Conflict Resolution Techniques for Customer and Team Issues

This assessment requires you to use appropriate conflict-resolution techniques and communication skills to resolve customer and team issues. You are required to complete scenarios and answer questions related to conflict resolution techniques, potential impacts of conflicts on businesses, and strategies to resolve disputes effectively.

ASSESSMENT E – SCENARIO
INSTRUCTIONS (for assessments not embedded within the LMS)
 The assessment must be written using an industry standard software package such as Microsoft Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
 Name the file using the assessment task number and then save your file.
 Ensure your submission identifies the unit code and title, the assessment task number and the name of the
assessment at the top of the page. Alternatively, you may place this information in the document header.
 Add your name and student number to the header or footer on every page.
 On completion, submit your assessment to your assessor via the LMS.
Learner assessment guide and evidence
This assessment requires you to use appropriate conflict-resolution techniques and
communication skills to resolve customer and team issues.
You are required to do the following.
Complete Scenarios 1 and 2 in Assessment E.
Read each scenario and complete the tasks.
Answer the questions.
Scenario 1
Choose a scenario relevant to your training or work environment.
Answer the questions based on the general information and your selected option.
General information
You are the supervisor of a team and are responsible for the smooth operation of your work area
during your shift. You have the authority to resolve most types of customer complaints except
those that have serious potential legal or public relations implications to the business. These must
be referred to your manager as soon as these issues arise. You can offer compensation in the
form of refunds, complimentary items, additional services, add-ons or upgrades to the value of
$1,000.
Option 1: Hotel bistro
Your area of responsibility is a large hotel bistro. It’s Friday night and you are in the middle of
peak service period. You are short one cook and the kitchen hand as they both called in sick just
prior to the start of their shifts. The average wait for a meal is normally 15 to 20 minutes. Today
it’s 45 minutes.
You can see customers are becoming increasingly upset. You have tried to explain the situation
to as many as possible but as the wait time increases, they are becoming more agitated and irate.
Customers from two different tables approach you to complain about the long wait and poor
service. Both tables are family groups of six or more guests, some of which are children under
12. The average spend per person on food is $30 and $15 on beverages.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Option 2: Conference registration
It’s registration day for a national conference being held at a conference and events centre. You
normally have two staff providing information to arriving participants and four on the
registration desk. Today, you only have two staff to register over 1,000 participants as two have
called in sick. Wait time in the registration queue is currently 20 minutes; it is normally five.
A number of participants approach you to complain. Two are staff from conference exhibitors
who are concerned they are losing potential business as their display stands are unstaffed while
they are waiting in the registration queue. The other complainants are regular conference
participants. Conference registration fees are $1,225 for the two days. Exhibitor fees are $3,200
for a booth plus two staff members. Additional staff are $245 per person.
Option 3: Bus tour
A group 45 tourists are waiting for their tour bus to arrive to take them on a day trip. It was due
to arrive at 8 am. It is now 8.45 am. You have tried to contact the bus driver multiple times but
their mobile phone consistently diverts to voicemail. You have left messages but have not
received a response. Your reception team are currently trying to locate another bus and driver so
the tour group can still complete most of the tour. It’s a busy day with multiple tours departing
throughout the day so there are limited alternatives available.
The day trip is comprised of 16 direct bookings and an Asian tour group with their tour leader.
The tour company is a long-term client who books several groups a week with your company.
Two direct-booking customers and the tour leader approach you to complain about the delay and
demand to know what is going to happen. The tour cost is $109 for the day, meals inclusive.
Task 1: Question and answer
Answer the questions.
Q1: Indicate your chosen scenario
 Option 1: Hotel bistro
 Option 2: Conference registration
 Option 3: Bus tour
Q2: What is the current level of conflict? Briefly explain why you believe it is at this level.
The current level of conflict within Bistro is that on the Friday night the there was lacking of
one cook and one kitchen hand person as they both got sick on last time. The customer are
rapidly increasing and there were number of orders and that all were pending due to it customer
has to wait for long minutes and this was irritating for them so that they need to manage the
order to provide best service to customers.
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Q3: Does this situation have the potential to escalate, threatening the safety of other customers
or team members? Why/why not?
Yes, this is the situation where customer has to wait for long and it was quite irritating for them.
On that day, customer needs to wait for 45 minutes. The customer must have better assistance so
that they can do the things in effective and efficient mode.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Q4: What actions do you need to take immediately?
Being the manager, I would say no to customer and will take limited order so that I can manage
them well and provide services accordingly. I will start to take the very less orders so that I can
able top handle the things in much better and the efficient mode.
