What are the real causes of a conflict?

Question

Most of the references describe conflict, but rare are those who tackle the real reasons behind a conflict? Why do we have conflicts in projects? Is it because of different backgrounds, different personality types?

Answer 1

The real causes of a conflict derives from the following:

- Opposing needs
- Incompatible personalities
- Contradictory requests (whether internal/external)
- Too much caring (e.g. the project manager cares a lot about his resources so he has a conflict with his stakeholders)