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This article is based on an original collaboration experience between a sociologist and mediators. The aim of the collaboration was to carry out participatory research, followed by the implementation of mediation in conflicts at work within social and medico-social institutions. Interviews and questionnaires were carried out in order to understand: the conceptions of conflict at work that management teams and front office professionals have; what their prior knowledge, expectations and representations of mediation are; what effect does the mediation process on conflicts at work have. Based on works of the sociology of organizations and the sociology of professional relations, the article refers to the concept of recognition in understanding the dynamics of conflict at work within social institutions, and the role that mediation can have in enabling dialogue at work and throughout work-related activity.