This guide has been prepared with a view to helping developing countries in their effort to promote the orderly settlement of industrial disputes through conciliation. Its aim is to meet the needs not only of professional or full-time conciliators but also of industrial relations officers, labour officers or labour inspectors, if conciliation is among their duties, by suggesting forms of behaviour, approaches and attitudes that will enable them to carry out their functions more effectively. The guide is intended to be of use to conciliators working in different countries and under different national conditions, and is based on contribution prepared by high-level mediators and conciliators from the United Kingdom and the United States as well as on information derived by the ILO from the findings of a number of regional seminars and from more immediate sources. The book is primarily designed for use as teaching material for the training of newly appointed conciliators and as a guide for working conciliators who have not had previous training.