This article deals with the effectiveness of intervention strategies
applied by and seen from the perspective of a third party. I have
taken as my starting point a so-called contingency approach,
according to which an intervention strategy has to be chosen
dependent upon the type of the conflict and the context within which it
occurs. Three strategies are distinguished: mediation and two types
of third party consultation. An analysis of 69 actual cases of
internal and external organizational advisors reveals one rather
generally applicable strategy in addition to two more specific
strategies. This result accentuates the fruitfulness of a contingency
approach and makes it necessary to qualify its appropriateness.
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