Culture and Conflict Management: Project Manager's Role and Impact

This dissertation proposal investigates the critical role of conflict management in business organizations, particularly focusing on how cultural differences impact project outcomes. The proposal aims to understand how project managers' cultural backgrounds influence their conflict resolution methods and how they navigate conflicts arising from diverse teams. The research employs a descriptive approach, drawing upon both secondary data from peer-reviewed articles and primary data collected through interviews with experienced project managers. The methodology includes an exploration of various conflict management strategies, ethical considerations, and potential project risks, culminating in a Gantt chart outlining the research timeline. The study emphasizes the significance of understanding cultural nuances, work ethics, and communication styles to effectively mitigate conflicts and ensure project success in diverse business environments.

Running head: CULTURE AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Culture and Conflict Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents...........................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Aim and set of objectives............................................................................................................3
3. Literature survey..........................................................................................................................3
4. Research Methodology................................................................................................................7
4.1 Type of investigation.............................................................................................................7
4.2 Data collection method..........................................................................................................7
4.3 Sampling method...................................................................................................................8
4.4 Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................9
5. Justification of chosen Research methodology............................................................................9
6. Ethical Considerations...............................................................................................................10
7. Risk of the project:.....................................................................................................................11
8. Gantt chart.................................................................................................................................11
9. Reference...................................................................................................................................13

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1. Introduction
The foremost determination of this dissertation proposal is to understand the importance
of conflict management which is one of the prime responsibilities of a project manager of a
business organization. The project manager of a business organization has to deal with different
categories of stakeholders of the business. Employees and stakeholders of different cultures are
handled by the project managers, and there is conflict due to the differences of work ethics, work
culture and issue of cross culture (Binder 2016). The role of the project managers is very much
important to deal with the issue of cultural conflict. Different methodologies are selected by the
project managers to deal with this challenge. The role of the project manager will be discussed in
this proposal in a professional manner with the help of primary data collected from a project
manager who have the experience of working with peoples with different culture as well as from
secondary data which will be considering the opinion of the researchers who have written their
opinion about the topic in the form of peer reviewed articles. The justification of the chosen
research methodology will be also stated in the proposal along with the risks and ethical
considerations (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The work plan of this entire research will be also
stated in the proposal with primary importance.
2. Aim and set of objectives
 How cultures of project managers may influence their methods of conflict resolution?
 How does a project manager’s culture affect the way they name, frame, blame, and try to
tame conflict that arises in their project?
3. Literature survey
As discussed by Estévez et al. (2015), work ethics and culture of project managers are
very much important to deal with complex internal complications of business industries such as

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conflict resolution. The researchers of the paper stated that highest level of disagreements occur
in every section of the business organizations as a result it has a direct negative impact on the
over all business in a calendar year. The researchers of this paper stated about the role and
responsibilities of a project manager which are needed to solve this issue. How to intervene in
conflicts between employees of completely different cultures have been presented in the paper
along with that the paper is also very much useful to understand the actions which are needed to
be taken by the project managers to deal with the issue of cultural conflict. Understanding the
determinants is a significant issue of the project managers as they must understand the root cause
of the conflict before taking any decisive steps to mitigate it (Harrison and Lock 2017). This
paper also provides the probable reasons behind the cause of the cultural conflict such as the task
interdependency, diversity in expertise, understanding of the project objectives, employee
emotion and lack of organizational structure. A sense of accommodation may be very much
useful for the employees engaged in workplace conflicts. Employees with similar level of
experience and expertise about the topic of the project should be working in the collaborative
projects where there are maximum chances of cultural conflicts. Deadline issue is a huge
business aspect in every business organizations can also be a reason behind a conflict which can
be solved purposefully with the help of a compromising approach. This paper has both
advantages as well as drawbacks, the main benefit of the paper is that it presents all the probable
aspects of conflict management such as the reason and contingency plan behind a conflict (Mok,
Shen and Yang 2015). However, the most significant disadvantage of the paper is that the
information is provided entirely in generalized format rather than focussing on a specific case
study revealing the details of cultural conflict in a business organization.

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As stated by Qrunig and Qrunig (2016), the culture of a project manager can be hugely
useful to deal with the conflict issues arriving in a project. The researchers of this paper focussed
on the professional recruitment of project managers by the recruiting squad of business
organizations. The qualities of a good project manager can be very much useful to address the
substance of the conflict. Work ethics and the employee’s policy’s which are created by the
human resource department are implemented by the organizational skills of the project
managers. Controlling the conflicts are sometime very much tough for the project managers due
to the adverse business conditions, inspite of this fact every project manager should be playing
an active role in minimising the issue (Hornstein 2015). Development of response strategy is also
a very important task of project managers. Compatible interest of the employees should be
highlighted by the project managers so that conflict resolutions issues can be resolved. Points of
agreements should be evaluated and implemented by the project managers. Mutual gain of the
consumers of the business organization should be understood in the first place, so that employees
are also dedicated to meet their requirement rather having a conflict between themselves. Equity
is the other issue associated with the cultural conflicts which are needed to be solved quite
effectively with the help of the project managers (Deresky 2017). Comfort zone of the
employees should be also understood by the project managers as the employees may be from
some other country having a completely different workplace culture. Even there are cultural
conflicts between the internal stakeholders of the business organizations such as the management
and human resource team with the external stakeholders of the business such as the service
providers, suppliers of raw materials and distributors of the goods and products which are
produced in the production units of the business organizations (Bolman and Deal 2017).
According to the paper, brainstorming all the options by the project managers are very much

