Intragroup conflicts in project team and their effect on pre contract stage

Abstract

Conflict is inevitable to individuals, teams, contractual relationships and organizations in any context. In construction industry multiple professions team setup to achieve specific goals. The project team is the core that holds the project. The contribution of each member of the project team has a significant effect towards the project deliverables. With the effect of conflict the overall outcome of the project can be change significantly. Researches who conducted research on conflict have identified three distinct types of intragroup conflicts as task conflict, process conflict and relationship conflict. There were literatures available in discussing these three types in the construction project team setting regarding their interrelationship, effects in pre contract stage and the ways of mitigating the negative effects of the intragroup conflicts and enhancing their positive effects. Therefore, this research explored how to manage intragroup conflicts in pre contract stage by addressing their effects in pre construction project teams. This research problem was approached through selected case studies of four construction projects, which were operating under the traditional procurement method with remeasurement contracts in Sri Lanka. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three distinct participants of construction team during data collection. The findings revealed the effects created by intragroup conflicts and relationship between the types of intragroup aroused. Based on findings, a framework for understand the effects of intragroup conflicts in each phase that would assist to manage intragroup conflicts in construction project teams in Sri Lanka. Building on the findings, researcher suggests mechanisms to proactively manage conflicts in pre contract stage of construction projects. This will be useful to envelopment of construction industry and clients operating in similar contexts.