Conflict Management Strategies in Project Development

The assignment analyzes a Scottish Parliament project case study, identifying communication implications, cultural, and political issues as primary causes of conflicts. It recommends collaborating, compromising, and accommodating strategies for conflict management. The role of project managers is emphasized in diagonal communication to understand functional departments' needs. The importance of verbal and non-verbal communication, KPIs, risk registers, and benchmarking are highlighted to improve project outcomes.

Conflict Management
Strategy: B
(Modification)

Introduction
This report helps to justify the conflict management strategy by different conflict
resolution approaches based on the scenarios. Then, communication implications
based on the negotiations and conflict will be made to rectify the issues which can be
negative or positive in terms of conflict resolution approaches. As the Scottish
parliament Report by Fraser suggests that there is a huge loss in the project when the
main stakeholders and professionals are unable to get involved or ignored during the
project due to the communication implication or can be because of language barriers in
some projects. The main loss in any project is the loss of time and money in which the
communication gap plays a very important role. So, a conflict management and risk
management blueprint should be made accessible to the professionals who are given
the responsibilities after the Key performance Indicator (KPI’S). A conflict management
in the process of limiting negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive
aspects of conflict. The main objective of conflict management is te enhance learning of
outcomes which includes performance and effectiveness of organisation. A proper
conflict management and risk management has to be followed in a company for
maintaining a positive environment at workplace.
The deaths of keys clients like Scotland’s first Prime Minister ‘Donald Dewar’ and the
Architect ‘Enric Miralles’ gave the project a major setback which resulted in the increase
in cost and time for the project as technical professionals found it difficult to
communicate.
3 main conflict resolution approaches that are used in this report are as follows:
(The Digital Project Manager, 2018) Conflict at workplace is inevitable as there are
different employees who are working in the organisation and they have different
personalities, opinions and goals. Conflict management is the core trainings offered to
mangers and supervisors. Conflict handling is a necessary skill that is required by the
management and the key for preventing from it from hindering individual's growth and
development. The conflict management is a five step process and these processes are
described below-
Identify the source of the conflict- If the managers have core information about cause of
conflict, they can easily resolve the conflict in less time. A series of questions must be

followed to identify the cause of conflict. A manager or leader must provide chance to
both sides of story before punishing anybody.
Look beyond the incident- It is perspective on situation that creates anger to fester and
it leads to disruptive- evidence of a conflict. The source of a conflict can be minor
problem but it causes a lot of stress among individuals.
Request solutions- The managers should consider viewpoint of both parties involved in
conflicts. The next step is to change situations which leads to conflicts. The managers
work as a mediator while resolving conflicts so he jas to be a good listener and good
reader of body language. It is the responsibility of managers and leaders to stop fight of
employees and start cooperating. This means resolving of conflict for better
performance of the organisation.
Identify solutions both disputants can support- The manager has to find merits of
various ideas and make effective decision for the benefit of company. This requires a
great cooperation and collaboration for effectively addressing team issues and
problems.
Agreement- The manager must know about the exact reason behind conflict. An
agreement is made for protecting rights of individuals working in the company. This
agreement helps in putting action plan and prevent conflicts from arising in future.
 Accommodating: In this resolution, one can subordinate his/her interest to the
interest of others depending upon the situations.
 Collaborating: This is the main approach for working together for resolving a
conflict.
 Comprising: In this the conflict can be resolved by agreeing on a legitimate
decision.
 The below table can is used to identify the type of issue in terms of project
planning in the following report.
Conflict Type of Issue
1 Neutral, Negotiable
2 Irreconcilable
3 Irreconcilable
4 Irreconcilable
5 Negotiable