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required to deal with the cultural conflicts. The paper has significant disadvantages and
advantages. The foremost drawback of this research paper is that it presents all the information
based on assumptions, however the paper is very much useful to understand the abilities of the
project managers which are important to deal with the issue of cultural conflict.
According to De Bruijn and Ten Heuvelhof (2018), there are different categories of
cultural conflict such as the employee versus employee, employee versus nature of work,
employee versus technology, employee with destiny. According to the researcher, two opposing
forces are the main reasons behind a conflict in a business organization. The researchers of the
paper stated that failing to understand the cultural diversity is very much important in business
organizations to deal with the issue of conflict management (Nicholas and Steyn 2017). The
researchers of the paper stated the importance of competitiveness. Poor management qualities are
very much important for being the reason behind this cultural conflict. Difference of perception
is very much important business aspect for business organizations as difference in perception
may have an immediate impact on the increasing needs of the consumers (Cameron and Green
2015). Each employee should be communicating in a professional manner with the other
employees regarding any cultural conflict as the organizations only wants to provide better
services to their clients at any cost, so any kinds of compromises in providing products and
services is not tolerated (Kerzner 2018). The researchers of this paper provided huge amount of
knowledge about the conflict avoidance techniques which can be used by the project managers to
tackle the issue of cultural conflicts. According to the researchers the management of the cultural
conflicts needs to be done with the help of the following business strategies such as
collaboration, accommodation and compromise. Prioritization of the areas of conflict needs to be
done by the project managers (Fusch and Ness 2015). The paper has both advantages and

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limitations associated with it, the main disadvantages of the paper is that it only focuses on the
strategies which are easier to implement by the project managers to deal with the issue of cultural
conflicts, however the researchers failed to discuss the critical conflict management skills such as
the emotional intelligence and the creative problem-solving ability of the project managers.
4. Research Methodology
The different categories of techniques which will be conducted in this research paper are
described in this unit of the proposal. The type of investigation, the methods of collection of data
from reliable sources, chosen sampling method and the different types of data analysis
techniques will be discussed in this unit paper in a professional format.
4.1 Type of investigation
There are three different categories of investigative techniques which are generally used
in the research proposal which are as follows:
 Hypothesis: It is strictly based on the hypothesis of the research paper; the correctness of
the hypothesis is tested with the help of this investigative technique.
 Descriptive: It is strictly based on the relevant theory based on the provided topic of the
research. Concepts obtained from scholar are highly considered in this category of the
investigative technique.
 Exploratory: It is defined as the type of investigative technique which is required when
the researcher have very limited knowledge about the selected topic.
Hence, the descriptive approach will be selected in this project as secondary sources will be
considered while finding the conclusion of this dissertation proposal.

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4.2 Data collection method
There are two categories of data collection method which are used in most of the
dissertation proposal such as the followings:
o Primary Data collection method: In this category data are collected from primary
sources such as survey and interviews, raw data is the collected using this type of data
collection method.
o Secondary Data collection method: In this category data are collected from secondary
sources such as peer reviewed articles found in reliable platforms.
Both these categories of data collected method will be practised in this dissertation proposal,
as data will be collected from both secondary sources such as journals as well as from primary
sources such as personal interview of a project manager having the experience of handling
conflict management in a business environment.
4.3 Sampling method
There are two categories of sampling technique which are usually applied in the research
process such as the followings:
Probability method: Random selection of sample and respondents are chosen if
probabilistic sampling method are chosen in the research papers (Heldman 2018.). Overall
response in a generalized format can be obtained with the help of this category of sampling
method.
Non-Probability method: Target audiences such as personal interviews are considered in
the non-probabilistic sampling method. Specific response can be obtained with the help of this
category of sampling method.

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In this dissertation proposal, the non-probabilistic sampling method will be considered as the
data collected from the primary sources will be an experienced project manager who knows the
details of dealing with cultural conflicts (Ekrot, Kock and Gemünden 2016). Specific researchers
who have per reviewed articles will be considered in the secondary data collection technique.
4.4 Data Analysis
The two types of data analysis plan which are used in the research paper are as
followings:
Qualitative Data analysis: It is defined as the type of data analysis technique which are
conducted on non-numeric data. It is one of the most commonly used category of data analysis,
at the same time it can be said that the SPSS tool is the most commonly used qualitative data
analysis tool used in the research paper
Quantitative Data analysis: It is defined as the category of data analysis techniques which
are conducted on numeric data with the help of the analytical statistical tools, bars and charts
Considering this dissertation proposal, where data collected will be from an experienced
project manager having the experienced to handle critical situations such as conflict management
as well as from the reliable secondary sources such as the peer reviewed scholarly articles
(Tjosvold 2017). So, there are very little chances of having any numeric value in the data
collection procedure which is the main reason behind the need of the qualitative data analysis
technique, however SPSS will not be used in this research paper due to few issues which will be
discussed in the following units of the paper.

