Conflict within organisations is not always overt or explosive. Often, it simmers quietly beneath the surface, manifesting subtly through passive-aggressive emails, missed deadlines, or informal grapevine tension. One particularly pervasive form of organisational conflict arises through overlapping roles and the resulting turf wars. These occur when job responsibilities are unclear, duplicated, or encroach upon another’s perceived domain, leading to territorial behaviour and friction between individuals or departments.
Modern organisations are more interconnected than ever. Cross-functional teams, agile work styles, and remote operations have all contributed to a shift in the traditional lines of responsibility. While these new approaches foster innovation and adaptability, they have simultaneously blurred the boundaries of roles, making it challenging to define who is accountable for what. In such environments, conflicts are almost inevitable. One effective solution to address and resolve these issues is facilitated mediation, a structured, neutral approach that helps individuals navigate their disputes constructively.
The Root Causes of Role Confusion and Turf Conflicts
Role confusion and territorial disputes rarely occur out of the blue. They are often the result of systemic weaknesses, unclear leadership directives, or poor communication. Leadership might introduce new initiatives without communicating changes in responsibilities. Teams may grow organically without updating role definitions. Org charts become outdated, and employees find themselves operating in a vacuum of ambiguity.
Additionally, concerns around status, influence, and recognition often underpin these disputes. For instance, when two department heads vie for control of a cross-functional project, the argument may not solely be about ownership of tasks but also about power, influence, and resource control. These hidden drivers make conflict resolution more complex.
Unresolved, such conflicts significantly impact morale, productivity, and the overall organisational culture. Employees may disengage, withhold information, or resist collaboration, while leadership finds it increasingly hard to meet strategic goals amidst the internal push-and-pull. Addressing these issues calls not only for strong leadership but also for a deeper, more systematic approach—enter facilitated mediation.
What Is Facilitated Mediation?
Facilitated mediation is a structured process in which a neutral third party—typically trained in conflict resolution, organisational dynamics, and communication techniques—guides individuals or groups through their issues to arrive at mutually acceptable solutions. Unlike arbitration, where a third party makes decisions for the disputing parties, or standard HR interventions that might side with organisational priorities, facilitated mediation centres on dialogue and empowerment.
It is crucial to note that facilitated mediation is not about assigning blame or rehashing grievances. Instead, it seeks to untangle misunderstandings, clarify expectations, and create a shared pathway going forward. In cases of role overlap, the mediator often helps participants understand the bigger picture, recognise their interdependence, and co-create new ways of working together that respect boundaries but also foster collaboration.
The Facilitation Process: A Step-By-Step Overview
The success of facilitated mediation hinges on careful design and execution. The process typically begins with preparation, including private conversations between the facilitator and each participant. These one-on-ones are critical to building trust, understanding underlying issues, and setting realistic expectations.
Once everyone is ready to proceed, the mediator brings the parties together for joint sessions. The early stages of this dialogue focus on listening. Each person is given the space to articulate their perspectives without interruption. The facilitator’s role during this phase is to manage emotions, ensure psychological safety, and validate feelings—not to solve problems just yet.
As the session progresses, the dialogue shifts towards problem-solving. The parties, guided by the mediator, begin to explore practical implications of their overlap or conflict. For instance, they might map out roles, responsibilities, and existing processes to examine where ambiguity or duplication occurs. Tools such as responsibility matrices (e.g., the RACI model) or process flow diagrams can be employed to visualise points of contact and conflict.
The final stage focuses on agreement. The parties are encouraged to create formal or informal agreements regarding future collaboration. These may include detailed role descriptions, agreed protocols for communication, or escalation pathways if turf issues resurface. The facilitator captures these agreements in a clear format and may arrange follow-up sessions to monitor progress.
The Emotional Landscape of Organisational Conflict
While structured processes are important, the emotional dimensions of conflict cannot be overlooked. Feelings of threat, fear, resentment, and inadequacy are commonly associated with turf disputes. After all, when someone feels their role is being usurped, it touches on deep psychological chords related to insecurity and self-worth.
