A research report on conflict management inside Grameenphone office. For data source we conducted a face to face interview with employees of Grameenphone. Questionnaire method was used to collect data. Special Thanks to GRAMEENPHONE!

1. A Research Report
On
Conflict Management
Human Resource Management
American International University
Bangladesh
Date: 2.12.2018

2. Prepared for
ABDUL KADER NAZMUL
American International University Bangladesh
Prepared By
ABDULLAH,MD TUSHAR 17-35769-3
PRACHURJO,AHSAN KARIM 17-35619-3
RAHMAN,MOHIUR 17-35823-3
KHAN,FAHIM SHABAB 17-35631-3
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3. Table of Content
Serial Topic Page
1 Acknowledgement 03
2 Executive summary 04
3 Organization Overview 05
4 Statement of the Problem and
Solution
06-13
5 Conclusions 14
6 References 14
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4. Acknowledgment
This research paper would never have been possible without the support and guidance of
various people at Grameenphone. Firstly, I would like to thank you Md. Rajib Khan(Head of
Strategic Accounts).He has taught us the methodology to carry out the research and to
present the research works as clearly as possible. Furthermore, I also thank to my team
members without them I can’t properly complete this research paper.
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5. Executive summary
Every organization encounters conflicts on a daily basis. The conflicts cannot be avoided,
but it is possible to manage them in a way that we recognize them on time. It is necessary
to continuously track the organizational signals which point to them Existence. Conflicts are
experienced every day by both individuals and groups. Conflict appears in a social situation
as any disagreement over the issues of substance or emotional antagonism that create
friction between individuals or groups. Conflicts can be constructive or destructive.
Depending on the nature, conflict can be perceived, latent, manifest, line and staff,
organized and unorganized conflict. Most typically, conflicts develop through a series of
stages, beginning with
antecedent conditions and progressing into manifest conflict. If we do not react duly, this
can lead to the situation that the conflict itself manages the organization. One of the more
important determinants of productivity, efficiency and performance, and finally job
contentment is also the conflict as an independent variable of organizational behavior. By
this paper we want to highlight the process of conflicts management process. We will
show the relationship between the level of conflict and impact on the organization
performance.
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6. CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: A study
on Grameenphone Limited
Grameenphone Limited
Bangladesh is a huge market for the telecommunication business. There are six major
mobile companies that are currently operating its business in Bangladesh. Grameenphone
is the leading telecommunication company of Bangladesh. Today Grameenphone has 20
million subscribers among them they have a large number of corporate houses. In order to
compete in the strongly competitive market the mobile companies have to use appropriate
communication tools to attract the potential target group and to create a strong value of
the organization. I have tried to compile the perception that the customers of
Grameenphone hold in their minds. A primary research was carried on "The perception of
Grameenphone in the minds of its customers". Grameenphone Ltd. is one of the legends in
this telecommunication sector of Bangladesh through their services to the customers.
Rationale of the study
Handling conflict management an Important Life Skill. Conflict is a common, inevitable
part of life. It exists because people don't always get along or agree. When conflict is
resolved effectively, it leads to many benefits, such as accomplishing goals and
strengthening relationships. The key to resolving conflict is identifying true rather than
perceived threats and then finding strategies to solve them. Every day we face various
type of conflicts, it can be in your work team or it can be your in daily life. But we have to
know the strategy of conflicts how to resolve them properly.
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7. Statement of the problem
1.How to handle conflict within team?
2.How to deal with angry customers who complain about product/services?
3.How to deal with a coworker that you have conflicted with?
4.How do you manage to work with people whom you’re not comfortable with?
Question 1
How to handle conflict within team?
Conflict is pretty much inevitable when you work with others. People have different
viewpoints and, under the right set of circumstances, those differences escalate to
conflict. How you handle that conflict determines whether it works to the team's
advantage, or contributes to its demise. You can choose to ignore it, complain about it,
blame someone for it, or try to deal with it through hints and suggestions; or you can be
direct, clarify what is going on, and attempt to reach a resolution through common
techniques like negotiation or compromise. It's clear that conflict has to be dealt with, but
the question is how: it has to be dealt with constructively and with a plan, otherwise it's too
easy to get pulled into the argument and create an even larger mess.
