Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts as a Project Management Professional

One of the keys to project management is the ability to effectively influence others without having direct authority over them. The extent of this need to influence can depend on the type of organization the project manager is working in. A functional structure, the most common of all the organizational structures, often presents the most significant challenges for project managers. Within this structure, each employee operates within his or her respective department and reports to a single functional manager within that department. As a project manager who needs to drive cross-functional efforts that require input from individuals in multiple departments, there is little that can be done to enforce or encourage actions to be taken.

Other organizational structures, including divisional and matrix variations, also offer their share of challenges. Regardless, anyone who assumes the role of a project manager must be able to effectively influence and indirectly manage the activities of various stakeholders to drive projects to completion in a timely and cost-effective manner. One major challenge that can inhibit a project manager from effectively driving projects to completion is an interpersonal conflict between internal stakeholders in different departments. Each department has its own deliverables outside of the project manager’s specific projects, and each internal stakeholder that a project manager indirectly manages brings a unique personality and set of intrinsic motivators. When conflicts arise between members of the team, it is up to the project manager to determine the correct course of action to mediate.

The simplest action would be to report the situation to the stakeholders’ functional managers. This allows for proper awareness and intervention within the direct line of authority for both individuals. However, this may not be the most effective option. Instead, it may be better for team morale to work on mediating the situation directly. Doing this requires a knowledge and awareness of the working relationship between the employees, the reason behind the conflict, and the possible avenues to resolve the conflict in a manner that both stakeholders are willing to accept without sacrificing the viability of the project or the continuity of the organization.

Project managers, especially ones in a complex industry such as pharmaceuticals or a different biotechnology discipline, need to strike a balance of technical knowledge and interpersonal skills. Interpersonal conflicts between internal stakeholders can be very detrimental to project timelines, and failures to recover can impact the team’s morale and the viability of the business in the long run. This makes resolving these conflicts paramount, and as a project management professional it is key to utilize a broad array of hard and soft skills to ensure projects stays on-time and on-budget. Ensuring that interpersonal conflicts are resolved in a way that keeps team morale high can also have long-term benefits, as the team may work on future projects together.