Most experienced project managers who have planned and managed projects, whether information technology, construction, sustainability, NetZero, or other developmental projects, would say that managing conflict is part of their daily tasks and crucial in successfully delivering project results. Managing an entire project requires dealing with some form of conflict. Conflict in this regard does not always mean negative, even though some conflicts could impact a project negatively and cause multiple problems. In most cases, conflicts on a project should be seen as opportunities to break barriers, learn new things, and enhance the probability of the project's success by applying the proper techniques to keep a balanced atmosphere among team members, resources, stakeholders, or project participants - both internal or external to the project team.
In our personal lives, we may have different ways of dealing with conflicts, and we own those based on our emotions, beliefs, or other human intelligence. However, when managing a project where the expectations of others are highly recognized, and there is a difference in interest and authority as well as unparalleled resources, we must focus on other approaches rather than our emotions or intelligence to maintain and keep a balanced atmosphere on the project. When there is a balanced atmosphere on a project, all stakeholders feel valued, and they can recognize how their efforts contribute to the project's overall goals. In some cases, the success of the team or project is predicted based on how well conflicts are managed. In addition to planning scope, schedule, cost management, or any other component(s) of a project planning phase, a project manager should also develop a plan on how conflicts will be managed to balance the atmosphere. Optionally, this could be part of the risk management plan, assumption, and project constraints log, depending on the relativeness.
What Causes Conflict
Several reasons could be attributed to the causes of conflicts on a project. Some are foreseeable, while others are not. At least for the foreseeable conflicts, the project team can proactively resolve the issue before it occurs, develop a plan to tackle it when it happens, or keep everyone aware that the conflict will occur. However, unforeseeable conflicts arise on a project when the issue(s) leading to the conflicts abruptly happen. It could be due to misunderstanding among team members or personality issues, perceived expectations not being met, unclear expectations, politics, miscommunication, being unaware, egos, team culture, power struggles, schedule, resources, or budget. If you read one of my previous blogs titled "Understanding your Team Behaviors and Traits for Success," I discussed Tuckman's five stages of team development. The second stage is the storming stage, characterized by many conflicts and includes team members' struggles to stand out in unchartered territory, power struggles, confusion, overwhelmingness, or objectivity. A project manager can identify these traits and apply the appropriate leadership style to reduce conflicts and encourage a collaborative attitude among team members.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Conflict
As I stated earlier, experiencing conflicts on a project does not always take a negative angle. Conflicts also add value to the project team when managed appropriately. Let's look at some advantages and disadvantages of Conflict.
Advantages
These advantages are only recognized when one views conflict from a positive perspective and uses the proper methods to resolve it.
Create an opportunity for open dialogue among project participants.
Improve performance, productivity, and collaborations.
Increase respect and build trusting relationships among team members.
Eliminate barriers or obstacles.
Create a balanced atmosphere among project participants or stakeholders.
Establish clarity on expectations.
Promote a culture of working towards a common goal.
Create new opportunities for fresh ideas.
Disadvantages
These disadvantages are the first things recognized when a conflict is identified and will remain if not dealt with using the proper methods.
Established barriers among project participants that potentially disrupt collaboration.
Creates distrust and dishonesty and reduces confidence among project participants.
It threatens the success of the project delivery and team performance.
Disrupt productivity or gain no value on the project.
Creates delays in the project schedule and potentially increases the project cost unexpectedly.
It makes influential stakeholders lose interest in the project.
It establishes a toxic working environment.
It increases risk factors that the project team must deal with.
Methods of Dealing with Conflict Appropriately
A project manager's capability to solve conflicts enhances the chances of success on their project and keeps stakeholders happy while maintaining a balanced atmosphere. Effective decision-making, leadership, interpersonal, influencing, and observation skills are all attributes of a good project manager prioritizing resolving conflicts on their projects. These skill sets enable the project manager to set clear expectations by communicating the goals and objectives of the project, understand their team members' core capabilities and weaknesses, make analytical decisions, consider the prospects of others about the situations, convince stakeholders, or enhance team performance.
