Dealing with conflict in project management

Abstract

It is of interest for the project manager to deliver a high-quality result on time and on budget. No projects are executed without conflicts and they have the potential to derail a project completely if ignored or improperly managed e.g. via loss of profit, time, quality, creativity or morale. On the other hand, proper conflict management can lead to positive change such as improved respect and understanding for one another. The competent project manager should therefore possess knowledge that allows him or her to identify and classify a conflict, resolve a conflict, and design a working environment that minimizes the risk of conflicts occurring. A conflict is spawned from multiple variables such as interpersonal relations, stress, or the difficulty of the task at hand. As a consequence of the complexity, no best practice exists. A strategy for resolving conflict may be applicable in one scenario, but useless or even damaging in another. The project manager must be able to analyze the situation and chose the correct approach to conflict management based on the information he or she has available. In doing so, a fundamental understanding of human psychology and cultural differences is a plus cf. cross-cultural management.

Definition

 Conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. Conflict as a concept can help explain many aspects of social life and 
 social death such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests, and fight between individuals, groups, or organizations. A conflict can be internal (within oneself) or external 
 (between two or more individuals). Without proper social arrangement or resolution, conflicts in social settings can result in stress or tension among stakeholders.

Looking from a project management perspective, conflicts can be internal e.g. interpersonal conflicts or between groups e.g. if two project groups both claim utilization of scarce resources. This article focuses on the former example, as that is a more typical scenario for the project manager. The latter dispute will often move upwards the organizational hierarchy. When dealing with the latter type of conflict, Pondy’s Model of Organizational Conflict provides a framework for assessing and acting accordingly to the type of conflict.

Why focus on conflicts?

Project members, including the project manager, might be tempted to shy away from conflict in the fear of dissociation, being wrong, hostility, breaking up interpersonal relationships, etc. This is ill-advised for several reasons. For starters, a conflict that is not resolved tends to snowball or escalate, meaning that the sooner the problem is addressed, the better. If not addressed, the project manager might start to notice the following signs of a looming conflict:

• Productivity drops off
• Quality deteriorates
• Sick leave increases
• Employees quit
• There is a bad mood and many people grumble.
• Unease and irritation in the work place.
• Sleep deprivation among the employees.

Finally, by not solving the conflict, it is impossible to reap the benefits of proper conflict management. These benefits might be:

• Intimacy
• Respect and understanding
• Appreciation
• A better working environment
• Positive examples for future reference
• That others realize you are right
• Time and energy
• Better interpersonal relationships

Reasons for conflicts occuring

Conflicts are the product of countless variables. A seemingly insignificant event will affect the mood and behavior of people on a subconscious level. For instance, teachers grading papers have been shown to give statistical significantly higher grades immediately after eating lunch, as they happen to be in a better mood. Similarly, this is why a formula for the birth of conflicts does not exist. There at too many factors. Even though it is impossible to articulate the reason for a conflict prior to its occurrence, some areas tend to spew more conflicts than others. By knowing and understanding these areas, the project manager can identify and solve conflicts faster. Studies have shown the following points to lead to the most conflicts:

• Unresolved disagreement that escalated to an emotional level
• Poor organizational structure
• Personality clashes / differences in values and goals
• Poor communication / miscommunication
• Lack of cordial relationships between labor and management.

The project manager should be particularly alert regarding the potential for conflict if the project work starts venturing into these areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVQJdIrDJ0

Dimensions of conflict

Conflicts in a project-setting can be divided into one of four basic dimensions. It is noteworthy that in a real-life setting, a conflict can easily be the sum of different dimensions. Nonetheless, it is valuable to understand the different dimensions, as they have different levels of severity and should be tackled in different manners.

1. Instrumental dimensions
2. Dimensions of interest
3. Dimensions of value
4. Personal dimensions

Instrumental dimensions occur when disagreeing about objective and methods i.e. what should be done, and how should it be done? Here, parties might disagree and must come up with a solution. These conflicts often occur and can lead to creative decision making. Due to their normality, they rarely lead to animosity. The approach to this type of conflict is problem solving with the purpose of finding a solution.

Dimensions of interest occur when competing for resources. This can happen between project teams e.g. competing for machinery or internally in a project team e.g. competing for space in the project room. The approach to this conflict should be negotiation to come up with an agreement that settles the dispute.

Dimensions of value occur when values of the parties are at stake, which the parties are willing to stand up for. Examples include religion or political belief. This type of conflict is seldom related to the project and has a high potential for creating emotional response and a negative impact on the project. As we cannot negotiate our beliefs, dialogue with the purpose of mutual understanding is the goal here.

The personal dimension is the type of conflict that hits the involved people the hardest and has the most potential for disrupting the project-work. Again, dialogue and mutual understanding is the end-goal here to create a better and healthier atmosphere.

Conflict stages

As previously stated, conflict can lead to positive change if managed correctly. It is very much a case of identifying and dealing with the conflict in an early stage. In doing so, the conflict escalation model can be applied. The model, developed by Australian conflict expert Friedrich Glasl, states that all conflicts will move through some general steps, each with its own dynamics cf. figure 1.

A brief explanation of the stages are: Stage 1: Tension

Stage 2: Debate

Stage 3: Acts instead of words

Stage 4: Coalitions

Stage 5: Face loss

Stage 6: Threatening strategies

Stage 7: Limited destruction

Stage 8: Splintering

Stage 9: Together into the abyss

The win-win, win-lose and lose-lose dimensions illustrate ones willingness to sacrifice their own

Conflict management styles

Whenever a conflict is looming in a project, the project manager is faced with a choice regarding how to address the conflict. To illustrate this dynamic, the Conflict Mode Instrument developed by Kenneth W. Thomas and Ralph H. Kilmann can be applied. A good project manager must understand in what instances the different styles are applicable.

The cooperative axis speaks addresses to what extent the other party’s goal is achieved, while the assertive axis states whether one’s individual goals are achieved. The table below highlights some scenarios where the different styles of management can be used, and some scenarios where the project manager should steer clear of them.

Conflict style inventories	Pros	Cons
Forcing	When decisive action is needed When unpopular and determined actions must be taken	May destroy inter-personal relations when fulfilling own goals on someone else’s account
Collaborating	When important decisions with long-term effects are to be taken	Often time-consuming, thus not suitable for trivial problems
Compromising	Good if pressed for time	May lead to two somewhat discontented parties
Avoiding	Postpone a conflict until emotions have cooled off. When dealing with trivial problems and more important issues should have priority	The conflict is not resolved
Accomodating	When collaboration is more important than the reason for conflict. When the problem is more important for the other part	Accommodation may deprive respect. When important issues are at stake

Minimizing conflict as the project manager

As previously stated, it is impossible to avoid conflicts altogether in any project-setting. However, it is possible for the project manager to minimize the risk of severe conflicts occurring. A common cause of conflict is dissatisfaction with the organizational structure from the workers point of view. Even though it is not something that the project manager may decide, he or she should still identify its potential for issues.

If a company applies a matrix organizational structure, employees become so-called two-boss employees, as they answer both to the functional manager and product team manager. This structure can lead to a dimensions of interest conflict, where different managers compete for claiming resources and attention to their projects. Ideally, this type of conflict is solved in a logical manner via tools such as critical path analysis and multi-project resource scheduling. If a settlement cannot be made, support from higher-level management can be called upon. Chairman portion in text.

//Relate to WBS //Relate to CCM //Relate the 5 styles to the PM book  9.4