10/22/2020

MS Project Management

Seminar in Project Management

Social Conflict Management framework for

Project Viability

By
Dr. Naveed Iqbal
1

Distributive Negotiation

Negotiation often means distribution,

‘dividing up the negotiating pie.’

The procedure is therefore known as distributive

Negotiation.

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What is Negotiation?

Success in negotiation is often not a matter of chance, but

the result of good planning and specialized skills.

Some of these are inborn,

some are learned.

Negotiating Behavior

To negotiate successfully it is necessary to learn how to:

• understand the importance of preparation;

• understand how to develop objectives for negotiations;
• understand the strategies, tactics and signals which may be
used; and,
• assess realistically the chances of a successful outcome.

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Negotiating Behavior

Why Skilled Negotiator is better than an Average one?

Before the negotiation

•Widest possible range of options
•More attention to common ground
•Greater attention to long-term factors
•Setting upper and lower limits rather than fixed target points
•Planning of issues without establishing a rigid sequence
•More time devoted to studying the conflict
•Less attention paid to own objectives than to a jointly achieved
solution
•Less attention to tactics: these are often overrated
5

Types of causes of conflict

• contextual factors
• project characteristics
• and local impacts.

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• cognitive,
Conflicts caused by cognitive factors arise from differences
between perceptions and value systems, such as urban
development and environmental conservation.
• environmental,
– when construction affects the surrounding environment or
involves a contaminated area.
• economic factors
– Economic conflict occurs due to conflicts of interest among
project participants
• governmental authority
– by governmental authorities involve the accuracy of information
offered and the exclusion/dismissal of inhabitants' opinions.
Spreading misinformation related to the project's scope and
compensation level intensifies conflict

Consequences
• Project termination
– Project termination occurs for cases that involve severe conflicts
in the planning and feasibility study stages.
• Early mitigation
– refers to cases in which a proper response to a conflict was
enacted at an early stage.
• Late mitigation
– Continuance of conflicts, the cost and duration of such projects
increase; however, adequate compromises result in completion.
• Project enforcement
– occurs when the government pushes the project forward
without compromise.
• Late occurrence
– describes cases in which conflict occurs in the operation and
maintenance stages of the facility, and maintenance costs and
usage fees are the main sources of conflicts

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The level of
impact the conflict has on each
phase of the project varies for
each scenario type

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Conceptualization of conflict scenarios

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• Coordination or compromise action occurs

during the construction phase is a critical
point used to distinguish between late
mitigation and enforcement.
• Early mitigation and project termination were
distinguished depending on whether proper
evaluation and coordination activities
occurred during the design phase

• 6 terminated projects, 3 early mitigated projects, 5 late

mitigated projects, 4 enforced projects, and 4 late
occurrence project.

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Project termination scenario

• Describes a project that is indefinitely postponed or
canceled due to a conflict that began at an early stage
of the project
• The main conflict drivers of this scenario were
identified as insufficient project feasibility studies or
Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome by local
residents
• When an insufficient number of project feasibility
studies are conducted, stakeholders' opinions are
often ignored in the planning stage
• Leads to objections and protests from local residents
who demand additional evaluations or investigations
on project feasibility

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Project termination scenario

• Re-examination of project is required.
• Feasibility studies do not satisfy the opponents, the
project is postponed indefinitely or canceled.
• Urgently planned projects based on political
commitments.
• The Yeongwol Dam project (P1) is a representative
case of this scenario

The Yeongwol Dam project

• In the stages of planning and feasibility study,
a perfunctory feasibility study and unilateral
announcement with insufficient public
hearings were the main conflict causes
– (Impractical feasibility study).
• the infringement of residents' private property
in the flooded areas emerged as the new
conflict driver
– (Design Stage-Damage to property).

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• The government then tried resolve the conflict

through compensation.
• Failed to reach a consensus due to disagreement
on the scope and amount of compensation
• Design Stage-Alternative Dispute Resolution

• Conflict became more and more intense

• The government organize a private-public joint
investigation team and re-examine the feasibility
of the Yeongwol Dam project

• The result of new feasibility study failed to

satisfy the minimum criteria like Benefit/Cost
ratio, and the Yeongwol project was ultimately
terminated.

