Organisational Behaviour

Work conflict

Webster’s dictionary defines conflict as a sharp disagreement or opposition of interests or ideas. Anytime people work together, conflict is a part of ‘doing business’.

Conflict is a normal and natural part of any workplace. When it occurs, there is a tendency for morale to be lowered, an increase in absenteeism and decreased productivity.

It has been estimated that managers spend at least 25 percent of their time resolving workplace conflicts – causing lowered office performance.

Workplace conflict is a specific type of conflict that occurs in workplaces. The conflicts that arise in workplaces may be shaped by the unique aspects of this environment, including the long hours many people spend at their workplace, the hierarchical structure of the organization, and the difficulties (e.g. financial consequences) that may be involved in switching to a different workplace

Types:

Interpersonal conflict includes personality clashes and difficulty working with others, both of which can lead to the employees showing anger and exchanging negative comments.

Workplace complaints include disagreement with policies and procedures, management decisions and individual entitlements, which give rise to conflict between the employer or his representative and the employee.

Causes:

1. Conflicting Resources-We all need access to certain resources – whether these are office supplies, help from colleagues, or even a meeting room – to do our jobs well. When more than one person or group needs access to a particular resource, conflict can occur.2. Conflicting Styles- Everyone works differently, according to his or her individual needs and personality. For instance, some people love the thrill of getting things done at the last minute, while others need the structure of strict deadlines to perform. However, when working styles clash, conflict can often occur.3. Conflicting Perceptions- All of us see the world through our own lens, and differences in perceptions of events can cause conflict, particularly where one person knows something that the other person doesn't know, but doesn't realize this. If your team members regularly engage in "turf wars" or gossip, you might have a problem with conflicting perceptions. Additionally, negative performance reviews or customer complaints can also result from this type of conflict.

4. Conflicting Goals- Sometimes we have conflicting goals in our work. For instance, one of our managers might tell us that speed is most important goal with customers. Another manager might say that in-depth, high-quality service is the top priority. It's sometimes quite difficult to reconcile the two! 5. Conflicting Pressures- We often have to depend on our colleagues to get our work done. However, what happens when you need a report from your colleague by noon, and he's already preparing a different report for someone else by that same deadline? Conflicting pressures are similar to conflicting goals; the only difference is that conflicting pressures usually involve urgent tasks, while conflicting goals typically involve projects with longer timelines.6. Conflicting Roles- Sometimes we have to perform a task that's outside our normal role or responsibilities. If this causes us to step into someone else's "territory," then conflict and power struggles can occur. The same can happen in reverse - sometimes we may feel that a particular task should be completed by someone else.7. Different Personal Values- Imagine that your boss has just asked you to perform a task that conflicts with your ethical standards. Do you do as your boss asks, or do you refuse? If you refuse, will you lose your boss's trust, or even your job? When our work conflicts with our personal values like this, conflict can quickly arise. 8. Unpredictable Policies- When rules and policies change at work and you don't communicate that change clearly to your team, confusion and conflict can occur. 9. Interdependence Conflicts- A person relies on someone else's co-operation, output or input in order for them to get their job done. For example, a sales-person is constantly late inputting the monthly sales figures, which causes the accountant to be late with her reports. 10. Differences in Background/Gender- Conflicts can arise between people because of differences in educational backgrounds, personal experiences, ethnic heritage, gender and political preferences.11. Differences in Leadership- Leaders have different ways of leading their teams. Employees who have to deal with different leaders throughout a day, can become confused and irritated by these different ways of being led. For example, one leader may be more open and inclusive, whilst another may be more directive.12. Personality Clashes- all work environments are made up of differing personalities. Unless colleagues understand and accept each other’s approach to work and problem-solving, conflict will occur. These types of conflict in the workplace are often fueled by emotion and perceptions about somebody else's motives and character13. Poor Communication- different communication styles can lead to misunderstandings between employees or between employee and manager. Lack of communication drives conflict ‘underground’.

14. Differing Interests- conflict occurs when individual workers ‘fight’ for their personal goals, ignoring organizational goals and organizational well-being.

