Importance of Interpersonal Conflict Management Skills in Project Management

This research proposal aims to understand the importance of interpersonal conflict management skills in project management. It discusses the impact of interpersonal conflicts on organizational performance, reasons behind interpersonal conflicts, measures to reduce them, and the importance of soft skills in managing interpersonal conflicts during projects.

Unit - PPMP20015
Research in Project Management
Assignment 2A
Outline Research Proposal
STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT ID:
UNIT COORDINATOR: Dr Samer Skaik
TUTOR NAME:Dr Lindsay Castell
CAMPUS: Perth Campus
DATE OF SUBMISSION:

Table of Contents
1. A description of the final research topic.............................................................................2
2. A brief rationale to justify the need and significance for undertaking the project.............3
3. Research questions or hypothesis.......................................................................................5
4. A brief Methodology..........................................................................................................6
5. Expected research findings and their implication...............................................................8
6. Limitations of the Study and Recommendations for Future Research.............................10
References................................................................................................................................10

1. A description of the final research topic
Nowadays, all companies are doing their business worldwide. Globalization is the
global interaction of economies via trading and investment for increasing the international
competitiveness (Passaris 2006). Owing to globalization there is an increase in the cultural
diversity in an organisation. It has been indicated by many researches in past that cultural
differences between people always creates conflict, tension and difficulties in an
organisation(Gabriela, Marta et al. 2016). Especially, if the people work in a project as a
small group and they interact with each other very closely the probability of conflict also
increases manifold times. It leads to highly sensitive and conflicting workplace environment,
for which a project manager with effective interpersonal conflict management skills is
required (Roark 1978). Several kinds of management and decision-making skills are required
to manage an organisation and to accomplish the projects effectively. However more than
that, one requires interpersonal conflict management skill and appropriate leadership style in
the project manager, who is directly dealing with the cultural diversity and intercultural
adjustment (Gabriela, Marta et al. 2016).
The objective of this research is to understand the importance of the interpersonal
conflict management skill, for the project management student who is studying in the CQU.
They would be the future Project manager, and henceforth, it’s significant to identify what
they think about the interpersonal conflicts and how do they manage it in group works.

2. A brief rationale to justify the need and significance for undertaking the
project
Conflicts and disagreements over some issues at work place are not very uncommon
and when a situation like this occurs, it results in ill feelings, unhappiness and frustration
amongst the people at work place. Most of the times, these conflicts get escalated to huge
level rather than being resolved which not only affects the work place but also personal lives
of the employees (Wai, 2015). Interpersonal conflicts occur due to difference of opinions,
procedural problems and disagreement over approaches to work and, cultural diversity also
plays a significant role in the occurrence of interpersonal conflicts (Adu, Isaac &Muah et al.,
2015).
Furthermore, interpersonal conflicts can be classified into two different forms that are
affective and substantive conflicts. Substantive conflicts involve difference of opinions
amongst team members towards a task. Hence, this conflict can be used by any organisation
to obtain different perspective in relation to certain issue, which in return encourages
innovation and creativity. The second type of conflict i.e. affective conflicts occurs because
of interpersonal relationships and incompatibilities and these kinds of conflicts must be
resolved as soon as possible. (Adu, Isaac &Muah et al., 2015).
Whenever an interpersonal conflict occurs in an organisation, these conflicts must be
resolved soon. One way of doing this is to provide supportive organisational climate. The
features of such organisational climate must include spontaneity, problem orientation,
equality, empathy, description, and provisionalism. On the contrary to these, organisations
with defensive climate must include evaluation, control, strategy, neutrality, superiority and
certainty (Meredith, n.d).
In this project, managing interpersonal conflict is of utmost importance for a project
to become success and for the reputation of the organisation. In case, if a conflict occurs that

is not helping an organisation to develop in any way then, such conflicts must be resolved.
The ways to resolve these conflicts are
 Confronting - This is an integrated, collaborative win-win situation for all the parties
involved and solving the issue by the means of direct communication and face -to -
face meetings.
 Compromising - It is a give and take method to solve issues of all parties involved in
the conflict and bargain at some point to reach an agreement.
 Smoothing - In this process one party may give up on their grounds so that other party
wins and the conflict is resolved.
 Forcing - When one party will do anything to win, irrespective of the other parties’
decisions and feelings. (Ohlendorf, 2001).

