Differences and Similarities
Identification of Conflicts in Projects
There are many reasons for conflicts in projects. Many researchers have given the reasons or sources of conflicts such as Davis, Appelbaum et al.,, Warner, Robbins, Mulcahy, and Lam et al., etc. The early entrants who has given the reasons or sources of conflicts in 1990s are Al-Sedairy; and Jehn et al.
From the one hundred five reasons for conflicts in projects identified, based on the number of occurrences in literature top-10 reasons for conflicts in projects are found and tabulated in Table 1.
Table 1: Top-10 Reasons for Conflicts in Projects
| SL. No. |
Reason for Conflict | Number of Occurrences in literature |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shared/Common Resources | 14 |
| 2 | Differences in Project Goal/Objective | 12 |
| 3 | Cultural Differences | 10 |
| 4 | Values Differences |
10 |
| 5 | Personality Issues | 10 |
| 6 | Differences in Technical Opinions/Approaches | 9 |
| 7 | Schedules |
9 |
| 8 | Costs |
8 |
| 9 | Administrative procedures | 8 |
| 10 | Different Perceptions |
7 |
Shared or common resources, differences in project goal or objective are the top reasons for conflicts in projects. Interestingly the leadership style of the project manager is not in the top-10 reasons for conflicts in the project. Cultural and value differences are also the reasons for conflicts as in projects. In the next section, the frequently used conflict resolution techniques in projects are identified.