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NIMBY syndrome
• Without a reasonable project purpose
outlined in the project initiation and planning
stage, the feasibility results cannot satisfy
stakeholders.
• Projects are postponed or canceled due to the
NIMBY syndrome.
– Ulsan Memorial Park Project (P2),
• Damage private property and regional scenic
reputation

Conflicts related to the NIMBY

syndrome are difficult to
manage or resolve, and often lead to
protests by the
residents, which can cause projects to
fail.

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 26-Dec-22

MS Project Management (RPM)

Seminar in Project Management

Dr. Naveed Iqbal

Department of Management Sciences
1

Project Team Building,

Conflict, and Negotiation

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Building High-Performing Teams

Make the project team tangible
– Publicity
– Terminology & language
Reward good behavior
– Flexibility
– Creativity
Develop a personal touch
– Lead by example
– Positive feedback for good performance
– Accessibility & consistency

Virtual Project Teams

use electronic media to link members of a
geographically dispersed project team

How Can Virtual Teams Be Improved?

 Use face-to-face communication when possible
 Don’t let team members disappear
 Establish a code of conduct
 Keep everyone in the communication loop
 Create a process for addressing conflict

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Managing Conflict within the Project

Team
• Encouraging Functional Conflict
– Encourage dissent by asking tough questions.
– Bring in people with different points of view.
– Designate someone to be a devil’s advocate.
– Ask the team to consider an unthinkable alternative
• Managing Dysfunctional Conflict
– Mediate the conflict.
– Arbitrate the conflict.
– Control the conflict.
– Accept the conflict.
11–5 – Eliminate the conflict.

Conflict Intensity Over the Project Life Cycle

FIGURE 11.5
11–6

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Conflict Management

Conflict Management
Conflict is a process that begins when you
perceive that someone has frustrated or is
about to frustrate a major concern of yours.

Conflicts evolve:
One-time causes of a conflict can change
over time (the original reason may not
matter).

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Categories
• Goal-oriented conflict:
• Results, project scope outcomes, criteria,
priorities
• Administrative conflict:
• Reporting relationships, authority, control,
decisions
• Interpersonal conflict:
• Personality, bahaviour, work ethics

– GOOD or BAD conflicts –

Views

• Traditional:
bad: supression, elimination

• Behavioral:
acceptance: managing

• Interactionist:
encouraging conflict to develop

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Sources of Conflict
Organizational
• Reward systems
(function vs. project)
• Competition for
resources
• Uncertainty (authority)
• Differentiation
(subcutrures)
Interpersonal
• Faulty attributions
(reasons behind
behaviour)
• Faulty communication
• Personal grudges &
prejudices (bringing
attitudes to work)

Managing Conflict within the Project

Team
• Encouraging Functional Conflict
– Encourage dissent by asking tough questions.
– Bring in people with different points of view.
– Designate someone to be a devil’s advocate.
– Ask the team to consider an unthinkable alternative
• Managing Dysfunctional Conflict
– Mediate the conflict.
– Arbitrate the conflict.
– Control the conflict.
– Accept the conflict.
11–12– Eliminate the conflict.

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Conflict Intensity Over the Project Life Cycle

FIGURE 11.5
11–13

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MS Project Management (RPM)

Seminar in Project Management

Dr. Naveed Iqbal

Department of Management Sciences
1

Project Conflict Management

Strategies

6-2

1
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6-3

6-4

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Conflict Resolution for government

funded Projects
• As conflict is inevitable for all type of
construction projects.
• The success of construction projects mainly
depends on how well project managers handle
conflicts
• During the whole lifecycle of the projects, most
of the conflicts are resolved by the project teams
using various kinds of strategies.
• A not well resolved conflict brought negative
impacts on the projects
6-5

Prevention
• Preventing the possible conflict from happening
was deemed as the most preferred and effective
technique by the experts.
• In order to achieve the best results for the
construction projects, the experts suggested that
project team should fully investigate the relevant
rules and regulations
• to avoid potential cobflict investigate the social
environment in advance and try to establish a
good relationship with the key local players to
prevent

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6-6

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Resolving
• Resolving as the post conflict countermeasures
was the most advisable to each side of the
stakeholders.
• Good communication and negotiation skills were
compulsory for this technique.
• With the aim of resolving coordination meeting
was organized, which the leaders of the conflicting
parties were invited to formulate compensation
measures to solve conflicts and set up an
accountability mechanism and compensation
system to avoid repetitiveness of such conflict.
6-7

