Investigation and implementation of conflict management strategies to minimize conflicts in the construction industry

Abstract

Conflicts are an unavoidable part of the organization but what is important is how the organization determines the root cause of the conflicts and manages them. This study aims to investigate the implementation of conflict management strategies to minimize the conflicts in the construction industry. Methodological triangulation was adopted, including the literature review, and a questionnaire survey to obtain data from 80 construction professionals. The results revealed that employee's awareness is the greatest cause of conflict in the construction industry, whereas union management conflict was found to be the major type of conflict. Collective bargaining strategy is found to be more effective in managing conflict. Correlation coefficient analysis between organization performance and conflict management techniques shows that there is a positive relationship between the organisational performance and conflict management strategies such as compromise, collective bargaining and accommodation, whereas the other strategies have a negative impact on organisational performance.

Keywords:

• Causes of conflicts
• conflict management strategies
• construction industry
• project managers

Acknowledgements

This research was supported and funded by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and funded by the Ministry of Education (2016R1A6A1A03012812).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported and funded by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and funded by the Ministry of Education (2016R1A6A1A03012812).