediation in a context where the role of the social parties defining social regulation is strengthened. The authors suggest integrating into the analysis of mediation dynamics contextual and personal factors linked to the different actors, such as the mediator, stakeholders, and external third parties.

The limits of this research lie in the size of its sample, as well as the absence of a triangulation of sources that would have allowed the authors to obtain a clearer vision of the mediator’s action. Moreover, this study was conducted in France and therefore the possible existence of cultural bias cannot be excluded.

This work, however, opens up multiple perspectives for research on the subject of the role of the mediator in the dynamic context of mediation.

Keywords: mediator, mediation, strategy, social relations.