Resolving Conflict:
When a team oversteps the mark of healthy difference of opinion, resolving conflict
requires respect and patience. The human experience of conflict involves our emotions,
perceptions, and actions; we experience it on all three levels, and we need to address all
three levels to resolve it. We must replace the negative experiences with positive ones.
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8. Step 1: Prepare for Resolution:
• Acknowledge the conflict – The conflict has to be acknowledged before it can be
managed and resolved. The tendency is for people to ignore the first signs of conflict,
perhaps as it seems trivial, or is difficult to differentiate from the normal, healthy
debate that teams can thrive on. If you are concerned about the conflict in your team,
discuss it with other members. Once the team recognizes the issue, it can start the
process of resolution.
• Discuss the impact – As a team, discuss the impact the conflict is having on team
dynamics and performance.
• Agree to a cooperative process – Everyone involved must agree to cooperate in to
resolve the conflict. This means putting the team first, and may involve setting aside
your opinion or ideas for the time being. If someone wants to win more than he or she
wants to resolve the conflict, you may find yourself at a stalemate.
• Agree to communicate – The most important thing throughout the resolution process
is for everyone to keep communications open. The people involved need to talk about
the issue and discuss their strong feelings. Active listening is essential here, because to
move on you need to really understand where the other person is coming from.
Step 2: Understanding the situation:
Once the team is ready for resolving the conflict. They need to understand the purpose
of everyone point of view. Take time to make sure that each person's position is heard
and understood. Remember that strong emotions are at work here so you have to get
through the emotion and reveal the true nature of the conflict.
• Clarify positions – Whatever the conflict or disagreement, it's important to clarify
people's positions. Whether there are obvious factions within the team who support a
particular option, approach or idea, or each team member holds their own unique
view, each position needs to be clearly identified and articulated by those involved.
• Analyze in smaller groups – Break the team into smaller groups, separating people
who are in alliance. In these smaller groups, analyze and dissect each position, and the
associated facts, assumptions and beliefs.
• Convene back as a team – After the group dialogue, each side is likely to be much
closer to reaching agreement. The process of uncovering facts and assumptions allows
people to step away from their emotional attachments and see the issue more
objectively. When you separate alliances, the fire of conflict can burn out quickly, and it
is much easier to see the issue and facts laid bare.
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9. Step 3: Reach Agreement:
Now that all parties understand the others' positions, the team must decide what decision
or course of action to take. With the facts and assumptions considered, it's easier to see
the best of action and reach agreement.
If further analysis and evaluation is required, agree what needs to be done, by when and
by whom, and so plan to reach agreement within a particular timescale. If appropriate,
define which decision making and evaluation tools are to be employed.
If such additional work is required, the agreement at this stage is to the approach itself:
Make sure the team is committed to work with the outcome of the proposed analysis and
evaluation
Question 2
How to deal with angry customers who complain about product/services?
Customers get rude or angry for a variety of reasons—some justified, some not. But since
you’re in business to serve your customers, you’ll likely encounter rude or angry individuals
at one time or another. How you respond can make the difference between a customer who
feels satisfied with the resolution and one who vows never to patronize your business
again.
Remain calm- When a customer starts yelling or being otherwise rude, there is nothing to
be gained by responding in a similar manner. In fact, that will probably escalate hostilities.
Maintain control of yourself, even if the customer’s tirade makes you feeling like yelling
yourself.
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10. Use your best listening skills- The first thing an angry customer wants are to vent. To do so,
they need someone to listen and for better or worse, you are that person. Listening
patiently can defuse a situation, as long as the customer feels acknowledged in his or her
complaint. Hear them out. When they are done talking, summarize what you’ve heard and
ask any questions to further clarify their complaint. Body language can be critically
important here. Keep eye contact. Stand or sit up straight. Keep your arms
uncrossed. Show how closely you’re paying attention to their problem.
