Final Group Project: Managing of Cultural Conflict

Final Project   Conflicts in OUR TEAM

Our group is different from other groups, we are from EIE, each member in our group has few experience taking this kind of courses. Everyone in our group enjoy this course, it is interesting and vivid, but, inevitably, we will have some conflicts in our assignments just like other groups, but all these conflicts are been solved fortunately.

Three main conflicts in our group are:

1.Time arrangement

2. Team member have to communicatevirtually or rely on virtual technologies to coordinate and collaborate

3.New knowledge for our team to study and understand. 

1. Time arrangement

   Because we three team members have courses respectively, especially someone has internship in Shenzhen, so it is difficult we have time together talk about these course assignments. The conflicts occurred when we discussing what time to do the assignment and communicate face-to-face. Someone has time but another don’t have, this things happened several times. Especially the guy has internship in Shenzhen, he just has time at weekends, because he has work in daytime and has courses at night. But we solve this conflict, we can do our preparation on our own, then we meet just exchange our ideas, rather than study together. This method saves a lot of time, and we can do our assignment harmoniously.  

2. Team members have to communicate virtually or rely on virtual technologies to coordinate and collaborate

   As is shown above, our group members have different courses and some of us do not have time to do course assignment together. So we have to find another method to finish our work--we find we should use virtual technologies. We start to communicate on mobile devices and computer. QQ and we chat is the most common tools we used, and sometimes we use google doc, too. At first we feel great because these technologies solved our problems and let us can complete our work successfully. However, after few weeks, some new problem appears: because we are not do assignment face to face, we find it is very hard to deliver one member’s thoughts and willing to other group members accurately and integrally, there always be some misunderstanding. And modification and integration are also be harder. What’s more, not communication face to face are not good for development of our team relationship, either. Fortunately, we finally solve these problem though it take us long time. We cannot communicate face to face and that also mean our time online is much more. We can negotiate about our own idea which is a good way to understand each other we realized we should show more trust and spend more time on other’s outcome and reflect appropriately. And soon we find it is not a problem anymore.

3. New knowledge for our team to study and understand.

     Cross-field is one of the biggest problem of our ‘science geeks’ group. Born to learn the electrics but clumsy in learning the MGT knowledge. The way to learn the things we never touch before is a difficult way. We try to learn it using the original way that we used to do in our science study, but…there is no lab session, neither the formula for us to study the principle of the theory, just words, paragraph, and…stories. Stories, yes stories, that is where we make breakthrough, and that is the only things we are similar with. We read stories first, and tell stories to each other, and try to figure out some analysis by ourselves, then compare to the analysis with the writer’s, we learn it in a dramatic fast speed. To be honest, we did first begin with some ‘concrete’ aspect each people, then share the idea of each part, and then combine them together and sturdy others parts. We know it is not the best way but it is the fastest way for us to cross the threshold of the different area which we never touched for 20 years. Later, we begin to read all aspect of the reading, and try to grasp some idea and key theory to the point, then, we made it.

Group Assignment 2

Complain about bad quality and service of product

Brief introduction

      This is a story about a consumer and vender and their product. Garnet and his family buy a flying camera drone not long ago with quite a lot money. But just the first time he play the drone something wrong with the drone and finally it crashed and broken. Since it is still under warranty period and sure about the correct operation, he went to dealer but seems to be perfunctory and no effective response.so he write this complaint letter to official customer center hoping for a resolution. Actually it is quite common these days since the worse relationship between buyer and seller and sometimes the producer. It is quite interrelated to our daily life so we choose this to see if there is a better solution.

The complaint letter:

Product: flying-camera drone, a camera that can ‘fly’ in the sky and take video/photo.

From Kevin Garnet:

Dear customer center:

I have bought your product, which cost me 7000HKD, a flying-camera drone, on 31 Oct 2014 from ABC store (123 A, Block abc, 10 Jaya road, CDE, HK), with official receipt :123456; just for your reference. Total number of flights is about 10 times only as it is still new. No modification or whatsoever on the drone or remote controller, I flew with all with stock provided in the box.

