Q2) What caused the conflict between the project managers and the other employees?

As the business volume and the resulting workload increased, BEC adopted a new project
management system, to coordinate several employees from different departments. Conflicts arise
due to the unclear distribution of roles, responsibilities/authority, nebulous hierarchy and
improper task streamlining.
Employees working on a project received directions from both their department managers and
from project managers which created conflicts in their task deadlines. Both the managers shared
equal authority which confused the employees and made it difficult for them to prioritize their
tasks. Given the urgent requirements of the customers and strict deadlines imposed by two
different managers, employees ended up using their judgment to decide the priority of tasks.
These employees are not sure if the project manager or the department manager is their direct
supervisor. This, in turn, causes conflict between the employees, the project manager and
departmental managers.
The role of project manager was not accepted by the departmental managers. On the other hand,
project managers were uncomfortable with the departmental managers being at the same
hierarchical level. As they were peers, they did not have any direct influence on each other. As
project managers lacked formal authority and stable base of power, they must consider
alternative modes to minimize conflicts and to obtain project success. As the functional manager
is normally perceived by project personnel as the real boss, balance of power can be restored by
giving the project managers the authority to conduct formal performance evaluations on their
project team members.