The Project Management Office Toolkit

Negotiation, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution

Project managers are expected to handle the interpersonal and professional issues that normally arise during projects. When there are disagreements, the project manager is responsible for resolving them. When there are personality clashes, the project manager's job is to limit their effect so that the work gets done. However, some conflicts either are too intractable to handle, or impinge on areas outside the project manager's authority. In such cases, one of the roles of the project office can be to help find a solution by directly negotiating with a disputant, mediating between adversaries, or involving someone else in the organization to fill that role.

With some disputes, such as union-management ...