Q5: What style of communication do you use when taking these actions? Why is this method
effective?
I will prefer oral communication and talk directly with the customers about the inconvenient in
service so that they can get idea about delaying in customer service. With help of oral
communication, the things can be said directly to the person and it will be helpful to organise the
thing in much and better manner.
Q6: What conflict resolution technique do you use when trying to resolve the dispute? Explain
why.
At this situation, I would be using compromising resolution technique because at this level both
need to make compromise. Thus, it can arise at any time so in terms to resolve it person need to
get comfort with it.
Q7: What conflict resolution technique is not effective when trying to create a long-term
solution to the dispute? Explain why.
At this situation, the one conflict resolution technique will not be effective and it is as avoiding
or withdrawing from the conflict as it requires no courage and consideration but it can worse the
situation. The situation should not be avoided it must be handled effectively as the mistake is
also committed by managers.
Q8: You have tried to apologise and calmly explain the reason for the service issues to the
customers but they are not willing to listen. They become more irate and loudly demand
action to be taken immediately. Verbal threats of damaging the organisation’s reputation
through personal and social media networks are made. Demands for compensation are also
made.
Describe the actions you take to manage this conflict situation.
I tried my best to handle the situation but the customer got irate because order were taking more
than 45 minutes to arrive as there I also mistaken that I used to take the order even after having
idea about the situation so I agreed to pay compensation.
Q9: What are the potential short- or long-term impacts of this situation on the business?
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There can be long term impacts as the reputation of the hotel can get affected due to negative
comments on social media site from customers the ratings of the hotel can also be reduced and to
maintain it they need to offer some extra services so that the things can be managed well.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Q10: Describe the strategies you use to resolve the dispute at this point in time.
The options available.
How you select an appropriate solution.
The impact the selected solution could have on the individuals and/or the business.
Your responsibilities when actioning strategies or implementing solutions.
The following strategies must be chosen, so that things can be done in effective and efficient
manner as-
 Embrace conflict
 talk together
 Listen the things carefully
 Find out the agreement
 provide the guidance
Q11: What organisational policies or constraints influence how you resolve the situation?
Processing good problem solving skill will be beneficial to the organisation and they need
encouragement, support, guidance and to apply this all to the organisation problems. Thus, it can
be achieved with help of innovation and it is essential to get success in this competitive business
world. So, conflicts normally occurs when people have differ ideas and believes so in order to
get cope up with they need to sort this issue out.
Q12: Describe how you implement the agreed solution.
 I will communicate the solution with all my stakeholders so that I can communicate with
them in well manner.
 To implement it, with the taking of all consent.
 Resource identification.
 Time line for implementation and process of monitoring must be taken so that things can
be done in better and efficient mode.
Q13: How do you seek feedback, comments or information from the parties involved after the
situation has been resolved? Give two examples.
 Example 1- I will use to take feedback of customers who comes at restaurant about the
services and quality of food. With help of it, I came to know about the view of customers.
 Example 2- I also work as to take the better guidelines with hotel staff so that I can able
to provide them good services.
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Q14: Make recommendations to your manager about improvements to workplace systems,
procedures or processes to ensure this situation doesn’t arise again, or so processes are in
place to handle it efficiently and correctly if it does.
Recommendation will be discussed in following presented manner as-
1. The manager should appoint one more chef so that better services can be provided to the
customers and this will helps to handle the situation at the day where there more
customers uses to visit.
2. The more staff should be hired so that customer can receive the services within the set
deadline.
3. The manager of restaurant should work as to take the customer feedback about the
services and quality they use to serve.
4. By providing quality within food will be helpful to maintain good brand images and it
helps to get the things done effectively.
5. In order to succeed the things effectively, feedback should be given to employees and it
is also essential to praise and reward them so that they can feel motivated and can
perform their function better mode.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Scenario 2
You are supervising a team of employees preparing for an event/service. You and your colleague
overhear a team member completing preparation tasks in the room next door make a rude and
disparaging remark about the colleague’s work ethic.
The colleague explodes, stating they are sick of the other person making these types of
comments all the time and they’ve had enough. They confront the other person about this recent
comment and others that have been made in the past. The team member angrily accuses them of:
making racist comments
trying to ostracise them from others in the team
consistently undermining or demeaning their work performance.
It is your responsibility as team leader to deal with the immediate situation.
Task 1: Question and answer
Answer the questions.
Q1: What is the current level of this conflict? Briefly explain what it is.