Mediator
• Mediator plays an important role in conflict
resolving, as interpersonal relationship was
highly valued in the countries like Pakistan
• The introduction of mediator means to seek help
from the third-party, such as upper level
authorities, legal assistance, consultants and
other potential stakeholders, when the project
team failed to resolve the conflict directly.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6-8

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• The project manager “accommodates” the other

party so that they can both move on and get
back to work on the project.
• It is important to note that Smoothing is
considered to be a short-term solution and may
have to be revisited at a later time.
• Smoothing is often used by project managers
when it is important to provide temporary relief
from the conflict or buy time until you are in a
better position to respond and/or push back
against the conflicting party
6-9

Avoidance
• Conflict avoiding indicates to take measures
such as changing plans/designs or transferring
the conflict to another stakeholder in order to
avoid the conflict.
• This technique was effective in the management
of conflict between the project team and the
local social environment or conflict over land
acquisition and demolition
• The project team may changed the construction
plans to avoid the nail households, and
successfully avoid this conflict and reduced
negative social impacts
6-10

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Compromise

• Compromise means the project team chose to

meet the other side's requirements or to give up
something of value, which is affordable to the
project team in order to eliminate the negative
impacts of the conflict.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6-11

Smoothing
• Smoothing emphasizes the common interests of
the conflicting parties and de-emphasizes their
differences.
• The Smoothing technique also stresses the
adoption of shared viewpoints on certain issues
to help facilitate movement toward a consensus
and temporary resolution of the conflict

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6-12

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Conflict Negotiating
Behavior

13

Negotiating Behavior

To negotiate successfully it is necessary to learn how to:

• understand the importance of preparation;

• understand how to develop objectives for negotiations;
• understand the strategies, tactics and signals which may be
used; and,
• assess realistically the chances of a successful outcome.
14

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Negotiating Behavior

Donaldson (2007) mentions following traits of a good

negotiator:

•Empathy •Responsibility
•Respect •Flexibility
•Integrity •Sense of Humor
•Fairness •Self-Discipline
•Patience •Stamina

15

Negotiating Behavior
Why Skilled Negotiator is better than an Average one?
Before the negotiation
•Widest possible range of options
•More attention to common ground
•Greater attention to long-term factors
•Setting upper and lower limits rather than fixed target points
•Planning of issues without establishing a rigid sequence
•More time devoted to studying the conflict
•Less attention paid to own objectives than to a jointly achieved
solution
16

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The Six Basic Skills of Negotiating

17

9
 MS Project Management (RPM)

Seminar in Project Management

Dr. Naveed Iqbal

Department of Management Sciences
1
 Project Team Building,
Conflict, and Negotiation
 Effective Project Teams
Clear Sense of Mission
Productive Interdependency
Cohesiveness
Trust
Enthusiasm:
Challenging, supportive, personally rewarding

Results Orientation
 Reasons Why Teams Fail
• Poorly developed or unclear goals:
Multiple interpretations, lack of willingness to work
together, increased number of conflicts
• Poorly defined project team roles &
interdependencies
• Lack of project team motivation:
Unnecessary, low priority
• Poor communication
• Poor leadership
• Turnover among project team members
• Dysfunctional behavior
Characteristics of High-performing Teams

1. Share a sense of common purpose

2. Make effective use of individual talents and
expertise
3. Have balanced and shared roles
4. Maintain a problem solving focus
5. Accept differences of opinion and expression
6. Encourage risk taking and creativity
7. Sets high personal performance standards
8. Identify with the team

6-5
• In order to overcome these challenges “Rapid
Team Building Approach” can be used in a variety
of organizational settings in which the need to
achieve critical goals quickly and effectively with
newly formed teams was essential.

6-6
 Rapid Team Building Approach
• Comprises six tools to help managers form a group
of employees into a unified team and get them right
down to work
1. Share personal background information
2. Ask team members what worked for them in the past
3. Describe how the team will work together
4. Optimize individual strengths
5. Establish norms of making decision
6. Establish a process of giving and receiving

6-7
6-8
Rapid Team Development

6-9
 Stages in Group Development

1. Forming – members become acquainted

2. Storming – conflict begins
3. Norming – members reach agreement
4. Performing – members work together
5. Adjourning – group disbands
 The Five-Stage Team Development Model

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6-11

 Team Development Stages
Adjourn Convene
4. Performing
1. Forming
Trust Quiet
Flexible Polite
Supportive Guarded
Confident Impersonal
Efficient Business-like
High Morale High Morale
Productive Testing
Organized Infighting
Establish procedures Conflict over
Develop team skills control
Confront issues Confrontational
Rebuild morale Alienation
Personal agendas
Low morale

