Relações públicas e a perspectiva sistêmica de mediação no gerenciamento de conflitos e crises organizacionais

Abstract

The present study had as its principal objectives to identify the systemic perspective of mediation in organizational crisis and conflict management and to present the paradigmatic orientation of Public Relations practitioners (within a specific situation) while handling these processes. It also aimed at proposing points for reflection about the practice of mediation so as to make it possible to overcome the classic antagonistic framework - still adopted by most leaders – and about the visualization of a more cooperative system that would take into account the complexity of the social and organizational reality. The research used a qualitative approach, collecting testimony from registered members of Conselho Regional de Profissionais de Relações Públicas da 4ª Região - CONRERP RS/SC and which were analyzed according to the Content Analysis proposed by Bardin (1985). By analyzing and interpreting the evidences that arose from this study a unique paradigm that is faced by Public Relations practitioners was uncovered: that of organizational mediators, which implies awareness of the systemic conception of mediation in the management of organizational disputes, whereby the mediator acts as a facilitator in the processes of identification, discussion and resolution of diverging issues, promoting dialogue and participation to their fullest, and transforming destructive conditions into constructive ones.