Current level of conflict that exists in an organisation is the level of discomfort because as the
teams members are accusing each other of making racists comments, demeaning the work
performance, trying to ostracise etc, which has developed a discomfort within the team.
Q2: Does this situation have the potential to escalate, threatening the safety of other team
members? Why/why not?
Yes, this situation has potential to escalate and is threatening the safety of the other team
members because if this issue is not addressed as soon as possible it will become intense
issue in future and even may result in the involvement other team members which could
question the safety of the other team members.
Q3: What actions do you need to take immediately?
This issues needs a immediate action. Both the parties should be brought at the common grounds
and identify the root cause of the problem and try to negotiate the issue between the two
parties and motivate them to work as a team.
Q4: What style of communication do you use when taking these actions?
I would use assertive communication style.
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Q5: Other than what the other team member has been accused of, what other verbal and non-
verbal signs tell you this conflict situation has been developing for some time?
Other team member has been accused of stating that they have become sick of the other person
about making different type of comments all the day and they are fed up with all these
comments. Other Verbal and non-verbal signs are making racists comments, trying to ostracise a
team member in a team and demeaning of the work performance in a team.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Q6: What conflict resolution technique do you use when trying to resolve the dispute? Explain
why.
I would use compromising technique because it will create a win win situation to the
parties involved in a conflict as this technique will find a middle ground by providing a
solution that would be acceptable to both the parties. It will provide a solution that will
satisfy both the parties as it is constructive and fair and will give team a chance to settle
the conflict.
Q7: What conflict resolution technique is not effective when trying to create a long-term
solution to the dispute? Explain why.
Avoiding technique is not effective for the long term solution because conflicts are avoided but
not resolved and there are the chances of rise of conflicts in future.
Q8: You take the team members involved in the dispute to an empty office. It’s time to find out
why the situation occurred.
List at least four questions you ask each person to gain an understanding of the nature,
details and underlying causes of the dispute.
Four questions would be
1. Who are responsible for the conflict?
2. Why this conflict have triggered?
3. What is your opinion?
4. For how long it has taken place?
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Q9: What resources are available to you to help you manage this situation?
Various resources available that would help in managing this situation are focus groups, face to
face communications and problem solving groups.
Q10: What resources could you have called on if the situation had escalated and become
verbally or physically threatening or even violent?
The resources that would be used if the situation has turned more threatening are establishing a
management team meeting, use of security guards and action program.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Q11: The two team members make the following comments in response to your questioning.
Team member 1
I ask him to do stuff and he just ignores me. He walks off and does other things. But he’s
always watching me and the rest of the team like he’s trying to catch us doing something
wrong. And he’s so slow. We always have to do extra jobs to cover all the things he
doesn’t get done in time. He’s been here long enough, he should know what to do by now.
Team member 2
I’ve been here six months now and no one has ever really shown me how to do things
properly. I’ve had to work it out by watching the others when they do it. In my country,
you have to follow the orders of anyone who holds a higher position than you do. If we
didn’t do what our superiors told us, you could lose your job instantly. So, if a supervisor
here tells me to do something, I do that job, not one that someone else tells me to do. I
don’t want to lose my job.
What are the underlying reasons for this dispute?
Reasons for the dispute are as follows
 Ignorance
 Lubber
 increase in work load
 lack of guidance
 cultural differences
Q12: You are still in the office with the two employees. You need to resolve the dispute quickly.
Describe the strategies you use to resolve the dispute at this point in time.
The options available.
How you select an appropriate solution.
The impact the selected solution could have on the individuals and/or the business.
Your responsibilities when actioning strategies or implementing solutions.
The strategies to resolve the dispute in time would be collaborating strategy, compromising
strategy and Avoiding strategy. I would select a appropriate strategy by looking in to
the matter deeply and making the analysis of a situation. Impact of the solutions would
be a teams will work in harmony with each other and it would create a win win
situations for both the parties and this will settle the dispute in the team and also will
improve the performance of the teams in an galvanization. My responsibilities would be
to settle a conflict by focus on the reasons of the conflict and take the responsibilities to
settle the dispute as soon as possible and apply a proper strategy to address the issue.
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Q13: How do you overcome any social or cultural communication barriers when negotiating and
implementing a solution to the dispute?
In order to over come social and cultural communication barriers for negotiating and
implementing a solution I should use effective ways of communication. I should recognise
the appropriate communication strategies to overcome the social and cultural
communication barrier. I should keep my language simple and easy, talk politely, listen
carefully, respect other persons point of view, as questions on the points that I am
unfamiliar with and confront cultural discrminations.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Q14: Describe how you implement the agreed solution.