3. Norming 2. Storming
 Creating a High-Performance Project Team

FIGURE 11.3
11–13
 Project Team Meetings

Managing
Establishing
Subsequent
Ground Rules
Meetings

Conducting
Relationship Planning
Decisions Project Decisions
Meetings

Managing Change Tracking

Decisions Decisions

11–14
Managing Project Reward Systems
• Group Rewards
– Who gets what as an individual reward?
– How to make the reward have lasting significance?
– How to recognize individual performance?
• Letters of commendation
• Public recognition for outstanding work
• Desirable job assignments
• Increased personal flexibility

11–15
 Achieving Cross-Functional
Cooperation
Superordinate Goals Task
Outcomes

Rules & Procedures

Cross-functional
cooperation
Physical Proximity Psycho-
Social
Outcomes

Accessibility
 Building High-Performing Teams
Make the project team tangible
– Publicity
– Terminology & language
Reward good behavior
– Flexibility
– Creativity
Develop a personal touch
– Lead by example
– Positive feedback for good performance
– Accessibility & consistency
 10/22/2020

MS Project Management

Seminar in Project Management

Social Conflict Management framework for

Project Viability

By
Dr. Naveed Iqbal
1

Early mitigation scenario (T2)

• Public conflict is managed successfully through
active conflict-resolution strategies in project
early stages
• Consensus is reached before the conflict
escalates into a social issue and becomes more
widespread.
• These conflicts are mitigated by improving
stakeholders' confidence through governmental
resolution efforts.

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• Such efforts enhance project transparency

through briefing sessions and allow external
stakeholders, such as residents, NGOs, and
media, to voice their concerns and opinions
through public polling and hearings.
• The Cheonggye River Restoration Project (P7)
is a representative example of the early
mitigation scenario.

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• urban redevelopment mega-project in Seoul's city

center caused numerous conflicts in the planning
stage involving multiple stakeholders.
• The main conflict occurred by infringement of local
merchants' properties, and other civic groups raised
a significant concern over the restoration of cultural
assets that intensified the conflict
– (Design Stage-Damage to property).
• All conflicts arose at an early stage of the project and
resulted in opposition movements
– (Design-Opposition movement).

Design-Alternative Dispute Resolution

• Publicity, compensation, postponement, and

avoidance strategies, that they deployed through
various committees and organizations
• Such efforts led to a consensus such that the
project was successfully started and finished
without more incidents.
• Obtaining the project executor's confidence and
fidelity through an early conflict management is
most effective conflict resolution method

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• failed to reach an early consensus, might have

been developed as

• Project termination
• Late mitigation
• Project Enforcement (T4)

Late mitigation and project enforcement scenarios

insufficient feasibility studies, limited or no

information sharing between stakeholders, and
environmental issues.

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• Represent a project that is influenced by events occurring during the

construction phase
• Lead to cost increases and time delays.
• Most project conflicts are in these two scenarios.
• These previously ignored issues surface and intensify the tension during the
construction phase, which leads to other issues related to site selection,
compensation, or right-to-life concerns
• Local conflicts may spark a transition to national-wide conflicts because of
intervention by civic and environmental groups or extreme acts of protest,
such as fasting protests, self-immolation, or suicide
• Resolve during the construction phase through alternative disput resolution,
such as the creation of conflict arbitration commissions or additional feasibility
analyses.

The Sapae Mountain Tunnel Project

• Environmental Impact Assessment stage-Environmental
concern
• Design stage-Opposition movement
• Yet the Project was started without the proper conflict
resolution activities
• construction was suspended quickly after six months
because the conflict worsened due to religious
organization
• An armed clash among the stakeholders occurred,
which transformed the conflict into a national issue
(Construction stage-Extreme opposition event and
Politicization)

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• This bad situation was prolonged

• Conflict's intensification prompted public opinion
calling for a quick resolution.
• Government and parties reached a consensus by
introducing an eco-friendly tunneling method that
minimized the impact on underground water and the
• surrounding ecosystem (Construction Stage-
Alternative Dispute Resolution).
• construction was already delayed for two years,
creating significant financial losses.

• When parties fail to reach a consensus,

construction may eventually proceed using
strong physical methods, such as forceful
dispersion and armed suppression of
protesters.

