ABSTRACT
Special Project teams: Managing the potential for Intra-organizational conflict
Rob McEllister
School of International Business
Queensland University of Technology
2 George Street
Brisbane 4000
Australia
r.mcellister@qut.edu.au
Tel: +61 7 38641242
Fax: + 61 738641771
Deborah Bond
School of International Business
Queensland University of Technology
2 George Street
Brisbane 4000
Australia
d.bond@qut.edu.au
Fax: + 61 738641771
MaxHiggins
higginsm@anz.com
Track:Organisational Conflict
Abstract
As organizations become more complex and face increasing challenges to innovate to
maintain or establish a competitive edge, the role of special project teams is often
pivotal in implementing such strategies.
Quite often these special project teams are formed from within the organization.This
can have several outcomes for the organization. Often the members may be viewed
with suspicion or hostility as they are seen to have some degree of privilege or access
to confidential information unavailable to members of the organization. Also, often
the special project team is an agent of change, and, as such may be viewed as taking
action that may threaten the status quo or jeopardise their position or status within the
organization. Special project teams, because of their small size and focussed expertise
(IT, systems, and financial flows); tend to develop their own culture and team
members tend to have loyalty to the project team rather than the overall organization.
The activities of the special project team have the potential to cause conflict within
the organization; therefore it is imperative that part of the formation process should
include some mechanism for managing this potential for conflict. This paper
examines these issues within the context of a special project team working in a large
Australian financial organization. From this, some preliminary conclusions are made
concerning how an effective conflict management strategy may decrease the potential
for intra-organizational conflict and may assist the special project team to implement
and operationalise its designated strategy.