Affirming the Project Manager's Role in Conflict Situations

This approach leads to an entrenchment of the positions that sparked the conflict and to the group taking a harder line toward the project manager and his or her approach to managing relationships.

It involves unilaterally resolving the disagreement. This is a situation in which the project manager believes that no compromise is possible, whether due to deadlines, compliance requirements, or strategic alignment with the project’s objectives.

For this posture to be effective:

• The project manager must have clearly established legitimate authority (either through the chain of command...