The Project Management Process - Week 8 Conflict Management

Project Management 8. Managing Project Conflict

Week 8

Q
Why is learning about conflict management relevant?
A
To help develop and facilitate leadership, team building, performance management, and conflict management skills in an IT environment

Required reading:
Darling, J., & Walker, W. (2001). Effective conflict management. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22 (5), 230-242. Retrieved February 10, 2006 from: http://faculty.business.utsa.edu/dwalz/Classes/S2003PhD/Articles%5CMISQ%20Barki%202001.pdf
Recommended reading:
Cadle & Yeates, 2004, Ch 23.

Nature of Conflict
Responding to Conflict
Handling Grievances
Emotional Stress

Nature of Conflict
Handling Grievances
Emotional Stress
4 4

Conflict is a form of relating or interacting where we find ourselves (either as individuals or groups) under some sort of perceived threat to our personal or collective goals.
These goals are usually to do with our interpersonal wants. These perceived threats may be either real or imagined (Condliffe, 1991, p3).
Conflict

Sources of Conflict
(Bisno)
Project Sources of Conflict
(Thamhain & Wilemon)

Sources of Conflict
(Bisno)
Biosocial
Personality and interactional
Structural
Cultural and ideological
Convergence

Bisno’s Sources of Conflict ( Condliffe, 1991 , p6)

Sources of Conflict
(Bisno)
Biosocial
Structural
Convergence

Sources of Conflict
(Bisno)
Biosocial
Structural
Convergence
Project Sources of Conflict
(Thamhain & Wilemon)
Project schedules
Project priorities
Workforce

( Nicholas, 2001 , p519)

Components of Conflict

Values: ideas and feelings about right and wrong (difficult to resolve)

Interests: things that motivate eg. managers and workers have different interests

Emotional: feelings that accompany human interactions eg. anger, fear, reject, and loss

Emotional: feelings that accompany human interactions eg. anger, fear, reject, and loss
Interests: things that motivate eg. managers and workers have different interests
Values: ideas and feelings about right and wrong (difficult to resolve)
Components of Conflict When you have to deal with conflict tackle the emotional issues first then address values and interests

Consequences of conflict

Good Consequences of Conflict

increased creativity

It forces people to clarify their views

It can produce constructive social change

It gives people the opportunity to test their capacities

development of group and organization cohesion

Bad Consequences of Conflict

Violence

breakdown of relationships

polarization of views into static positions

A breakdown of collaborative ventures

destruction of communication

Groupthink

Groupthink is a tendency for strong conformity pressures within groups to lead to the breakdown of critical thinking and encourage premature acceptance of questionable decisions
Groupthink

Lack of conflict is a sign of over conformity.

It is unhealthy when there is no conflict

You need diversity of opinion

Consequences of conflict

Nature of Conflict
Handling Grievances
Emotional Stress
3 3

Conflict Handling Styles
Avoiding
Compromise
Competition
Accommodation
Collaboration

Which conflict handling style will you use?

Project Managers may have a preferred style for managing conflict

Project Managers may have a preferred style for managing conflict
You should use different styles depending on the problem – and get there by using your ability to read situation

avoiding accommodation competition compromise collaboration

Characteristics
ignoring conflicts and hoping they’ll go away
putting problems under consideration or on hold
use of secrecy to avoid confrontation
appeal to bureaucratic rules
Avoiding
When to use
Trivial, small/unimportant issue
no perceived chance of resolution
To allow a cool down period
To allow others to resolve the situation

Characteristics
negotiation
looking for deals and trade-offs
finding satisfactory or acceptable solutions
When to use
goals are important, but not worth effort
opponents with equal power are committed to mutually exclusive goals
achieve temporary settlements to issues
arrive at solutions under time pressure
back-up to collaboration or competition
Compromise

Characteristics
create win-lose situations
use of power plays
forcing submission
When to use
quick, decisive action is vital, very important
unpopular actions eg. cost cutting
issues are vital to company welfare
against people who take advantage of non-competitive behavior
Competition

Characteristics
giving way
submission and fulfillment
When to use
find you are wrong
issues more important to others than yourself
maintain cooperation
build social credits for later on
minimize loss
harmony and stability are important
allow team members to learn from their mistakes
Accommodation

Characteristics
problem-solving carriage
tackle differences
sharing ideas and information
seeing problems and conflicts as challenges
When to use
find an integrative solution when both sets of concerns are important
objective is to learn
Collaboration

2 Methods for Resolving Conflict in a team
Role Clarification Technique (RAT)
Intergroup Conflict Resolution

Role Clarification Technique (RAT)
This is a systematic procedure which involves all team members understanding the requirements of their of own and everyone else's position, duties and expectations
You’ll need to clarify roles for team and individuals; for example via questionnaires (or for project teams - RAM matrices!)

Intergroup Conflict Resolution
Each group should prepare list of what they would like the other groups to start doing, stop doing, and continue to do.
This list narrows he scope of the dispute and makes it easier to work on the core problems.

Nature of Conflict
Handling Grievances
Emotional Stress
2 2

What is a Grievance?

A grievance is any behaviour or action of another member or members of a team, which has or is likely to have an unreasonable negative impact on the ability of a team member to undertake their duties

Most grievances are never raised with management
Why?

Lack of trust Our complaints are trivialized No action gets taken! They only take defensive action

What you should do?

Listen
Discuss
Plan

Nature of Conflict
Handling Grievances
Emotional Stress
1 1

Stress

What is Stress?
A pattern of emotional states and physiological reactions occurring in situations where individuals perceive threats to their important goals that they feel unable to meet
(Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p257).

Effects of Stress
Physical illness
Lack of sleep
Reduction in task performance
Poor quality decision making

Causes of Stress in Projects
Long hours Tight schedules Transient work force High risks Work overload Role uncertainty Social relations

A Stress Survey
How many of these for you
in the last year?

( Greenberg & Baron, 1993, p238 )

Stress Management
1. Organizational Level 2. Individual Level

Stress Management at the Organizational Level
setting reasonable work plans and schedules
delegating responsibility and increasing independence
clarifying responsibilities, authority, and performance criteria
clarifying goals, procedures, and decision criteria
giving consideration and support in leadership

Stress Management for the Individual
stress management program
relaxation training
diversions from work-related problems

Review
Conflict is the opposition of people or forces that develops into an aggressive state or action.
Sources of IT project conflict includes; schedules, priorities and workforce issues.
Conflict can be good and bad.
Conflict handling styles include; avoiding, compromise, competition, accommodation, and collaboration.
Grievance handling strategies include; listen, discuss, and plan. Not dealing with grievances can be harmful to projects.
Work environment improvements and reducing stress is essential to a team’s health and the success of the project.

References
Condliffe, P. (1991). Conflict management – A practical guide . Collingwood, Vic.: RMIT.
Greenberg, J. & Baron, R. (1993). Behavior in organizations (4 th ed.). Syd., NSW: Allyn and Bacon.
Nicholas, J. (2001). Project management for business technology – Principles and practice (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Photo credits Helico assbach _uncommon bootload James Gordon orionoir Steve9091 Destinys Agent Karthik Sudhir bfick kodama BryonRealey Photos come care of Flickr, CC and generous community members. Most photo credits are in the notes section of the page itself. Some are below.

BetterProjects.net
Title page pic care of Helico & CC @ Flickr

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The Project Management Process - Week 8 Conflict Management

by Craig Brown on Sep 14, 2008

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