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Late occurrence scenario (T5)

• The late occurrence scenario consists of projects
in which conflicts occur during the operation and
maintenance phase
• Two types of main conflict causes are usually
involved in this scenario.
• The first cause is related to facility pricing
– conflicts arise over dissatisfaction with the price
policy, - high level of fares in toll roads. Complaints by
local residents fuel these conflicts. Generally, these
conflicts are easily
– The second cause of conflicts in the late occurrence
scenario arises from environmental issue

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 10/22/2020

MS Project Management

Seminar in Project Management

Social Conflict Management framework for

Project Viability

By
Dr. Naveed Iqbal
1

Social conflict
• Traditionally, conflict management in construction
projects has focused on disagreement among
internal stakeholders, such as employer,
contractors, and subcontractors.
• Social conflict has become a critical factor for
project viability.
• Conflicts among external stakeholders have a
significant impact on project performance as well
as on social governance

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Social conflict
• Social conflict occurs among external
stakeholders for construction projects
including
– contractors, residents, governments, and NGOs,
• In Korea, social conflicts have an impact of US
$70 billion annually
• In Korean construction projects, external
conflicts have resulted in average delays of 3.6
years and cost increases of 290%

Social conflict
• In addition, social costs of US$ 70 billion are
incurred annually from direct and indirect
influences of managing social conflicts
• Despite these impacts, external conflicts in a
construction project are considered only one of a
project's various risk factors that occur during the
construction phase, such as civil complaints and
public resistance
• To manage conflicts effectively, conflicts must
first be recognized, and alternatives systematically
presented using a systematic approach

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• For this reason, we will discuss typologies of

conflict scenarios among external
stakeholders for public construction projects,

Types of stakholders
• Internal
– Internal stakeholders are contractually involved in
the project on the demand side such as financiers
and employers and on the supply side such as
contractors, engineers, and architects.
• External
– External stakeholders are typically composed of
the public and private sectors without any legally
recognized relationship, which include
governments, local residents, and third parties
such as NGOs or civic groups

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Although the conflicts among

external stakeholders more often
involve social issues and the
conflict sometimes have a greater
impact on projects than the
conflicts among internal
stakeholders.

To alleviate social conflicts and

costs, in this sesion we will discuss
a conflict management framework
based on twenty-two
representative public Mega
construction projects.

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Conflict Management

Types of conflict
1. value conflict
2. Relationship conflict
3. Interest conflict
4. Data conflict
5. Structural conflict.

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value conflict
• caused by the different criteria used to evaluate
certain behaviors or by exclusive and intrinsically
valuable goals.
• This type is the most difficult to mitigate and
overcome because this form of conflict is not a
matter of interest or communication,
• but a foundation of personal identity. To
overcome value conflict, sharing information
about each stakeholders' value
• and seeking for consensus within a common
value are essential

Relationship conflict
• caused by strong emotions, misperceptions and
miscommunication.
• The stakeholders with prior negative experiences
with each other are likely to enter a relationship
conflict.
• If the stakeholders have negative feelings like
regionalism, distrusts they stand on the other side.
• It can also be affected by the other types of
conflict.

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Interest conflict
• Caused by a competition for profits, resources,
or rights, land compensation.
• Most conflicts in public construction projects
stem from interest conflict, as this sort of
conflict drives economic disputes

• Data conflict is caused by a lack of information

or different views regarding the relevancy of
certain data.
• Structural conflict is caused by unequal power
between stakeholders such as the central
government versus the local government.

• To prevent these classes of conflicts, objective

information must be shared with experts and the
best alternative needs to be found.

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Structuring the causes of conflict

• Step 1: Analyzing conflict to determine causes
• The causes of conflict vary largely based on the
given project and no uniform causes and their
impacts exist.
• The causes of conflicts during public projects
include differences
– in information, confidence, interests, needs, and
valuations among the conflict parties as well as the
scarcity of resources, the existence of interest groups
such as non-governmental organizations, social
structure, and one-sided project enforcement

Approaches to identify the causes

of conflict
• One standard approach is to organize the
causes based on either the type of project or
the type of conflict
• By examining the project characteristics
Researchers have observed that the main
causes of conflicts often differ based on the
project type.

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Conflict Management
• Conflicts are caused by differences in
stakeholders’ perception, so consensus,
negotiation, and so forth are key to conflict
resolution