 Different types of communication to determine the communication implications
are internal, external, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, formal and informal
depending upon the different scenarios. (PM and Types, 2018)
 The project management strategy is basically to meet regularly, be inclusive,
show respect to every person irrespective of hierarchical order and transparent.
A management spends 25-40% time addressing employee conflicts in a project.
Important Concepts:
Types of conflict resolution approaches are as follows:
Competing: In this resolution approach, the person will try to resolve the issue through
making others believe that he is the right person. He wants to win or defend his position
in the industry.
Accommodating: In this resolution, as discussed above a person can subordinate
his/her interests for the other person according to the situation in a project. This concept
is the opposite of competing resolution approach.
Avoiding: In this resolution approach, a person tends to ignore or withdraw from the
conflict or issue arising at the time of the project.
Collaborating: In this resolution approach the person tends to collaborate with his
fellow mates to resolve the issue by working together as group. This is the opposite
approach of avoiding.
Compromising: In this resolution approach a person can compromise by agreeing to
an acceptable solution. This resolution falls in between the resolution competing and
avoiding.
Maturity and immaturity theory of conflict resolution – It is one of the theory
help in conflict resolution as people have to be mature with the increasing levels of
opportunities as well as responsibilities. Within organisation for the sake of efficiency
jobs are breakdown within specialities, narrow scopes and duties are given to
employees which are expected for performing well. As a result, employees don't get to
use all of their talents and abilities, and feel constrained and unable to develop. Such
practices result in conflicts within staff members and organisation. Thus, within such
practices it is important for staff members to behave maturity because it will the best

solution of conflicts. With the assistance of respective theory it has been analysed that
personnels have to behave in mature way within business firm.
Conflict Management Strategies Using Conflict Resolution And their
communication implications
Conflict 1: The initial management is needed at the time of site planning and selection
of architect. Instead of the meeting with the Project sponsor, the project manager have
issues because of the influence of Mr. Dewar.
Approach: Accommodating and Collaborating management Resolution approach
can be used at the same time for this conflict. On the other hand, there is another
approach which can be used to resolve the issues and i.e. address the issue privately.
Scenario: This situation arises because of the fast track decision making by the First
Prime Minister (Mr. Donald Dewar) which gave just 1 week to designers for working on
the design and finalise it for the competition. This made it very difficult for designers to
understand cultural and structural aspects at the same time of the design. This needs
accommodating approach in case of indirect effect on project manager from Mr. Dewar
and collaborating approach from project sponsor to project manager. The project
manager is more technical than the project sponsor.
Communication Implications & effect: The communication at the time of this conflict
is Internal communication which states that the most part of the communication is done
in between the main professionals and not every stakeholder is taken under
consideration which raised conflicts due to behavioural and cultural needs. That means,
it requires proper communication where privacy is must. With the help of this, it can
easily be said communication could easily fulfil all the needs and requirements in
specified time frame. That means, project manager would require to communicate with
Mr. Donald Dewar in private so that he/she could directly understand the behaviour at
the same time and any sort of issues could easily be resolved right on time.
Vertical, Formal and External Communication can be used because it states that
meetings with different hierarchical levels, blueprints of the project implications
through report or presentations and meetings with other stakeholders (not only
with team members) respectively.

There are several stakeholders involved within this scenario such as Mr. Donald
Dewar, Designer, competitors and stakeholders. This conflict have positive impact on
competitors as they need not to worry about the upcoming designing. Moreover,
respective president Mr. Donald Dewar has taken fast track decision which may give
negative impact because decision taken like this may be harmful. Along with this,
designer and staff members are getting suffered because they have to work in hurry
that may result in several mistakes.
Conflict 2: The budget report of the project and other major documentations are also
been processed by the project sponsor without the involvement of the project manager
which raised the conflicts in cost estimations as well.
Approach: The collaborating and compromising resolution approach can be used
in the case of this conflict.
Scenario: At the time when the budget report and other cost estimates were made in
the project, the project manager was left out of the meetings due to the management
superiority of the project sponsor. The ideas and efforts of the project manager were not
addressed properly even after he was technically sounder than the project sponsor. The
case of collaborating and compromising resolution must be used to settle the
conflicts and would have saved the extra cost in cost estimations if every professional
including the project manager was included. The quantity surveyor was appointed
urgently when in a need and communication gap with the project manager, project
sponsor and the Quality surveyor made it difficult to follow the procedures and
benchmarking.
Theories to get major solution: Pause, breath and decide on the next step, this
approach is useful to led judging mind of the person and other entity. This is a way to
solve the issues with the help of the common relationship and led structuring of interest
between project sponsor and manager. This is one of the conflict resolution strategy,
which is the prominent player into the case.
Communication implications & effects: less communication at this conflict was more
for the personal relations between the project manager and project sponsor. The
communication was informal and internal in case of project manager and sponsor but

