Conflict Management
Conflict is as inevitable in a project environment as change seems to be. When project team members interact during the course of completing their tasks and responsibilities, there is always a potential for conflict. In fact, it is virtually impossible for people with diverse background skills and norms to work together; make decisions, and try to meet project goals and objectives without conflict. “Project managers must identify, analyze, and evaluate both positive and negative values of conflict and their effect on performance.” (Dixon). They must learn how and when to stimulate conflict and how to use it to increase the performance of project team members. Conflict need not have destructive consequences. Attitudes and conflict management styles play an important role in determining whether such conflict will lead to destructive or mutually beneficial outcomes.
The response to conflict in the traditional view is to “reduce, suppress, or eliminate it.” (Dixon) The manager is responsible for freeing the project of any conflict, often using whatever is needed to approach and fix the conflict. Although that approach only works sometimes, it is not generally effective; when they are suppressed, the root causes cannot be identified, and the potentially positive aspects of conflict cannot emerge. This traditional view of conflict is still widely held because industrial and business institutions that have a strong influence on our society concur with it. “This negative view of conflict played a role in the development of labor unions.” (Dixon) Violent or disruptive confrontations between workers and management led people to conclude that conflict was always detrimental and should therefore be avoided. The most common types of conflicts in the work place are interpersonal conflicts but there are also others. ”Goal-oriented conflicts are associated