Gowtham Mardi: Change and Conflict Management in Project Management

This report, authored by Gowtham Mardi, investigates the critical aspects of change and conflict management within the context of project management. The research aims to provide managerial solutions to address these challenges, exploring the roles of managers in change management and conflict resolution, and analyzing the reasons behind employee resistance to change. The report outlines key research objectives, including understanding employee expectations and identifying fears associated with change. It incorporates a literature review that highlights the impact of change on project success, the importance of integrative conflict management, and the role of emotional intelligence. The methodology involves secondary data collection and thematic analysis, leading to the development of a conceptual framework and the identification of a UICT (Understand-Investigate-Consult-Act) strategy for managing change and conflict. The findings emphasize the significance of the manager's role, the common fears of employees, and the expectations of stakeholders. The report concludes by summarizing the key insights and suggesting areas for future research, offering a valuable resource for organizations seeking to improve their change and conflict management practices.

Change and Conflict
Management
Gowtham Mardi

Introduction
Managing changes and conflicts in project
management is a significant concern for the
managers. The proposed research will attempt at
offering managerial solutions for change and conflict.
Why this research?
The research is done to analyze the conflicts and
changes and thus provide proper measures to manage
these aspects.

Research Objectives
 Role of the manager in change management.
 The reason why employees fear change.
 Role of the manager in conflict resolution.
 Expectations of the employee stakeholders from the
manager in case of change and conflict.

Aim & Questions
 The aim of this research is to determine the issues
related with conflicts and challenges in project
management and provide managerial solutions to this
two aspects.
 Questions
 What is the role of the manager in managing the change & conflict?
 Why do employee fear change?
 What are the identified fear associated with?
 What do employees expect from the manager in case of change or
conflict?

Literature review
 Integrative conflict management for the completion
of the project objective instead of individual
objectives (Jiang et al., 2014) .
 Impact of change in project, determines the success
or failure of the project (Hornstein, 2015).
 Relationship between emotional intelligence and
constructive conflict management can assist in
Project’s success (Schlaerth, Ensari & Christian,
2013).
 Impact of change management plan determines
how the change impacts the construction industry
(Huang & Low, 2012).

Conceptual Framework
Managing
Change and
Conflicts
Change
Organisational
Change
Lack of
Knowledge
Job threat due
to machinery
Managerial
Change
Insecurity of
Misbehaviou
r and
partiality
Fear of
Dominance
Geographica
l Change
Conflict
Organisational
Policies
Sudden
change
Actions
without
notification
Among
Stakeholders
Difference of
opinion
Change
Manager

Data Collection & Analysis
 Secondary data collection method has been
adopted to collect data.
 The literary work over the subject was reviewed to
collect data.
 The data was analysed using critical thinking &
thematic analysis method.

Data Analysis
 The data was analysed from secondary sources.
 The reviewed articles were summarised to
determine the roles.
 The secondary data also assisted in determining the
fear of employees.
 The findings were then summarised to formulate the
proposed strategy.

Research Onion

Fears of Employee
 Job Security & Freedom are the reason that
employee fear change. The fear they face are:
 Shock & fear of Unknown
 Loss of Control
 Competence
 Corporate Socialising
 Former Change Experience
 Pressure
 Trust & support

Role of Managers in change
management
 Communicate the demands.
 Advocate the justified demand.
 Coach the employee with change.

Role of Managers in Conflict
Management
 Understand the scene.
 Investigate the scene
 Make strategy to resolve the conflict.

Expectation of Employees
 Change
 The employees should stay update with the change plans.
 They should be ensured about job.
 Training for made changes.
 Interaction with the managerial change.
 Conflict
 Understand the situation before making decision.
 Evaluator should be unbiased.
 Conduct a meeting in case of conflict between employee and
employer.

Expectation of Organisational
Heads
 Prepare the employees for any change that can be
brought in the organisation.
 Avoid development of conflict.
 In case of Change and Conflict the problem should
be mitigated in minimum time.

Strategy: UICT (Understand-
Investigate-Consult-Act)

Strategy: Understand
 The concerns regarding the change must be
understood to formulate a report to intimate the
organisational head about the concerns.
 In case of the conflict both the conflicting parties
share their opinion individually.

Strategy: Investigate
 This step is not valid for the change management.
 The manager needs to investigate in the case of
conflict and uncover the truth. To develop a report
after which the organisational heads will be
consulted.

Strategy: Consult
 In case of changes the organisation is informed
about the concerns of the employees and the
perception of the organisational heads are
understood to formulate a plan to ensure successful
implementation of Change.
 In case of conflict, the scenario and findings are
explained to the higher management to devise a
plan to mitigate the threat immediately.

Strategy: Act
 The concerns of the employees are rested after consulting
the heads of organisation.
 The devised strategy after consulting the organisational
heads are implemented in case of conflict.
 The step should be precise & implemented adequately.

Results
 Role of manager is most significant in Change &
Conflict Management`
 The employee fear change due to loss of Job &
Freedom.
 The fear are associated with managerial & technical
change,
 Some factors of fear are associated with not sharing of
information.

Conclusion
The Presentation can be concluded to state that
change & conflict are two of the most prominent
challenge that an organisation face and should be
mitigated in minimal possible time to ensure
sustainability. The proposed report can assist the
organisations in managing the change & conflict.

Future Work
 Further enhance the proposed model.
 Monitoring Strategy to mitigate change & conflict
chaos.
 Can lay base for future research.

References
Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and
organizational change management is now a necessity. International
Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298.
Hwang, B. G., & Low, L. K. (2012). Construction project change
management in Singapore: Status, importance and impact. International
Journal of Project Management, 30(7), 817-826.
Jiang, J. J., Chang, J. Y., Chen, H. G., Wang, E. T., & Klein, G. (2014).
Achieving IT program goals with integrative conflict
management. Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(1), 79-
106.
Schlaerth, A., Ensari, N., & Christian, J. (2013). A meta-analytical review
of the relationship between emotional intelligence and leaders’
constructive conflict management. Group Processes & Intergroup
Relations, 16(1), 126-136.

Thank You