Facilitated mediation helps surface and address these emotional undercurrents. The presence of a neutral third party creates a ‘holding space’ where people feel sufficiently safe to discuss feelings without fear of reprisal. This emotional ventilation is not just cathartic; it is foundational. Without acknowledging and addressing emotions, parties may agree to a superficial resolution while continuing to harbour resentment or resistance underneath.
Facilitators trained in emotional intelligence and active listening can pinpoint these undercurrents and name them gently during conversation. For instance, acknowledging disappointment or validating the fear of diminished responsibility helps move the discussion beyond rational arguments to more holistic healing and understanding.
The Organisational Benefits of Early Intervention
Often, organisations delay intervention until conflicts have escalated significantly. By this stage, the conflict may have become entrenched, with positions hardening and willingness to compromise shrinking. Early use of facilitated mediation prevents such escalation.
Not only does mediation help resolve current issues, but it also builds long-term capacity for handling future disputes. Individuals learn to communicate better, ask instead of assume, and become more attuned to organisational dynamics. Facilitated sessions often serve as developmental interventions, indirectly teaching participants leadership, empathy, and systems thinking.
Moreover, when employees see their organisation committing to fair and transparent conflict resolution practices, it builds trust in leadership and a sense of procedural justice. This, over time, contributes to stronger organisational culture and lower turnover.
Role of Leadership in Supporting Mediated Resolutions
While facilitated mediation puts participants at the centre of their own resolution, leadership still plays a vital role. It is important for managers not to abdicate responsibility for clarifying roles and managing boundaries. Leaders should see mediation as a complementary tool rather than a substitute for good management.
When mediations are complete, leaders should support the agreed outcomes with follow-up coaching, changes in systems or processes if necessary, and periodic check-ins. The culture around conflict must shift from avoidance and passivity to curiosity and engagement.
Leaders themselves must also be willing to participate in mediation if necessary. Many turf wars originate not between peers but within leadership teams, where egos, silos, and influence clashes are rife. In these scenarios, the example set by senior leaders in resolving their own conflicts through mediation can have a cascading effect on the rest of the organisation.
Designing Systems That Minimise Future Overlap
While facilitated mediation is a powerful response to existing conflicts, prevention is always better than cure. Organisations that actively design roles, responsibilities, and communication pathways with clarity and foresight are less likely to encounter messy turf wars. Job descriptions should be living documents, reviewed periodically in light of organisational changes. New initiatives should be assessed for possible role overlaps before being launched.
Additionally, organisations can benefit from implementing structured frameworks for accountability, such as the aforementioned RACI model, or introducing process owners for cross-functional initiatives who ensure that interfaces between departments are mapped and managed collaboratively.
Frequent cross-departmental meetings, shared dashboards, and transparent reporting structures also reduce room for assumption and conflict. In organisations where boundaries must be fluid—such as start-ups or innovation-led businesses—it is even more critical to have norms around negotiation, role agility, and conflict management pre-established.
Moving From a Culture of Competition to Collaboration
At the heart of many turf wars lies a zero-sum mindset: the belief that for one person to gain, another must lose. This scarcity-based thinking fosters defensiveness and undermines cooperation. Facilitated mediation can help individuals and teams move from this competitive stance to a more collaborative posture, where roles are seen not as battlegrounds but as pieces of a collective puzzle.
Shifting the culture in this way requires ongoing investment in conflict literacy, psychological safety, and trust-building. Training programmes, storytelling of successful collaborations, and leadership modelling all play a part.
In the end, addressing role overlap and turf wars through skilled facilitation is not simply about resolving immediate issues. It is a profound organisational act—one that seeks to restore connection, rebuild trust, and align people around shared purpose.
By approaching conflicts as crises of clarity and communication rather than battles of will and power, facilitated mediation offers organisations not just a tool for conflict resolution but a pathway toward deeper cohesion and success.
