Mediation is familiar to most people as a means of resolving family and labor management disputes, but it also has been used to settle contract, interpersonal, human resource, and commercial conflicts. Mediation involves the intervention of an independent, impartial third person, or mediator, into a dispute to assist the parties in negotiating jointly acceptable resolutions of issues at stake. The mediator facilitates communication and negotiation but does not impose a decision on the parties involved.