Question on conflict

Submitted by raza82 on Mon, 01/21/2013 - 18:08

I guess this is a good teaser:

 

Which of the following best describes the conflict that arises when a project team meber has dual reporting relationship between a functional manager and a PM.

a) storming

b) Matrix organisation

c) Ambiguous Jurisdiction

d) Conflict Management

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phani112

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 18:38

The answers are completely different than the question. If I have to choose, I go with Option B.

sunitaPMP

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 18:40

option B?

projmanpro

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 20:20

Non-sense and wrong question. If you are preparing for PMP and is relying on books or mock exams with that kind of question, believe me you will not get your PMP.  :)

raza82

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 20:27

Even I was confused and had choosed Matrix Organisation but the answer given is Ambiguous Jurisdiction.

Explaination: AJ is a term that describes the conflict that arises when a project team member has dual reporting relationship between a functional manager and a PM.

When I googled the meaning of Ambiguos Jurisdiction it is actually listed in many websites.

 

projmanpro

Tue, 01/22/2013 - 05:09

Agree, i have also seen some websites or mock tests with such a question, but then again my impression is the same. Dont you know why?

First, the term 'ambiguous jurisdiction' is NOT a standard PMI or PMBOK term. This term is probably invented by some who wanted to express the same logic, simply these two words  -  'ambiguous' means not clear, while 'jurisdiction' means the authority or scope over something. In the given question and choices, yes it is most-likely that choice which is correct apart from other choices, though in essence cannot be a realistic question. 

If you read the PMBOK section about the different types of organization, the context about the complexity of jurisdiction or reporting procedure in functional organization have been discussed BUT PMI never termed that as 'ambiguous jurisdiction'. 

The scenario will be like deriving the quadratic equation giving you one implied answer, but in reality there are many ways to derive the quadratic equation.

Second, even if your organization' structure is 'Functional' type, scope or jurisdiction of duties and responsibilities and reporting procedures MUST be clearly and properly defined from the very beginning, hence this type is universally acceptable as posing no conflict among teams. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why PMI did not emphasize of the ambiguity of jurisdiction in functional organization and consider this as a conflict. So, how come it would be given as a realistic PMP question or even a mock-up question?  That's why in my opinion, this is a poor and non-sense question. :)

Other term invented which i can see in some posts here - Questions and Answers is 're-baselining' where i commented also that there is no such thing as 're-baselining' in as far as PMBOK or PMIsm is concerned.