The importance of the intra-organizational culture of communication in the context of employee mediation

Abstract

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this article is to present the views of employee mediators on the importance of the intra-organizational culture of communication in a crisis situation in an organization and employers' use of employee mediation as a way to improve internal communication in the organization and to overcome the crisis within the organization. The main goal of the work is to investigate whether the high communication culture in the organization has a direct impact on the number of labor disputes, and in the case of commencement of employee mediation, at the end of mediation with a settlement/agreement.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The article uses qualitative and quantitative research. The research tool was supervised telephone surveys, containing questions and statements about the opinion on the impact of the culture of internal communication in the organization on the occurrence of labor disputes and the course of employee mediation. The survey was preceded by a series of in-depth, unstructured expert interviews with employee mediators.

FINDINGS: The higher the culture of internal communication of the organization, the fewer crisis situations in the organization caused by labor disputes, and the greater the chance of reaching a settlement in the event of initiating employee mediation.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results can be used to build a high culture of internal communication within an organization. The achieved results may turn out to be particularly useful for organizations in crisis situations (such as, for example, labor disputes) and those that want to prevent the emergence of crises in the future.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This study is an initial effort in exploring the intra-organizational culture of communication in the context of employee mediation.