Is workplace conflict costly? An international case study of conflict and stress among project managers

Abstract

Mental and physical wellbeing always determine the individual’s ability, productivity, and work performance. Based on this fact we can declare that stress and conflict are two things that most people avoid, because of its consequence on mental and physical health. This study presents a research on stress and conflict amongst project managers. It examines how certain conditions of work and level of conflict affect the project manager at work and causes stress. The purpose is to determine the effect of work conflict among employees on causing job stress. Data was gathered from thirty international project managers, using self-administered questionnaires. The result indicated that conflict in organization serves as a mechanism that increases job stress. The key findings are that stress and conflicts can influence each other, and affect both the physical and mental wellbeing of project managers, as well as both the performance of individuals and organizations. Therefore, researchers suggested that to reduce the job stress of project mangers the management should control the level of conflict among employees, foster constructive conflict, and inculcate some rules and ways to manage inefficient conflict.