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5. Justification of chosen Research methodology
The chosen category of investigation is the descriptive investigation as the data analysis
of the secondary sources will be very much considered as one of the factors in finding
conclusions to the research questions.
Both the primary data collection method as well as the secondary data collection method
will be chosen in the dissertation proposal so that the effectiveness of the paper is maintained
(Leo 2017). The effectiveness of the paper will be maintained in such a way that this paper can
be used in the future researches as well.
Considering the two categories of data sampling technique it can be said that the non-
probabilistic method will be very much important for finding the effectiveness of the paper, as
where are looking for specific solution of our research questions, any generalized solutions will
not be considered in the data analysis procedure.
Considering the data analysis method, it can be said that the data collection method for
this dissertation proposal do not considers any numeric value so qualitative data analysis
technique will be used in this paper.
6. Ethical Considerations
There are few ethical considerations of the dissertation proposal such as the handling of
the data which will be collected from the primary data collection method from the experienced
project manager having the experience of managing cultural conflicts in business organizations
and the secondary data collection methods such as the peer reviewed scholarly articles which
describes these kinds of topic in a more detailed manner. The collected data should be kept secret
under every circumstance (Hislop, Bosua and Helms 2018). The researchers of the papers which
are considered in the secondary data collection plan should be given their credentials at the end
of the research paper in the reference unit. The collected data should be not used in any other

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projects or purposes. The data collected from the primary data should be biased. The participant
should be allowed to express himself without any kinds of expectations. The data collected from
the personal interview should be protected from any kinds of exposure. The data security threats
and data privacy threats should be highly considered while storing the data in a database. The
data collected from the personal interview should be very much transparent in nature so that
conclusions can be drawn from the data quite easily. Flow of information should be controlled
quite effectively from the entire data collection method to the data analysis phase. All the reputed
data protection laws such as the Data Privacy Act of 1998 should be included in the regulations
of the paper. Unstructured and illogical sampling method should not be considered in this
research paper as it will bring down the effectiveness of the paper.
7. Risk of the project:
There are few risks associated with this dissertation proposal such as budget and project
scheduling. The limitation of budget and time are one of the major risks associated with this
research paper (Glendon and Clarke 2015). The efficient management of time and resources will
be very much important for the successful completion of the project with in the assigned
deadline.
8. Gantt chart
Activity 1st Feb
to 5th
Feb
6th Feb
to 9th
Feb
10th Feb
to 24th
Feb
25st Feb
to 14th
March
15th
March to
30th
March
1st April
to 25th
April
30th April
Choosing topic 
Data Collection
from secondary
 

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sources
Research layout 
Literature review   
Data Analysis   
Review of data
analysis
 
Conclusion 
Formation of
draft
 
Submission of
final work

Figure 1: Work Plan of the paper
(Source: Created by the author)

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9. Reference
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Mok, K.Y., Shen, G.Q. and Yang, J., 2015. Stakeholder management studies in mega
construction projects: A review and future directions. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(2), pp.446-457.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-
298.
Deresky, H., 2017. International management: Managing across borders and cultures. Pearson
Education India.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Kerzner, H., 2018. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley
& Sons.

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Estévez, R.A., Anderson, C.B., Pizarro, J.C. and Burgman, M.A., 2015. Clarifying values, risk
perceptions, and attitudes to resolve or avoid social conflicts in invasive species management.
Conservation Biology, 29(1), pp.19-30.
Qrunig, L.A. and Qrunig, J.E., 2016. Toward a theory of the public relations behavior of
organizations: Review of a program of research. In Public relations research annual (pp. 37-74).
Routledge.
Fusch, P.I. and Ness, L.R., 2015. Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. The
qualitative report, 20(9), pp.1408-1416.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Heldman, K., 2018. PMP: project management professional exam study guide. John Wiley &
Sons.
Ekrot, B., Kock, A. and Gemünden, H.G., 2016. Retaining project management competence—
Antecedents and consequences. International Journal of Project Management, 34(2), pp.145-
157.
Tjosvold, D., 2017. Cross-cultural management: foundations and future. Routledge.
De Bruijn, H. and Ten Heuvelhof, E., 2018. Management in networks. Routledge.
Leo, J., 2017. Two Cultures of Policing: Street Cops and Management Cops. Routledge.
Hislop, D., Bosua, R. and Helms, R., 2018. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical
introduction. Oxford university press.
Glendon, A.I. and Clarke, S., 2015. Human safety and risk management: A psychological
perspective. Crc Press.

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