was very nicely documented for budget report and this shows the relationship between
the project sponsor and project manager.
Diagonal, formal and external communication must be used as it states the
professionals from different set of departments & working environment should
know every project aspect, letter & presentational representation is necessary
and Inclusion of every stakeholder whether the work is important or not
according to an individual respectively.
In this conflict major stakeholder included are project manager, project sponsor
and the Quality surveyor. Because procedures and benchmarks were not followed in
proper manner. Project manager and sponsor faced problem due to not followed proper
process as well as benchmarks and it result in failure of project and occurring extra
cost. Along with this, it has been find out by quality surveyor that project is not done
according to setted benchmarks.
Conflict 3: The working of the architect from Edinburgh and Barcelona at the same time
during the project. The issue of two bases raised the logistical problem for the supplier
with was neglected by the project sponsor.
Approach: The Compromising resolution approach must be used in this conflict. And
collaborating in terms of project sponsor, architect and project manager.
Scenario: The scenario in this conflict was the behavioural issue of the project sponsor,
which led to the ignorance and underestimating the suggestions provided by the project
manager. The architect has his base design team in 2 different places i.e., one in
Edinburgh and the other one in Barcelona which made the situation difficult for the
project manager to directly get into the head of the architect because of the less issues
discussed by the project sponsor (directly in contact with architect) with project
manager. The compromising resolution in terms of project manager and project
sponsor to listen each other’s suggestion and then coming to a neutral result.
Collaborating in terms of architect, project sponsor and project manager due to the
technical and management experience.
Communication implications & effects: The communication gap in this conflict is
because of the direct contact of the architect with the project sponsor and not with the
project manager. So internal, horizontal and informal communication is used in this

conflict. Horizontal communication is in between the same organizational level
professionals.
Vertical, formal and external communication can be used to solve this issue
because of the lack of communication with the other professionals in the project.
The communication can be justified and taken to a conclusion by the vote ballet, if the
negative communication is more when writing a letter or report to a person. Action Plan
and future implications can be discussed by doing formal meetings. Regular use of risk
registers can help to solve this communication gap as the person assigned can help in
giving the report and suggesting a solution for help.
In this major conflict is with the behaviour of stakeholder i.e., project sponsor.
Another stakeholder is project manager who is facing problem of getting ignored by
sponsor. Although, architect is stakeholder who had divided team within 2 different
place because project manager face issue because sponsor has not discussed each
and every aspect with them.
Determine the most appropriate medium to deal with the issue
It is essential to determine the best medium for dealing any conflict. In work
related matters, managers should know how to decide what is the best choice to reduce
conflict. There are some people who do better at chat or email. These gives chance to
carefully think and edit the statements made by individuals.
Conflict 4: The process of appointing the Construction Manager and the
communication gap between the EMBT and RMJM is a major conflict in between project
sponsor and project manager.
Approach: The collaborating and compromising resolution approach is used to
solve this conflict and negotiation to it.
Scenario: There are two scenarios in this conflict 1) The process of appointing the
construction manager appointment didn’t involve any suggestion from the project
manager instead of having way more experience in technical aspects than the project
sponsor. 2) EMBT And RMJM provided different solution according to the RIBA Plan of
Work 2013 to the problem because of the communication gap between the project
manager and project sponsor. The rise of this conflict occurred when the whole
procurement is based on the appointment of the construction manager.

Communication implications & effects: The EMBT and RMJM with project manager
has informal, horizontal and internal communication which raise the conflicts much
more. The intimation to the project manager regarding the tendering and budgeting was
late and his selection criteria was neglected due to the influence of project sponsor.
Vertical and formal communication must be used to solve the conflict. Lots of
paper work in case of initial conflicts management and to organise group meetings to
deal with the future implications. Writing letters and sending copies to every
professional working. Involvement of project management is must to measure clash
detection and software learning to understand working of every professional. Software
used spreadsheet and outcomes can also help and can be the best mode of
communication.
Strategies for the solution: In this conflict, open communication is necessary to
fulfil gap analysis related to communication for effective appointment of the construction
manager , without any kind of communication between EMBT and RMJN. This is
necessary to have open way with project sponsor, pursuing the process of getting the
right construction manager for the purpose of the construction and sit fair role.
Conflict 5: Bovis was chosen as a construction contractor after the competition by the
project sponsor after the project manager failed him at the tender stage because of the
high cost of his estimations.
Approach: Collaborating approach must be used by the project sponsor and project
manager.
Scenario: The project sponsor in this case appointment Bovis as a construction
manager without consulting the project manager. The project manager after the
tendering stage ignored the construction contractor because he was not the lowest in
case of cost estimation and still the project sponsor called the contractor back which led
to conflict and priority issue. The collaborating approach for resolution will help the
industry in maintaining pace with the project and agreeing to a set benchmarked terms
and conditions. This will help to set the project brief in further documents as well when
budgeting and important documentations whenever they will be made.

