Managing conflict in distributed projects

Abstract

Since late 1990s, the increasing number of complex and knowledge based industries in one hand, and formation of IT-based communications on the other hand, have raised the possibility of communication in international projects between different groups from several countries around the world. Nowadays, the emergence of multinational and massive scale projects is increasing. For such projects, traditional and routine frameworks should be replaced by some new concepts such as mega projects, distributed projects and GVT (Global Virtual Teams). Although conflicts are natural and inevitable in the distributed projects, inadequate attention to proper management of conflict, specifically in distributed projects facing with several sources of conflicts, can lead to ineffectiveness of such projects. So, the purpose of our research is to investigate and classify the sources of conflicts in distributed projects and to develop the methods to manage the identified conflicts. Data was gathered using questionnaires and interviews. Results indicated three elements including team members, process and technology as the main factors causing conflict in distributed projects. At the end, some future orientations have been suggested for future research.