With broken heart, I wish to inform to you that my new drone has out of control and crashed into ground at the opposite of the river aqueduct at about 500 - 600m away from where my position was yesterday. I want to fix it when I grab it, but, unfortunately, failed. Before my further elaboration, I want to let you know that I have followed strictly all the necessary steps as the manual guide said. I also make sure that all parts are fully charged before flight. Despite I am relatively new to drone, I have done all my due diligent such as online/offline survey, read as much as possible that included but not limited to your esteem company website, Facebook, forums, and instruction manual. In short, I am a big fan of your product and take no risk to fly if I am not confident to do so, but now, I doubt, 10 times the drone was broken. Following is the background of flying:

Background:

- flying on the river aqueduct

- wind speed was moderate

- 9 to 11 satellites were detected (safe to fly on 7 satellites)

- this was my second time flying at the same place, each time will fly with all the 3 batteries that I have.

- did calibration and GPS was lock [work fine].

-    During the 1st two flights with the 2 batteries, it worked well though now it’s crashed.

The distance was around 100m total. Satellite conditions I don't think was the issue as I flew my self-built drone for about an hour and saw others flying quads nearby as well. Flight mode at the time of incident was GPS mode (the most common mode)

The incident:

Initially my drone was working absolutely fine for the first 2 batteries, but when I changed to the 3rd battery and after all the calibration and GPS lock confirmation, when I took it off at the altitude of around 100m (maximum official height was 700m), out of sudden, I received "flight height limit achieved" message on my App. I was wondering why such a warning received at the altitude of <100m; especially at the same place I have flown, even at higher altitude on my previous flight with the 1st two batteries? Anyway, I didn't have much doubts about the situation initially as I try to fly it back. As expected, a short while after receiving the height limit reached message, I am trying to return the drone home. At that time, I cannot control my drone, when control was lost I tried to get the drone to respond. I pressed the controls and switched flight modes but the quad did not respond, I tried manual control mode as well, no response from the drone as if the controller was not even turned on, I tried to pull it down but it still raise up and forward. Unfortunately, due to poor Wi-Fi connection, I was not able to see much from my mobile screen as well!! Other than waiting for it to fly automatically , in between I was trying to adjust my Wi-Fi extender (with hope that the connection can be re-establish) and occasionally look up to the sky. While I was still hoping it to come back work again, but things went exactly the opposite way. It actually flew away from me to the river aqueduct at the opposite side of the river. I saw my drone was “sleeping upside down" that made me believe that it has crashed heavily, even the camera was out. Besides, I also asked people around who were watching me flying (they are stranger), they also claimed that they saw my drone has flown away and they thought I "intentionally" flew that way before realizing it was not the case.

Had GPS lock, full charge, everything was prepped before take-off. This malfunction was not a user error. I always check a drone like I would inspect a speed boat or an ultralight airplane. This is a potentially dangerous piece of machinery, it is necessary; if the drone hits a house, car or a person, I will be arrested.

I really don't know why it happened despite I have done what is necessary, but one thing for sure is that I have lost my drone permanently and not able to recover. I can't help not to put the blame on your manufacturing fault as it is a totally brand new with almost a month old only. This is definitely not a cheap "toy" for me and I needed to spend many months of my saving just to own it.

After-service experience:

I have contacted your local dealer this morning. According to owner (his name is called ABC Chan), he has made the feedback to local sales personal, but there was no reply thus far. I was told to contact the support team, 852-11111111, but when I call them, they just send me a copy and paste response with troubleshooting steps or whatever else and they kick me back into the local dealer again who is absolutely tell me to contact those support. I thought I had been kicked as a ball with no result of resolving my problem now, I’m coming to you, the official customer center who take charge of the service of your product worldwide, and hop you can help me out.

I need to speak to a person who understands this problem. I recently acquired this drone and I am just distraught at what happened. My 11 year old son were flying this drone with me standing next to him and I watched him take it up 30 feet into the air, there was a malfunction of some sort and the drone flew up, up and out. It literally flew away like a balloon and crash! I think drone was an expensive loss for me and my son and we are both very saddened about this. Wow! Is this a common issue?

I love drone so much, and I am so impressed with your product and wish to continue to be the loyal customer. By writing to you, I sincerely hope that you can seriously consider my case and help me to recover the loss of my drone with one new replacement of the drone (camera + gimbal) and one battery since it is still under warranty period. I will appreciate your help and attention on this matter and hope to hear from you the soonest possible with favorable reply, hopefully.

Thank you.

