Conflict - Definition, Causes and Resolutions - Part I

Definition of Conflict

Conflict in a workplace or a project team can be defined as a disagreement among the team or between the client and vendor resources or between the team and the stakeholders, where both the sides have a conflicting point of view, and either side is not willing to give up their point of view in the situation, the way it stands.

Types of Conflicts

While the word “Conflict” have a negative connotation to it, at times, conflict is a good thing. It helps in the following ways:

• It keeps the spirit of competition alive and thus, does not allow complacency to set in
• It helps highlight the weaknesses in the team in terms of who is a less productive 

During my time as a Project Manager, I have always welcomed a conflict as a way to get ahead of things and on top of things that would otherwise have gone under my radar. Such conflicts that can be handled in a positive and useful manner are known as Constructive Conflicts.

The other type of conflicts are the Destructive Conflicts. These typically involve a negative stakeholder who prevents a Win-Win resolution to be arrived at. Such conflicts are mostly a results of a power play with an ulterior motive in mind, and are in general not healthy for the team.

Conflict Participants

A conflict typically consists of three players –

• Persecutor – This is the person or party who is aggressive and self-assured, and seeks to impose their ideas upon the Victim.
• Victim – This is a person or a party who is relatively docile and is expected to give up its point of view in the favor of the will or the Persecutor.
• Rescuer – This is a person or party who strengthens the position of the Victim by passively opposing the Persecutor, at the same time having no active role in the conflict or its resolution.

Together they form the “Karpman’s Drama Triangle”, which is the reason why most conflicts need a third party (like the Project Manager) to step in and break the cycle of dependency between the Persecutor-Victim-Rescuer, so that the conflict can be resolved or prevented from escalation.

  

Conflict Environment

Some environments foster conflicts more than others. Whether a conflict will be escalated or resolved is most often dependent on the environmental factors, because once the PVR triangle has been set, external interference plays a vital role in determining how the situation would play out. In most cases it is upto the Project Manager to create an environment where constructive conflict is conditionally invited and destructive conflict is thoroughly discouraged

Conflict Sources

Most of the conflicts in the workplace can be attributed to one or more of the following causes:

• Stakeholder Interests – The difference in the goals and interests of stakeholders can often create conflict situations. For example, if the client is looking for best quality, but the vendor is focusing on cost minimization, a conflict is bound to occur
• Changes in Scope – If the scope of a project keeps changing, it leads to a general feeling of discord due to the lack a definite direction within the team
• Changes in Schedule – If the schedule keeps changing based on business requirements, it fosters a feeling of frustration and stagnancy among the team members, which eventually eructs into a conflict
• Disagreement in Technical Approach – If the key members of the team are at loggerheads about the primary technical approaches to be followed in the project, a PVR triangle can be created very quickly in the team
• One Sided Communication – If the flow is information is one sided between any two stakeholders in the project, it can lead to major communication gaps thus leading to oversights, misunderstandings and conflicts
• Misdirected Focus – Most discussions or disagreements turn into conflicts when the parties involved fail to focus on the problem at hand, but digress into focusing on counterproductive items like ego, power-play, political gains etc. This is what moves a constructive conflict towards becoming a destructive one.

Conclusion

In this part of this article series I have addressed the definition of Conflict, its causes and the various catalysts. In the next part, I will be addressing the various techniques that can be used for resolving conflicts efficiently in your projects.

As always, any comments or queries are welcome.