TOPIC: Conflict resolution

A simulated exam question....

Two team members on your current construction project are engaged in a major argument concerning the selection of project management software. They refuse to listen to each other. The most appropriate conflict resolution approach for you to use in this situation is

a. Accommodating
b. Compromising
c. Collaborating
d. Forcing

According to the person who posted it, D. Forcing, was the correct answer. I haven't come across a situation where forcing has been the most appropriate answer. Can anyone explain why that might be the case here.

I would love to hear from others on this as well for a sanity check.

I believe there are two reasons why forcing might be the correct answer here.

1) This is a "Software X or Software Y" situation and you cannot (the way I'm interpreting it) use a combination of both software which would rule out or make the other three options less feasible. This is the weaker reason of the two that I have.

2) The issue here is which Project Management software to use and that isn't something the project team should be debating. It would either be whatever the organization has mandated or what the Project Manager (being the subject matter expert) thinks is best suited to the project.

Mostly due to the second reason I would say forcing can be justified here, though you're on the right track that it is almost never the correct answer. It seems to be warranted here though.

Again I'd love to see what others think as this is an interesting question / scenario.

we have four options here, using the elimination technique to approach this question:
First option "Accommodating" is discarded as it is not one of the conflict resolution techniques.
Second option "Compromising", I will discard it for the same reason outlined by Yasir. this is a software selection decision, and the decision can't be compromised.

Third option "Collaborating", I think normally this would be the best option. but if you recheck the question you will find the sentence "They refuse to listen to each other" which implies that collaboration technique was being tried and wasn't effective.

Forth option "Forcing", this is the last option and the correct one. forcing is the last resort since collaboration didn't work already.

Hi Jay,

please specify where is the question from, to maintain credit for the question creator.

Someone posted this question in a PMP group I'm a member of on LinkedIn. I'm not sure what the rules are for this forum on whether or not I can post the link of the post in question or not. If I can, let me know and I'll copy and paste the link here.

I think it is OK to post the URL unless the question owner prohibits that.

www.linkedin.com/groups/2356441/2356441-6084362028695171073