The PMBOK 5th Edition explained five methods of resolving conflicts. These methods are:
Withdraw or Avoidance
This is when the project manager avoids getting involved in the situation, leaving it to be resolved by the team members involved in the conflict or by others. This method only works when the conflict does not pose a direct or indirect negative threat to the project, and the project manager wants to see if the team members can deal with challenges, learn, and embrace collaborations. If the conflict poses a direct or indirect threat to the project, the project manager should not adopt this method; instead, other appropriate methods should be used to keep the project on course.
Smooth or Accommodate
This is when the project manager uses some form of bias to establish agreement rather than considering objectives from all sides. It is usually a Win-Lose situation, but if this method is used properly, it could result in a Win-Win situation for the parties involved in the Conflict. However, it is not a definite resolution. The project manager should observe the outcomes of the resolution carefully and be ready to step in if another conflict arises.
Compromise or Reconciled
This method creates a fair balance and a Loss-Loss situation since all parties do not get everything they want, even though it brings some level of comfort to the parties involved in the conflict. There must be some trade-off from both parties to maintain effective collaboration and keep the project going. Compromising also encourages respect among team members because they value each other's efforts and points of view enough to compromise something in favor of the project.
Collaborate or Problem Solving
This method is used when the project manager allows the team to have open dialogues and discuss their differences. It involves considering multiple viewpoints to find a feasible or suitable solution that yields consensus and commitment. This method results in a Win-Win situation and enhances trust and honesty among team members, contributing to the project team's high performance.
Force or Directing
This method is used when project managers force one party's viewpoint over another, usually at the other party's expense. It usually results in a Win-Loss situation. At what point would a project manager push one's viewpoint at the expense of another? But think about a stakeholder with high interest, authority, or influence on a project who wants their expectations met by any means possible. Suppose the project manager cannot find a compromise. In that case, they are tasked with meeting stakeholder expectations and delivering the project according to stakeholder expectations. It will result in pushing the stakeholder viewpoint over the other party. In some cases, this method is applied for the best interest of the entire project and the end goal.
Choosing the Right Approach
When a conflict is identified on a project or escalated to the project manager's attention, they should allow the team members to resolve it themselves. This approach will help build a collaborative or problem-solving attitude among team members. However, if the team members cannot resolve the Conflict, they must step in before it escalates into more problems. Moreover, the project manager would first need to understand the conflict and, secondly, decide on the appropriate method to resolve the conflict. Selecting the proper method to resolve a conflict would depend on factors such as how intense the conflict is, what scheduling or budgetary constraints it has on the project, the impact it has on the team performance or culture, the type of risk it poses to the project or quality of delivery or the assume positions of the parties involved.
Regardless of whichever method the project manager uses to resolve conflict, they are responsible for ensuring that conflict is resolved in ways that will not threaten the project but enhance its delivery and increase the chances of success. Another way in which the project manager can avoid conflict and maintain a balanced atmosphere is by keeping a transparent outlook of the project by establishing clear goals and responsibilities, communicating the direction of the project, working with the team to identify assumptions and constraints, balancing the use of resources through adequate allocations without overlapping responsibilities, addressing risk factors with diligence, encourage open communication, keeping team members informed of all critical decisions or changes on the project.
Conclusion
Conflict on a project is inevitable; it happens. Everyone on the project can participate in resolving conflicts. Still, it is the responsibility of the project manager to resolve conflicts through their authority and the use of appropriate methods. When a conflict is resolved appropriately, it restores trust, harmony, honesty, and confidence among team members, increasing their commitment to collaborate and deliver the project result while keeping stakeholders happy and maintaining a balanced atmosphere on the project.
Thanks for Reading!
Reference:
PMBOK 5th Edition, Project Human Resource Management, Manage Project Team Tools and Techniques.
Rita's Mulcahy's, 9th Edition, Resource Management, Conflict Management.