I would implement the agreed solution as follows
1. I would take a responsibility of conflict resolution
2. Using a appropriate conflict management strategy
3. Discuss on the nature of conflict with the parties involved
4. Evaluating various options
5. Apply the strategy
6. last step would be follow up
Task 2: Question and answer
It is two weeks after the confrontation. The agreed solutions have been implemented and it’s
time to evaluate their effectiveness. You speak to the team members individually to obtain
feedback about progress.
Team member 1
I guess I didn’t understand why he did those things and interpreted his actions all wrong. If that’s
what things were like in his country, I can understand that he’d be afraid of losing his job. We’ve
all been showing him how to do things properly. He’s getting better already. I guess he’s not so
bad after all.
Team member 2
I’ve learnt how to do some new things and how to do others better or faster. And the comments
have stopped, so I’m a lot happier. I think maybe everyone will start to accept me as part of the
team now.
Answer the questions.
Q1: What feedback, comments or information do you pass on to each of the team members
after receiving these comments? Give two examples.
Team member 1
I would pass a positive feedback like team member 2 is learning many things from the team, and
now team member two is not complaining about the comments and he is happy to work in
a team
Team member 2
The feedback would be that team members are happy with the performance and and he is
improving and team member 1 are willing to work in collaboration with him.
Q2: Outline your evaluation of the dispute and the effectiveness of the resolution strategies.
Main reason of the dispute was the discomfort that arose due to the cultural differences between
the two parties. Both the parties were blaming each other and were passing a negative
comments on performance issues, racism, alienation of the team member etc which has
given rise to the dispute within the team members. Resolution strategies that has been
implemented has resulted in the decreasing the cultural differences as well as personal
differences and this has resulted in overcoming the social and cultural barriers within the
organisation also it will help in better team building. So it will increase the overall
performance of the organisation.
Q3: Based on the probable causes of this dispute, make recommendations to your manager
about improvements to workplace systems, procedures or processes.
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Recommendation
 Improvements in the organisational culture
 effective ways of communication
 Better grievance handling procedures
 improvements in team building programs
 Proper training and development programs.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Assessor checklist
To be completed by the assessor.
Learner’s name:
Did the learner successfully
demonstrate evidence of their ability to
do the following? Assessor comments
C
o
m
p
l
e
t
e
d
Yes No
Scenario 1
Used appropriate conflict-resolution
techniques and communication skills
to resolve the customer complaint.
Identified potential for conflict and
took swift and tactful action to prevent
escalation.
Identified situations where personal
safety of customers or colleagues may
be threatened and organised
appropriate assistance.
Established and agreed on the nature
and details of conflict with all parties
and assessed impact.
Managed conflict within scope of own
role and responsibilities, and
according to organisational
procedures.
Took responsibility for seeking a
solution to conflict within scope of
own role and responsibilities, seeking
assistance where required.
Identified and evaluated impact of
conflict on business reputation and
legal liability.
Evaluated options to resolve the
conflict, taking into account
organisational policies and
constraints.
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Did the learner successfully
demonstrate evidence of their ability to
do the following? Assessor comments
C
o
m
p
l
e
t
e
d
Yes No
Implemented the best solution and
completed required reports.
Communicated with parties involved
to seek and provide feedback on
conflict and its resolution.
Determined possible causes of
workplace conflict and provided input
for workplace enhancement and
improvements.
Scenario 2
Used appropriate conflict-resolution
techniques and communication skills
to resolve the customer complaint.
Identified potential for conflict and
took swift and tactful action to prevent
escalation.
Identified situations where personal
safety of customers or colleagues may
be threatened and organised
appropriate assistance.
Identified and used resources to assist
in managing conflict.
Established and agreed on the nature
and details of conflict with all parties
and assessed impact.
Managed conflict within scope of own
role and responsibilities, and
according to organisational
procedures.

SITXCOM005 MANAGE CONFLICT – Scenario
Did the learner successfully
demonstrate evidence of their ability to
do the following? Assessor comments
C
o
m
p
l
e
t
e
d
Yes No
Took responsibility for seeking a
solution to conflict within scope of
own role and responsibilities, seeking
assistance where required.
Identified and evaluated impact of
conflict on business reputation and
legal liability.
Evaluated options to resolve the
conflict, taking into account
organisational policies and
constraints.
Implemented the best solution and
completed required reports.
Communicated with parties involved
to seek and provide feedback on
conflict and its resolution.
Evaluated and reflected on the
conflict and effectiveness of the
solution.
Determined possible causes of
workplace conflict and provided input
for workplace enhancement and
improvements.
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