Best regards

 Kevin Garnet

(team 7)

Analysis:

How this complaint arises

Complaints aroused from Omission & Lack of communication

When complaint happened, there must be conflict between two parts. We have already learnt that conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected,

or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about. We can easily judge that Garnet’s complaint came from two points:

1.      He is the big fan of this company and really like their product and have confidence and faith in them. However the first time he use their product it has some quality problems and cause his favorite drone broken. It really cannot be accept both mentally and economically.

2.      The most important and critical point, when he came to the local dealer and sales ,they seems think it is not their responsibility and just attend to a matter negligently and give the liability to support team, which is also slipshod in work and kick him back to the local sales, which is really disappointed and enraged Mr. garnet.

If any department above can give Garnet a promise or some kind of reflect rather than just pass the buck, Mr. Garnet may not come to write such a complaint letter to the official center.

Complaint kind: consumer complaint

A consumer complaint or customer complaint is “an expression of dissatisfaction on a consumer’s behalf to a responsible party” (Landon, 1980). It can also be described in a positive sense as a report from a consumer providing documentation about a problem with a product or service.[1] In fact, some modern business consultants urge businesses to view customer complaints as a gift.[2][3]

Consumer complaints are usually informal complaints directly addressed to a company or public service provider, and most consumers manage to resolve problems with products and services in this way, but it sometimes requires persistence, just like garnet’s situation.It is a typical consumer complaint, and actually have many polices and laws in many countries at present.The statutory authority may require companies to reply to complaints within set time limits, publish written procedures for handling customer dissatisfaction, and provide information about arbitration schemes. So we can happily foreseeing that this case will be disposed quickly.

To solve the conflict:

In this case just ignore the problem cannot lead to a satisfied result, but there is something can do to lead to a better result.

Compromising

All the conflict has this selection. Sometimes we could make a little concession for a better ending. In this case garnet can give more time to the company but make sure there will be a resolution method after the deadline, all ask for fewer compensation which can be accept by both side.

Do a little self-evaluation

Sometimes, problem cannot be settle may not only because the issue itself, sometimes the victim will also done the wrong step. So evaluate themselves is also necessary. Is that the attitude or some information misreading cause the bad situation up to now? Is there a better mode to treat this problem? At most situation, the answer is YES.

Ask 3^rd party for help

Some different views we can get:

This kind of conflicts can promote the development of the company.  As we can find in the letter, the after-sales service is not perfect. The quality of after-sales service is one of the key factors to test a company whether or not successful. Kevin Garnet is a sensible man that takes action like writing a letter to the consumer center. If this is a man with hot temper, the results shouldn’t like this, it may lead to huge argument or some injuries.

The company can gather the flying data from Kevin Garnet and update their product.

The good news is that Kevin Garnet is a careful person. On the onside, this data may be a bad negative factor for the company, but on the other hand, this is a wealth for the company, they can analyze how to enhance the quality of their products. And the method for solving the complaint is structured problem solving. [4]

The consumer can prepare more in the next consumption

With this experience, Kevin Garnet can obtain something rather than just complain. For an example, if something happen next time, he knows the most effective solution.

References.

1."What Is a Consumer Complaint?". Wisegeek.com. Retrieved December 9, 2011.

Jump up ^ "BJ Gallagher: A Customer Complaint Is a Gift". Huffingtonpost.com. August 1, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2011.

2. Jump up ^ Bleuel, William (December 20, 2010). "The GBR Book Corner Reviews: A Complaint Is a Gift by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller | Graziadio Business Review | Graziadio School of 3.Business and Management | Pepperdine University". Gbr.pepperdine.edu. Retrieved December 9, 2011.

4.week 10 lecture.

Group Assignment 1: Innovating a New Kitchenware in a Team Setting(revision)

Assignment 1:
We are group 7. In order to find some relationship between trust and creativity when having  teamwork , we totally done the "simulation work" .After we done the exercise A1 and A2, we really find something interesting.

When we do the EX. A1,our team will quickly reach an agreement because they don't have redundant steps and they have a powerful team supervisor. He directly give out the idea-- smart kitchenware(which we will give some details later) ,some of the team member come uo with other idea like smart dish-washer, smart range hood and smart tap, etc. however,to follow the principle, supervisor have to give to negative aspect of a good idea, the smart tap become the result though smart range hood may be better,but because tap is easy to find disadvantage,it become the final result.And another problem we found is team member don't have chance to meet the company's management layer,when we thought about this, we don't have too much enthusiasm, and the final product may have some disadvantage by our group rules-- everyone should say something after permission.

