Usually in project teams, team cohesion leads to team communication. Team communication leads to different types of conflicts such as Task Conflict, Relationship Conflict, and Process Conflict. Usually, Task conflict is good for project performance; relationship conflict hampers project performance; and process conflict at the beginning of project is good, however at later stages it is not good for project performance. Basically, when these kinds of conflicts arise in a project environment, project manager uses certain conflict resolution techniques either spontaneously or slowly and resolve the conflict. This specific research insight describes which conflict resolution technique is frequently used and which conflict resolution technique is rarely used by project managers.
Research Question: One research/survey question was given to learners of business management practices. Among the following techniques which techniques you use to resolve conflicts as a project manager? The respondents can choose one or more of following conflict resolution techniques.
- Avoiding/Withdrawal
- Compromising
- Confrontation
- Accommodating
- Smoothing
Another research question is, is there any relationship between project manager using one conflict resolution technique and its relation to using another technique?
Data Analysis: An online questionnaire with single question is administered over 20 respondents in Southern India. To identify the project manager using one technique in combination with another technique, Correlation coefficient is found between the 5 different conflict resolution techniques considered in the research. That is, inter item correlations are found. Following is the Correlation Matrix.
Table-1: Inter Conflict Resolution Technique Correlations
| Avoiding/ Withdrawal |
Compromising | Confrontation | Accommodating | Smoothing | |
| Avoiding/
Withdrawal |
1 | ||||
| Compromising | 0.047619048 | 1 | |||
| Confrontation | 0.047619048 | 0.285714286 | 1 | ||
| Accommodating | -0.372839294 | 0.065795169 | 0.065795169 | 1 | |
| Smoothing | -0.054554473 | 0.21821789 | -0.054554473 | 0.050251891 | 1 |
Research Findings: Following are the findings from this specific research survey:
- 40% of the respondents used Accommodating; 30% used Avoiding/Withdrawal; 30% used Compromising; 30% used Confrontation; and remaining 20% used Smoothing technique of Conflict Resolution. Some respondents used more than one conflict resolution technique.
- From Table-1, it is evident that Correlation Coefficient (0.285714286) indicates that There is an average correlation between Confrontation and Compromising. That means, the respondents once they used Confrontation, immediately they used Compromising technique of Conflict Resolution.
- Also, by keeping each one of Conflict Resolution Techniques as dependent variable, Regression Coefficients are found; however, for none of the variables p-value is not less than 0.05. That means, there is no effect observed of one technique over another.
- There is no relationship between Avoiding and Accommodating; Similarly, there is no relationship between Avoiding and Smoothing
- Similarly, there is no relationship between Confrontation and Smoothing as well. There is low correlation between Smoothing and Compromising (Correlation Coefficient: 0.21821789)
- It is observed that only between Confrontation and Compromising, there is low to average correlation; others have very low correlation coefficient values or negative correlations.
Probably, if the sample is more, we may get some more refined results. However, the contribution of this specific tiny research insight is, in project teams, once Confrontation is used, immediately Compromising is used; these two go together. Similarly, Once Smoothing is used also, then Compromising is used by project managers. And one more contribution from this research insight is widely used conflict resolution technique found to be “Accommodating” among project managers. And among the conflict resolution techniques considered, “Smoothing” is least used by project managers.
To Explore/Read More: Sudhakar, G.P. (2015), “A Review of Conflict Management Techniques in Projects”, Brazilian Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 214-232, ISSN: 2237-8960. (Impact Factor: 1.6025)
Download Link: http://www.gpsudhakar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Brazilian%20Journal.pdf
Hope this small research will be useful. Thank you.
Best regards,
Dr. Goparaju Purna Sudhakar, PhD, PMP