3. Research questions or hypothesis
This research seeks to answer are following research questions:
1. What is the impact of interpersonal conflicts on the organization’s performance?
2. What are the major reasons behind the interpersonal conflicts in the organization?
3. What are measures than can be taken to reduce interpersonal conflicts in an
organization?
4. What is importance of soft skills in managing interpersonal conflict during projects?

4. A brief Methodology
Methodology
To explore the increase in number of conflicts at workplace and their effects on the
performance, a qualitative approach will be used. The research will use the qualitative
research method to find effects of interpersonal conflicts on the performance of Project
Management students in CQU.
The purpose of qualitative research is to observe and identify the importance of
interpersonal conflict management skills and effects of interpersonal conflicts on the
performance of Project Management students. Quantitative research is not appropriate for this
research as there is rooted component of evaluation accessible for statistical assessment.
Sample and Procedures
An e-mail will be sent to all the Project Management students in CQ University
detailing about the survey. At least 100 participants or students who are interested will
receive the survey package in CQU library. The package will include an explanatory letter, a
questionnaire and a written statement. The explanatory letter describes the purpose and value
of conducting this research. A questionnaire will include certain number of questions related
to interpersonal conflicts and how they can be managed. In the written statement, the students
can describe about their situation, if they have experienced any interpersonal conflicts in the
University and how they resolved that conflict.
The sample size for the survey will comprise of females accounting for at least ¼ of
the total participants of the survey, to understand the impact of gender in context to
interpersonal conflicts on the performance of Project management students in CQ University.
The other method used for conducting this research will be interviews. Interviews
help the researcher to capture the core perception of interviewee and obtain understanding of

their previous experiences. Qualitative interviews will be used to find the depth of leader’s
perception by placing the perception in plain view.
An interview will be conducted in CQ University, Perth. It will include at least 20
participants involving students and lecturers dealing with course on project management.
 Interview will involve questions based on how interpersonal conflicts affect the
performance of students and environment of the University.
 The lecturer will be interviewed to understand how they manage or reduce the
conflicts.

5. Expected research findings and their implication
The report is going to discuss the research findings and their implications. The
research discusses the importance of soft skill system in project management that leads to the
success of a project. The findings of this research demonstrate that due to the lack of soft
skill, there may arise a communication gap between the members and they may fail to
convince the people about their project. There arise many problems owing to generation of
interpersonal conflicts; this includes trouble in decision-making, communication barrier and
all these factors ultimately lead to failure of the project. Due to this conflict, the relationship
between users and clients get affected and this results in negative influence on the project
owing to a disagreement about views. The author Liu et al. (2011), in his article, states that
the interpersonal conflicts lead to poor decision- making and poor relationship with the
stakeholders.
There is a need to carefully handle the interpersonal conflicts so as to effectively
accomplish a project. By understanding the problem, one can clear the conflict and can
provide a viewpoint that will help the project developers.
The paper reflects the negative impact of interpersonal conflicts on the project. This is
a major factor, which leads to project failure; one cannot withstand with a conflict while
preparing a project and this arises when a group of people disagrees on a certain topic or start
giving different ideas for the same project. My findings suggest that, for preventing project
failure, the member needs to decrease the interpersonal conflicts among the users and
information system professionals. The methods that can be implemented in order to prevent
such conflicts are better communication plan, effective way of communication and assigning
roles and responsibilities properly among the team members (Van der Vliert 2013). In this
paper requirement, uncertainty was also a problem. The implications of the interpersonal
conflicts will be, it will affect the projects for a long-term, until a solution to the problem is

found, Additionally, my research findings indicate that the research gives a substitute
description on the power to analyse the experimental evidence so that they can detect the
interpersonal conflict. Secondly, the article suggests that the requirement uncertainty should
be analysed and built separately before their implementation. Both the requirement diversity
and requirement volatility have different possible outcomes and consequences on the project
(Yarnell and Neff 2013). My findings also confirm that this research ensures that there is the
possibility of facing some conflict and the outcomes of this are being measured. From the
process perspective, the interpersonal conflict between the IS professional and the users can
be determined. The basic method of developing the software is an iterative process. One
practical approach for getting success in the project is to prevent interpersonal conflicts
between IS professionals and users (Pillai 2013). This can be avoided through some effective
measures, such as appointing effective managers, who will assist the team members in a right
way so that no conflict arises. There needs to be a clear communication and frequent
meetings so that every member of the project can interact and can share their views regarding
the project. These are some implications of the interpersonal conflict in Project management
in CQU.

