Using emotional intelligence during conflict resolution in projects

This research confirms that emotionally intelligent project managers have a better ability to facilitate conflict during project implementation, which reduces the negative impact on project success. The conflict management strategies of project managers were determined as well as their level of emotional intelligence utilizing known instruments. Additionally, the project success of eight case studies that the project managers were responsible to manage, were analysed to understand the subsequent impact on overall project success the project managers had. The findings suggest that project managers with a high level of emotional intelligence prefer the conflict management strategy of compromising with this preference having a positive effect on the outcome of the project. This research provides individual project managers as well as organizations knowledge which can be used in the development of their social skills to efficiently deal with conflict in the project environment.