Apologize- In one a study at the Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, 37%
of customers were satisfied with service recovery when they were offered something of
monetary value. But when the business added an apology on top of the compensation,
satisfaction doubled to 74%.
Value of Apology
Offer the Solution- After apology the customer wants to hearing a solution. Once you
understand why the customer is unhappy, it is time to offer a solution. Ask him what he
feels should be done or put forward your own fair and realistic answer to the problem. In
most cases, that’s all the customer is looking for—and may result in providing some
degree of satisfaction.
Agreeing Solution- When Customer get the solution you need to evaluate the customer
satisfaction, is he happy with the solution or not. If they don’t happy you need to find
another alternative solution.
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11. Question 3
How to deal with a coworker that you have conflicted with?
Everyone has a bad day but if conflicts with your co-workers are affecting your work or
making you seriously miserable, you need to do something about it. First, take a look at the
material in Difficult people and see whether the conflict you have can be addressed with
the Agree Empathize-Inquire strategy.
• As you might expect, you need to control your emotions. You aren't going to make
good decisions in an emotional state. If a co-worker has made you totally nuts, take a
timeout and go someplace where you can calm yourself and review the situation.
• Make sure you have the facts and understand the situation. Is it possible that you got
emotional and are misinterpreting what is going on? It might be helpful to jot down
the situation as you see it and review it a day later just to see if your perspective has
changed.
• Is it really a problem? This is totally up to you. Maybe after reflecting for a day, you'll
decide that whatever is going on isn't really a problem for you. In that case, forget
about it. If it is a problem - you need to do something about it. No problem in the
history of human relations was ever resolved by being ignored.
• Don't go to your boss with every issue. First try to resolve the problem with your co-
worker before escalating to your boss. Your boss will appreciate it.
• Talk to your co-worker. You knew that was coming, didn't you? Don't email them,
don't phone them if they are in the same office - find a time when the two of you can
be alone and say "I think we are having some challenges in the way we are working
together. Do you have some time now to talk about it?". Email is an especially bad
way to deal with problems. The tone doesn't come across and email can be easily
misunderstood. Avoid flame wars.
• Give them your perspective from your point of view. This is really important. Don't
say "You are making fun of me in meetings." Use 'I-phrases'. "I interpreted your
comments in the meeting as minimizing my contribution. Do you feel that I'm not
pulling my weight?" Don't accuse your co-worker, or you will quickly get into an
escalated confrontation. Tell them how you see the situation and how it makes you
feel.
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12. • Suggest solutions. Make positive statements ("I would like it if you would take the
time to consider my suggestions") rather than negative statements ("I hate it when
you ignore me").
• Be prepared to accept criticism. Maybe you are doing something that is driving your
co-worker to act out. Listen carefully and use agree-empathize-inquire.
Shared goals
Given that you are all at the same company, and maybe even in the same organization, you
will have shared goals. The problem arises when those priorities aren’t clear, you have
different interpretations of those goals, there are hidden goals, or someone is focused on
their own goals.
Start with the assumption that you ultimately have some shared goals with this person. You
will need to work to get everyone on the same page with what those goals are, but it is
possible. I will have more on this strategy later.
This is one of the most effective techniques. I often find that we get too focused on the
lower-level goals of our team and ourselves. We have our quarterly MBOs that we have to
hit, so we keep our eyes on the prize. When this happens, people dig in and refuse to budge
on issues that will impact their personal goals
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13. What if you are unable to solve the problem?
• Ask a few other people in the office if they see the conflict. And I mean, a "few". Just
a couple of close friends. You don't want everyone in the office to start taking sides.
Something like "It seems to me that Freida is ignoring me in meetings. Is that how you
see it?" What you want here is confirmation that the problem is serious enough to
escalate.
