PPM 315: Conflict Management in

Projects

Lecture: Conflict Prevention and

Management
 Learning Objectives
By the end of this lecture, the learner should be
able to:
 Define the terms conflict prevention and
management
 Explain why conflict prevention is difficult
 Explain the various strategies and ways of
conflict prevention and management
 Apply conflict management strategies in real life
situations
 Definitions – Conflict Prevention
 Prevention denotes anticipation of something about to
happen and doing something to ensure it doesn’t happen.
But theoretically, you cannot prevent a non-existent
conflict.
 Conflict prevention is the idea that action should be taken
to prevent violent conflicts from breaking out in the first
place, rather that responding once violence has broken-out.
 We can compare conflict prevention to fire fighting: the
designers of buildings hope that the occupants will not start
fires, but they do not place all their trust on the good sense
of the occupants; instead, they invest in sprinklers, fire
alarms, fire extinguishers and other measures designed to
prevent the risk of fires raging out of control, that is they
introduce ‘preventors’ of fire.
 Conflict Prevention
 Hence conflict prevention; aim to resolving a conflict at hand
or to prevent escalation, ensures that casual grievances do not
escalate to full blown conflicts; or tries to curtail re-emergence
of violent exchanges; or both.
 Conflict prevention as an approach relies heavily on accurate
analysis of any latent or minor dispute in the hope of
identifying appropriate strategies for resolution or intervention
 Though human beings have the technical capacity and ability to
identify conflict before they explode, as well as the knowledge
of the extreme costs of inaction (in terms of life, social
cohesion and regional instability), conflict prevention remains
in the realm of theory more than practice.
 Why is conflict prevention difficult?

a) Difficult in judging when a particular party intends a pre-

emptive action, i.e. cause a conflict
b) Deciding at what stage of a possible conflict to intervene
is also problematic
c) What is right – humanitarian, moral or other – does
anyone have to intervene even before an attack occurs?
d) How do you ensure that intervention does not cause
more conflict?
e) Might such excuses not lead to unjustified attack on
others/to even score/to attack for your own gain? ‘My
home is my castle’ - no man has the right to enter my
home without permission.
 Conflict Management
 Conflict management is the practice of being able to
identify and handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and
efficiently.
 Also known as conflict resolution, involves having a
workplace that precludes conflict and a management
team that successfully handles and resolves workplace
issues
 Strong conflict management skills are an advantage in
most positions, as conflict is virtually impossible to avoid.
 The aim for professionals in the workplace should not be
to avoid conflict, but to resolve it in an effective manner
 Prevention of Conflicts
a) Goal structure: Goals should be clearly defined and the role
and contribution of each unit towards the organizational
goal must be clearly identified.
b) Reward System: The compensation system should be such
that it does not create individual competition or conflict
within the unit.
c) Trust and communication: The greater the trust among the
members of unit, the more honest and open the
communication among them would be.
d) Co-ordination: Co-ordination is the next step to
communication. Properly coordinated activity reduce
conflict. Wherever there are problems in coordination, a
special liaison office should be established to assist such
coordination.
 Managing Conflicts
1. Ignoring the conflict. In certain situations, it may be
advisable to take a passive role and avoid it all together.
From the manager’s point of view, it may be specially
necessary when getting involved in a situation would
provoke further controversy or when conflict is so trivial to
warrant manager’s attention
2. Smoothing: Smoothing simply means covering up the
conflict by appealing for the need for unity rather than
addressing the issue of conflict itself. An individual with
internal conflict may try to “count his blessings” and forget
about the conflict. If two parties have a conflict within the
organization, the supervisor may try to calm things down
by being understanding and supportive to both parties and
appealing them for co-operation.
 Managing Conflicts cont’d….
3. Compromising: A compromise in the conflict is reached by
balancing the demands of the conflicting parties and
bargaining in a give and take position to reach a solution.
Each party gives up something and also gains something.
The technique of conflict resolution is very common in
negotiations between the labour unions and management.
4. Forcing: As Webber puts it, “the simplest conceivable
resolution is the elimination of the other party –to force
opponents to flee and give up the fight –or slay them.” This
is technique of domination where the dominator has the
power and authority to enforce his own views over the
opposing conflicting party. This technique always ends up
in one party being a loser and the other party being a
clear winner.
 Managing Conflicts cont’d….
5. Problem solving: This technique involves
“confronting the conflict” in order to seek the
best solution to the problem. This approach
objectively assumes that in all organizations, no
matter how well they are managed, there will be
differences of opinions which must be resolved
through discussions and respect for differing
viewpoints. In general, this technique is very
useful in resolving conflicts arising out of
semantic misunderstandings.
 Peace keeping

