PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
A project manager notices that two senior developers have conflicting work styles, causing delays. What is the best approach to resolve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose 'assign them to separate tasks' (C) thinking it's a quick fix to avoid conflict, but the PMP exam emphasizes that avoidance is a temporary solution that fails to resolve the root cause, whereas facilitation aligns with the servant leadership mindset.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Facilitate a meeting to discuss and resolve differences.
Facilitating a meeting to discuss and resolve differences (D) is the best approach because it directly addresses the root cause of the conflict—work style incompatibility—by fostering open communication and collaborative problem-solving. As a project manager, you act as a servant leader, using conflict resolution techniques like 'confronting' or 'problem-solving' to turn the disagreement into a constructive dialogue that aligns the team toward project goals. This approach preserves team cohesion and leverages the developers' expertise without escalating or avoiding the issue.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Escalate to the functional manager for reassignment.
Why it's wrong here
Escalation transfers the decision to the functional manager, who cannot apply the project manager's integrative conflict-resolution techniques or address the working relationship directly. It is tempting because escalation suits genuine authority disputes, resource conflicts beyond the project manager's remit, or repeated non-compliance after direct intervention has already failed.
- ✗
Ask the team to vote on which style to adopt.
Why it's wrong here
Voting imposes a majority preference, which does not reconcile the two developers' conflicting styles and can entrench the minority's resentment. Team voting suits selecting among options where group consensus genuinely matters, such as choosing a shared tool or process; resolving an interpersonal working-style clash requires direct collaborative problem-solving instead.
- ✗
Assign them to separate tasks to avoid interaction.
Why it's wrong here
Separating the developers removes the interaction but leaves the underlying conflict unresolved, and the stem requires addressing delays caused by that conflict. Task segregation suits genuinely independent workstreams with no shared deliverables; here the two senior developers must collaborate, so avoidance forfeits the collaboration the project needs.
- ✓
Facilitate a meeting to discuss and resolve differences.
Why this is correct
Facilitating a meeting lets both developers voice concerns and agree on working norms, addressing the interpersonal conflict's root cause rather than suppressing it. This collaborative approach satisfies the need to resolve the conflict while preserving the working relationship and unblocking project delays.
Visual reference
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Related to this question
Learn chapter
Leading Teams and Empowering Team Members
Key term
Project Team Management
Project Team Management is the process of leading, coordinating, and supporting a group of people to complete project tasks and achieve project objectives.
Key term
Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is the process of addressing and resolving disagreements between team members or stakeholders to maintain a productive and collaborative project environment.
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