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PKMC Module I study materials
PKMC Module I study resources

PKMC Module I: Resource and Team Management, Leadership, and Conflict Resolution

PKMC Module I · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Resource and Team Management, Leadership, and Conflict Resolution

Resource and team questions test whether you can plan accountability, acquire and develop people, and choose a conflict approach that solves the problem rather than hiding it.

Core rules

  • RACI: exactly one accountable per deliverable; responsibility can be shared; consulted is two-way; informed is one-way. Multiple accountable owners is a defect, not a safeguard.
  • Tuckman: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. Storming is normal; the PM's job is to move the team through it, not to prevent it.
  • Motivation: Herzberg's hygiene factors (pay, conditions) prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate; motivators (achievement, recognition, growth) do. Theory Y assumes commitment; Theory X assumes people need coercion.
  • Acquire resources through negotiation with functional managers, pre-assignment, and virtual teams. Develop the team with training, team building, co-location, recognition, ground rules, and a team charter.
  • Conflict modes: collaborating is preferred for important issues when time allows; compromising when both sides need a fast partial win; forcing for safety or emergencies; smoothing for minor issues; withdrawing when the issue is trivial or needs cooling.
  • Conflict is not inherently bad; task conflict can improve decisions, while personal conflict damages teams.

Worked example

Two leads disagree on a database design, the deadline is two weeks out, and both are needed. Forcing picks one design and loses the other lead's commitment; smoothing postpones the decision; compromising splits the difference without testing either option. Collaborating, through a joint session that surfaces the requirements behind each design and tests both against them, costs a day and produces a decision both will defend. Choose it because the issue is important and time permits.

Traps

Choosing forcing or smoothing just to keep the peace. Assigning two accountable owners. Treating storming as failure. Using hygiene factors as motivation. Assuming a virtual team needs no ground rules.