As organizations become more complex and face increasing challenges to innovate to maintain or establish a competitive edge, the role of special project teams is often pivotal in implementing such strategies. Quite often these special project teams are formed from within the organization. This can have several outcomes for the organization. Often the members may be viewed with suspicion or hostility as they are seen to have some degree of privilege or access to confidential information unavailable to members of the organization. Also, often the special project team is an agent of change, and, as such may be viewed as taking action that may threaten the status quo or jeopardise their position or status within the organization. Special project teams, because of their small size and focussed expertise (IT, systems, and financial flows); tend to develop their own culture and team members tend to have loyalty to the project team rather than the overall organization. The activities of the special project team have the potential to cause conflict within the organization; therefore it is imperative that part of the formation process should include some mechanism for managing this potential for conflict. This paper examines these issues within the context of a special project team working in a large Australian financial organization. From this, some preliminary conclusions are made concerning how an effective conflict management strategy may decrease the potential for intra-organizational conflict and may assist the special project team to implement and operationalise its designated strategy.