6. Limitations of the Study and Recommendations for Future Research
This research has a high significance in terms of understanding the
importance of soft management skills to solve the issues such as the
interpersonal conflicts in the project management organization. However,
this research has certain limitations such as a small sample size, biasness
in the responses and lack of detailed secondary research. The sample size
of this study is 100, which is not enough to generalize the findings of the
study. This research is also associated with the probability of biasness in
the survey and interviews responses of the respondents. Lastly, the
secondary research conducted for this research is not a detailed or in-
depth research because of several constraints such as time and cost
constraints (Lund Research, 2018; Universal Teacher, 2018).
The future researches in this area can focus on other soft
management skills that are important for the success of the organization.
The other skills on which future researches can focus are –
communication, critical thinking, leadership etc. Further, the future
researches should also focus on conducting an in- depth review of the
literature using the methods such as scoping review. A strong theoretical
foundation will help in gaining deep insight about the importance of soft
management skills.

References
Adu, Isaac &Muah, Patricia & Sandra, M & Sarfo, Felix. (2015). The Role of conflict
management in Improving Relationships at work: The Moderating effect of Communication.
Journal of Emerging Trends in Economic and Management science. 6. 367-376.
Gabriela, G., R. Marta, S. Cátia, S. Joana, O.-R. Alejandro and S. Peter (2016). "Cultural
intelligence and conflict management styles." International Journal of Organizational
Analysis 24(4): 725-742.
Liu, Julie Yu-Chih et al., 2011. Relationships among interpersonal conflict, requirements
uncertainty, and software project performance. International Journal of Project Management,
29(5), pp.547–556.
Lund Research, 2018. How to structure the Research Limitations section of your dissertation.
[Online] Available at: http://dissertation.laerd.com/how-to-structure-the-research-limitations-
section-of-your-dissertation.php [Accessed 31 August 2018].
Meredith, E. Butter Me up: A Case Study in Conflict Resolution. Conflict Resolution, 1.
Passaris, C. E. (2006). "The Business of Globalization and the Globalization of Business."
2006.
Ohlendorf, A. (2001). Conflict Resolution in Project Management. Retrieved from
https://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/488_f01_papers/Ohlendorf.htm
Pillai, A.S., 2013, December. A study on the software requirements elicitation issues-its
causes and effects. In Information and Communication Technologies (WICT), 2013 Third
World Congress on (pp. 245-252). IEEE.
Roark, A. E. (1978). "Interpersonal Conflict Management." Personnel & Guidance Journal
56(7): 400.
Universal Teacher, 2018. Limitations of Research. [Online] Available at:
http://universalteacher.com/1/limitations-of-research/ [Accessed 31 August 2018].

Van derVliert, E., 2013. Complex interpersonal conflict behaviour: Theoretical frontiers.
Psychology Press.
Wai, T. (2015). Conflict Management: How to Handle Interpersonal Conflicts with your
Colleagues at work. Retrieved from
https://www.talentplus.com/talent-plus-viewpoint-blog/36-culture/642-conflict-management-
how-to-handle-interpersonal-conflicts-with-your-colleagues-at-work
Ward, A., Shaw, Melanie & Pucci, Thomas, 2017. Exploring Conflict Management: A
Qualitative Study on the Lack of Compromise and Collaboration in Historically Black
Colleges and Universities in Mississippi. Exploring Conflict Management: A Qualitative
Study on the Lack of Compromise and Collaboration in Historically Black Colleges and
Universities in Mississippi, pp. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
Yarnell, L.M. and Neff, K.D., 2013. Self-compassion, interpersonal conflict resolutions, and
well-being. Self and Identity, 12(2), pp.146-159.
Zhang, L. and Huo, X., 2015. The impact of interpersonal conflict on construction project
performance: A moderated mediation study from China. International Journal of Conflict
Management, 26(4), pp.479-498.