Interpersonal Conflict and its Management in Information Systems Development

1. Interpersonal Conflict and its Management in Information Systems Development Presented By: Dalia Suzan Passant Karim Sherine Reham Fairouz Susan Fouad Noha Yasser

2. Conflict Is a phenomenon that is related to a wide range of organizational processes and outcomes

3. Symptoms of conflict • Hostility • Jealousy • Poor communication • Increase of technical rules • Frustration and low moral

4. IS Managers Users are Hostile Business Mangers IS developers are not responsive to their needs Don’t understand business needs Relationship Between Conflict and Information Systems Conflict is real part of IS in corporate life and major to effective computerization WHY????

5. What Is Interpersonal Conflict and How It Is Assessed Interpersonal Conflict:- A phenomenon that occurs between interdependent parties as they experience negative emotional reactions to perceived disagreements and interference with the attainment of their goals. General Themes and Properties Interdependence Negative Emotion Interference Disagreement

7. The Assessment:- It can be classified into 2 groups: • Styleof conflict management. • Levelof interpersonal conflict.

9. Conflict Management Styles: • Problem Solving • Asserting • Avoiding • Compromising • Accommodating InterpersonalConflict Satisfactory Conflict Resolution • ISD Outcomes: • Process Satisfaction • System Quality • System Attitude • Adherence to Budget • Adherence to Schedule • Adherence to Specification • Overall Success

10. Methods • A total of 141 IS directors in some of the major Canadian companies were contacted and interviewed, as well as other 343 of the IS staff members and 450 users. • Points of interest to the researchers: • Interpersonal Conflict • Interpersonal Conflict Criterion • Conflict Management Style • Satisfactory Conflict Resolution • ISD outcomes

11. Results • The correlation between interdependence and the other 3 dimensions were non-significant. • The correlation between interference, disagreement, and negative emotions were high and significant. • The correlation between interpersonal conflict and interference, disagreement, and negative emotions are significant and high.

12. Results Cont’d • The correlation between interpersonal conflict and interdependence are non-significant. • Interpersonal conflict negatively affected ISD conflict. This negative impact remains even after controlling the conflict. • Conflict management have some positive effects on ISD outcomes, but did not reduce the negative impact of conflict.

13. Results Cont’d • The positive outcomes come from the use of appropriate conflict management style, while negative outcomes result from inappropriate styles • Interpersonal conflict has no direct relationship to ISD outcomes once the effect of conflict management styles is accounted for. I.e. The negative outcomes by far outnumber the positive ones.

14. Recommendation Practitioners directed more effort to the assessment of the causes and the prevention of interpersonal conflict.