And later when we simulate EX. A2, we reach to an agreement slower because  everyone in the group are willing to talk about their creative ideas,and we really have some amazing ideas but it is also occupied too much time.Our product seems to be much more perfect because everyone can contribute their thoughts at once. Everyone have the opportunity to show themselves in front of the management layer, everyone has the passion to do it.

A1 30s outline:

1.      Supervisor give out the result of choosing smart tap to be the next product.

2.      Provide the reason and prospects for development, both strength and weakness in brief.
3. Function: The tap, with the timer,and a reader, that can read the quantity that the currently water flow, and can control

A2 60s outline:

1.      Leader give out the result of choosing smart range hood to be the next product, and praise his teammate and invite them to provide some further information.

2.      Member1 present their idea of the product and advantage in technique and market.

3.      Member 2 present the weakness and the optimization of their product.

   

After exercise, we make a short summary that the scenario 1 we call it power centralized team, and scenario 2 we call it equal team because in A1 the supervisor have all the power just like he is the king and A2 seems all member have the same rights and duties. we also find these rules will inhibit our product development process

A1:

1.      Team member is no allow to talk without permission.

Because the inspiration is easy to come and easier to disappear. if we cannot share it at once, we may forget.

2.      To trust your leader: team member’s idea should check with supervisor first and supervisor instruct others with his/her opinion.

In this way, some idea may not be known by others because supervisor do not like it, even it is actually awesome.

Actually the leader facts is a key point to win, due to the Decision-maker factors by Robert F[1]. Hurley. The team member should trust the decision maker and the decision maker should have a well result of a complex mix of personality, culture, and experience to be believed.

A good team leader can judge the consequence of a battle.

3.      NO LAUGH.

That is incomprehensible. Laugh can active the circumstances. Make the team harmonious and more creative. We cannot even imagine a work place without smile.

And we also find something may facilitate the development process

4.      The right team leader

.in this A1 that had a high levels of the collaborative behavior and a better efficiency due to the effort to the leader who clearly made a significant difference.

We can tell that the leader in A1 were both leader who are task-and relationship-oriented which fit the rules of the 8 ways to collaborate---right team leader.

A2:

1.      another way to trust :Free talk environment,

That means everybody can show their idea and talk to others to find a better solution. we think it can stimulate new and creative idea come out .but of course it cannot disturb others.

This is another way to present Trust, is a same-level trust by each group member, which can be called Managing with the Trust Model[1],by using this model, one can found it easier to place his/her faith in others ,such as one can      use this trust to identify what he/she could change one’s feeling according to the example by Sue and Joe[1].

Nobody will be blame by their strange ideas.

That encourage team member come up with more ideas .some wonderful idea cannot hit the world may just because the owner is too shy.

2.      No leader, no role clarity and task ambiguity.

Everyone talks as will means No role clarity and task ambiguity, that is not a good collaborative team which we can tell through 8 ways to build collaborative team[2],which says should be the most important promoting collaboration. A clear define and role play can bring you to the success, instead, proceeding a project with such kind of anarchy will definitely slow down the whole procedure, that is what we have discussed above in our ‘drama’ that A2 has a slower procedure and effectiveness though a better idea.

3.      Team collectively show their result.

That is an affirmation and encouragement to the effort every team member did. And it will obviously prove the group cohesiveness.

According to the analysis above, we think the equal team can done better in this case.

On the other side, it can also bring mess to your team due to the different skills on presentation. A better team will always make the member to feel their effort and give a nice presentation as well

4.      Pixar’s Operating principles works

Indeed, we came out with a better idea in A2 though it take us a longer time to create it.

We must stay close to innovations happening in the academic community[3],A2 did give us a way to put our self into a freedom atmosphere where ‘magic’ happens, tech tools+art=magic. A better idea than A1, though, here is not such kind of team work display in A1.

That is the power to creative, we believe that the creative perspective comes from the brain storm by each individual person instead of the executives department nor does the development department. [3]

[1] Robert F. Hurley(2006). Decision to trust_MANAGING YOURSELF. harvard business review

[2]Lynda Gratton& Tamara J.Erickson(2007). 8 ways to build collaborative teams. 8 ways to build collaborative teams. harvard business review

[3]Sheril, R. D. (2008). How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. Harvard Business Review.