 The official United Nations account of peacekeeping, the blue

helmets, defines peacekeeping as follows: “ an operation involving
military personnel, but without enforcement powers, undertaken
by the UN to help maintain or restore international peace and
security in areas of conflict.”
 Peacekeeping is only used after a conflict has escalated to stage 4,
when a conflict is defined as destructive.
 Peacekeeping should be coordinated with other intervention
strategies to contribute to peaceful process beyond violence
control.
 Peacekeeping actors working in the area of operation at the micro-
level should facilitate settlement processes or facilitate resolution
activities (building trust, developing cooperation and
communication) and coordinating with peacemaking and peace
building efforts at the macro-level.
 It’s mandate is drawn from UN’s Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
 Conflict Settlement

 A settlement, in this definition, suggests agreement over the

conflict issues, which involves compromise or concession from
both sides
 Using this approach, neither side may be able to achieve all of
their goals, but the initial disappointments may be offset by the
mutuality of the compromise
 All parties to the bargaining process approach the goal of
settlement with their own interests to be promoted or
safeguarded and their own agendas to be addressed
 Third parties in the settlement-type processes legitimately use
pressure, inducements and/or threats (hard power tactics) to
control the parties to agree to a compromise solution
 Conflict settlement
Settlement is the quickest solution to a difficult
or violent situation. However, its effectiveness is
temporary because the underlying relationships
and structures that have caused the conflict are
not addressed.
In practice, conflicts that have reached
settlements are often re-opened later when
feelings produce new issues or renewed
dissatisfactions about old ones, or when the third
party’s guarantee runs out.
 Conflict Resolution
 Is a more comprehensive approach based on mutual problem-
sharing between the conflicting parties
 The parties cooperate with each other to redefine their conflict
and their relationship
 They solve the conflict themselves by jointly finding their own
solution, becoming their own guarantors of the agreement.
 Rather than compromising or bargaining away their goals, they
engage in a process of information-sharing, relationship building,
joint analysis and cooperation.
 The role of third party is one of facilitation without coercion or
the use of hard power (power to command, order or enforce
cooperation) persuasion. Soft/persuasive power refers to power
to induce, legitimize or inspire cooperation.
 Conflict Resolution cont’d…
 Resolution of conflicts implies that the deep-rooted sources of
conflict are addressed, changing behaviors so they are no longer
violent, attitudes so they are no longer hostile, and structures so
they are no longer exploitative.
 The term refers to the process (or the intention) to bring these
changes, and to the completion of the process.
 The process of conflict resolution includes becoming aware of a
conflict, diagnosing its nature and applying appropriate methods
in order to:
 Diffuse the negative emotional energy involved;
 Enable the conflicting parties to understand and resolve their
differences;
 Resolve the differences so as to achieve solutions that are not
imposed, which have been agreed by all the key parties, and
which address the root cause of the conflict.
 Conflict Transformation
 Is a developmental term that indicates the deepest level of change
in the conflict resolution process
 It focuses on the dynamic processes through which conflict
becomes violent, rather than focusing narrowly on how to bring a
violent conflict to as a cease-fire or settlement.
 An emphasis on the transformative aspects of conflict helps us to
understand the changes that occur in individuals, relationships,
cultures and nations as a result of the experiences of violent
conflict
 Transformation is also used to refer to a specific approach to
violent conflict that focuses on the changes needed at many
different levels of society in order to create long-term peace.
 This approach aims to transform a conflict from one of violence
and destruction into a constructive force which produce change,
progressively removing or reducing the social and structural
conditions from which the conflict and violence have arisen
 Conflict Transformation cont’d…
 Conflict transformation includes the process of peace building,
which underpins the work of peacemaking and peacekeeping by
addressing structural issues and the long-term relationships
between conflicting parties.
 On the cultural level, transformation is linked to the idea of “Peace
building-from-below”, which seeks to identify, promote and build
on the resources and mechanisms within a given cultural setting
for dealing with conflict.