Conflict occurs when individuals or groups are not obtaining what they need or want and are seeking their own self-interest. sometimes, the individual is not aware of the need and unconsciously starts to act out. Other times, the individual is very aware of what he or she wants and actively works at achieving the goal.
A project manager needs to know certain facts about conflict. Conflict is inevitable. In today's environment, there are various factors that could result in a conflict. Projects involve people's lives, jobs, family, pride, self-concept, ego, and sense of mission or purpose. If any of these factors get affected, it could make them act in a manner that can result in a conflict.
There are indicators to let the project manager know about a conflict early in the game. Based on the reason for the conflict, the project manager can adopt strategies to prevent or resolve the conflict. Although inevitable, conflict can be minimized, diverted, and/or resolved.
There are multiple reasons that can bring in conflict. The people involved in a project come from different backgrounds and have different lifestyles, family orientations, and aspirations, and it is possible that when the team comes together, there could be conflict of interests among the individuals.
Some of the factors that can bring in conflict are poor communications, aspiration to seek power, dissatisfaction with management style, weak leadership--inability to direct the team toward a common goal, lack of openness, change in leadership, work environment, customer influence, favoritism, and so on.
A project manager should be aware of the possible causes that can bring in the conflicts in the team. It is the experience of the project manager that counts, as handling conflicts is more of a soft skill than having technical knowledge. The manager should be able to sense the possibility of a conflict occurring in a team based on the circumstances and should be prepared to prevent the conflict before it occurs.
Some of the indicators, or clues, that can help the project manager in predicting the possibility of conflict are body language of the team member, tendency to have disagreement regardless of the issue, withholding bad news and giving unpleasant surprises, tendency to give strong public statements, airing disagreements through media, showing a desire for power, having conflicts in the value system, increasing lack of respect, open disagreement, and lack of clear goals.