• Enlist a common friend as a mediator. Maybe. If there is someone you both trust and
are friendly with, ask them if they can help you resolve the problem. "How can I work
better with Freida?" But give them the opportunity to say 'no'. They may not want to
get involved, and that's perfectly ok. It's your problem, not theirs. Use your
judgment.
• Talk with your boss. Really, this is the last resort. Your boss isn't going to be happy
about this conflict. You'll want to pose this as a question: "I've been having a problem
with Frieda and I'd like your advice. Do you have any ideas on what I should do next?"
Question 4
How do you manage to work with people, with whom you are uncomfortable?
Stay Calm and Focused
Difficult people can easily derail even the most reasonable and even-tempered employee,
but flying off the handle never improves the situation. By staying calm and focused on the
task at hand, you may help to defuse the situation and calm the difficult person down.
See from the Other Person’s Eyes
Being yelled at or spoken to gruffly causes a natural defensive instinct to kick in. However,
allowing this reaction to dictate the situation can cause escalation and make it difficult to
remain productive. Being compassionate and trying to understand where the other person
is coming from may help you to determine how best to approach the issue at hand.
Act with Respect
Maintaining a respectful attitude towards a difficult customer or coworker can be hard
when it feels like the person is directly attacking you, but being disrespectful can aggravate
the person. By adding fuel to the fire, you may also find yourself taking some of the blame
and penalty. Maintaining respect for the person will help keep the situation civil and may
make it easier to repair the relationship later on.
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14. Help the Person Empathize with You
Explaining where you are coming from can make a world of difference in some situations.
In some cases, people that seem difficult may be giving resistance because they feel that
you are being difficult. Working through a situation can help both you and the other person
to understand where one another are coming from.
Focus on Forward Motion
Finding a positive solution for a problem can help to deflate a situation by removing the
stress component. Difficult people are often really just stressed out or frustrated people, so
helping them to resolve the source of that stress can put the focus where it belongs instead
of on you.
Separate from the Person
It may seem like a grade school solution, but if a difficult person remains difficult in spite of
attempts to work with them or understand them, it might be necessary to stay away from
the person as much as possible. This may be easier in some workplaces and positions than
others. If necessary, it may help to speak with management or human resources to set up
alternating work schedules or to request office location changes.
Escalate to Higher Authority
Bringing a personal conflict to management should be the last resort for resolution, but
may be necessary if the difficult person is impacting your ability to work. Management has
authority to make changes and provide solutions above and beyond what is possible for
employees, so reporting to management can help to definitively resolve issues with
difficult people.
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15. Conclusions
Productively engaging in conflict is always valuable. Most people are willing and interested
in resolving their conflicts; they just need the appropriate skill set and opportunities in
which to practice this skill set. Without a conflict skill set, people want to avoid conflict,
hoping it will go away or not wanting to make a “big deal out of nothing.” Research and
personal experiences show us that, when we avoid conflict, the conflict actually escalates
and our thoughts and feelings become more negative.
Through conflict self-awareness we can more effectively manage our conflicts and
therefore their professional and personal relationships. Furthermore, by discussing issues
related to conflict management, teams can establish an expected protocol to be followed
by team members when in conflict. All teams and organizations have a conflict culture (the
way the team responds to conflict). However, most teams never discuss what the conflict
culture is, therefore providing the opportunity for individual team members to make
assumptions that can be counterproductive to the team.
Practicing one’s conflict management skills leads to more successful engagement in conflict
with outcomes of relief, understanding, better communication, and greater productivity for
both the individual and the team. When we manage our conflicts more effectively, we use
less energy on the burdensome tasks such as systemic conflict and get to spend more of
our energy on our projects at work and building our relationships. Below are references
that can assist both individuals and teams to greater conflict management success.
References
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23535846_Conflict_Management_in_Organizati
on
http://m.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/8/s/0811_Workplace_conflict_management-
business_poll.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308035653_Conflict_Management_Strategies_-
_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_the_Employees_Working_For_Service_Sectors
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_79.htm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2013/08/02/7-steps-for-dealing-with-angry-
customers/#6eb741606d27
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