Communication implications & effects: the communication implications in this stage
of the conflict is truly about sitting together and agreeing to a specific terms and
conditions of the project. In this informal and internal approach is used because of not
involving people who will challenge the client side in any case. This was the reason that
the project manager felt that there is no need to be in the project if his decisions are
overlooked.
There are mainly three stakeholders in this conflict such as Construction manager,
contractor and project sponsor. Bovis construction manager face issue because they
had not discussed with project manager and started working on it. Along with this,
project manager after the tendering stage ignored the construction contractor because
he was not the lowest in case of cost estimation and still the project sponsor called the
contractor back which led to conflict as well as priority issue between them.
Benchmarking and use of risk register
Benchmarking is the good concept when going to the big public projects to help the
international stakeholders and clients to resolve the conflicts and come to a mutual
decision making which was lacking in terms of the Scottish parliament project because
of the project sponsor taking all the decisions without the concern of various
stakeholders. Benchmarking will be helpful in the concept of selection of Bovis
(construction Contractor) by the project sponsor after the project manager ignored
because of the high rates and according to the organisation’s policy, lowest price in the
bidding must be given the contractor.
Risk register can be used for conflict management and responsibilities separation for
the individuals which can help prevent time and cost loss. The risk register contains
risks, its main cause, division by rankings and likelihood of the risks. After that the
responsibilities are divided for various professionals who are well known to solve the
issue efficiently and in less time during the project. And at last the responsibility transfer,
if the professional thinks that the likelihood of the event is high and can’t be solved by
him/her, the responsibility can be transferred to other professionals or new

appointments are made. The risk manager and conflict manager are very important in
the projects because of the modernization and eco-friendly construction.
When talking over about best practice of the Benchmarking, Xerox narrative is a best
example of it, as it has been led generation of suitable example to get to known what
benchmarking will be used by this company to enhance suitable results and outcomes.
Issues fined: Xerox was working under some kind of unethical working and also acts as
change agent creating central agent and also led to ineffective asset management. The
Xerox narrative and logic of best practice has been acted benchmark as an
institutionalised in Aldridge award criteria have formed a hegemony reinforced by the
subsequent Aldridge winners. They were in reality seemed to confirm Moore's law and
observation that a density of silicon chips closely follows a curve, which actually given
amount of silicon. Technology here is necessary to enhance common relationship with
an individual to enhance business unity or king of the unity. Implementation of best
practices with benchmarked help in setting guidelines, ethics as well as ideas which
help in presenting efficient or prudent course of action. Although, in company
benchmarks and best practices are set by governing bodies or by the management
team of company.
Figure 1: Example of risk register.

Conclusion
As per the Scottish parliament project, the main cause of the conflicts and informality in
the structure of the project was mainly because of the communication implications,
cultural and political issues as well. The main conflict management strategy as per this
report are collaborating, compromising and accommodating because of the need of the
project according to the conflicts and due to the management shown by the project
sponsor. The role of project manager should be more towards the diagonal type of
communication due to the need of understanding the various functional departments in
the organization which will unable him to take to the main stakeholders directly without
the interruption of the client’s side. The learning from this project is the real experience
of industry conflicts which will always be there whether there will be a small or large
public sector project. The communication should be done through verbal and non-verbal
ways but should be effective and must involve every single stakeholder whether the
suggestions are important or not. The blueprint and action plan should be initially made
to help with the future conflict management, risk management and implications. Use of
Cashflows and charts based on time value of money can help to reduce cost
implications. The use of KPI’s, risk register and responsibilities alteration. Benchmarking
can compare the number of years to the cost implication during the whole project and
terms and conditions for every individual and even the organization.
References

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management-skills.com/different-types-of-communication.html [Accessed 12Dec. 2018]