Resolving Conflicts: Addressing Conflict

There are a number of ways that can be utilized to address workplace conflict: Avoidance: ‘hiding our head in the sand’, hoping the conflict will go away. Collaboration: working together to find a mutually beneficial solution. Compromise: finding the middle ground whereby a ‘little is given and little is gotten’. Competing: ‘may the best person win’. Accommodation: surrendering our own needs and wishes to please the other person. It is generally believed that either collaboration or compromise are the most

productive forms of addressing conflict because there is not a winner or loser but rather a working together for the best possible solution.Tips for handling workplace conflictApproach conflict with an open mind-Different people have different perceptions, and solving workplace conflicts requires finding a common ground, not waiting until one person caves to the other. "Try to understand the other person's point of view and how he or she arrived at it. Consider what might have caused the conflict- Take an objective look at yourself and determine what you did or said to contribute to the situation. Try to place yourself in the other person's shoes and consider how the situation could be handled differently in the future. Be respectful of differences- Workplaces are diverse places, today more than ever, and what is acceptable to one person may be offensive to another. If your office has a diversity program, consider attending it, and if it doesn't, be the catalyst who brings one to your workplaceTry to cut the conflict off in its early stages- Ask your co-worker if you did anything to upset him or her. Communicate your willingness to talk about this and see if together you can solve the issue.Listen carefully-Before jumping to conclusions, sit down with the person with whom you're in conflict and try to understand the issue fully. During the conversation, make sure you acknowledge his or her feelings and paraphrase their opinion back to them to enhance your comprehension.Be mindful of your language- It is important to avoid assigning blame to the person you're speaking with, and taking note of the words you use will help you avoid falling into this trap.

Ask for help-If the conflict continues to build, recruit someone in the workplace whom you respect to act as a mediator. This could be your manager, a human resources professional, or a manager from a different department.Be sure the problem is resolved- The problem isn't properly resolved until both parties in the argument feel better about the situation. Set guidelines for how to handle a similar situation in the future. "You might say something like, 'Let's commit that you will let me know right away if I do something that upsets you, and when you bring it to my attention, we will stop what we are doing to address it.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer Retention(continuation from notes written in books)

Benefits of Customer Retention

Reduce cost of acquisition

Increase in client base

Repurchasing

Increase in turnover

Profitable relation

Mouth Publicity

Levels of Retention Strategy 1) Financial Bonds

Adding Financial Benefits

Frequency programs, Club memberships

Increased customer loyalty to price, incentives

Frequent flyer/reader/buyer/visitors… Rewards.

Discounts, product upgrades, awards, prizes

Related products or providers expand the net

2) Social Bonds

Adding Social Benefits

Personalize customer relationships

Refers to a friendly companionship, trust, and ties. Increased customer loyalty to the organization

Connections

Personal insight, recognition, mutual affection

Interpersonal interactions expand the link

Adding Customized Services

3) Customisation Bonds

Mass customization- Use of flexible process and structures to provide varied and individually customised product or service.

Customer intimacy- involves gathering each and every information about customer to anticipate his needs and to supply them product accordingly.

4) Structural bonds

Adding Structural Ties

Create long-term contracts

Charge less for ongoing purchases

Link product to long-term service

Use system design to solve problems, reinforce purchases, and recognize the importance of each customer.

1) Systemic mass personalization….

2) Management

3) Cultivation, simulation

4) Artificial intelligence continues the connections

Increased customer loyalty to the experience

20 – 80 – 30 Rule

20% of your customers

Implications of 80/20 rule

Increase share of customer rather than market share

Serve current customers rather than focus on acquiring new customers

Customer Retention Strategies

1) Welcome strategy- The organization’s appreciation for the initiation of a relationship.

Creating a delightful surprise, making a good first impression

First touch: additional customer information

Reassure the buyers that they have made the correct choices.

Treat like a first date. Don’t overdo it!

2) Reliability- The organization can repeat the exchange time and time again with the same satisfying results.

Keep promise

Ensure consistent quality

Continuous promotion is still the key.

3) Responsiveness- The organization shows customers it really cares about their needs and feelings.

Loyal employees create loyal customers. Internal marketing.

Customer-contacted employees should have the authority as well as the responsibility for date to date operational activities and CRM decision.

4) Recognition- Special attention or appreciation that identifies someone as having been known before.

People respond to recognition.

Recognition and appreciation help maintain and reinforce relationships.

This is a programmed sequence of letters, events, phone calls, “thank you’s”, special offers, follow-ups, magic moments, and cards or notes with a personal touch etc. that occur constantly and automatically at defined points in the pre-sales, sales and post-sales process.

5) Personalization- Use CRM system to tailor promotions and products to the specific customers.

Offer engine: take customer data after it is analyzed and applies it to create the offer or message that is appropriate to the individual customer. Ex., My site, Click stream analysis, free ride, etc.

dedication to customer satisfaction by every employee;

providing immediate response;

no buck passing;

going above and beyond the call of duty;

consistent on-time delivery;

delivering what you promise before and after the sale;

a zero-defects and error-free-delivery process and

recruiting outstanding people to deliver your customer service.

6) Access strategy- Identify how customers will be able to interact with the organization.

General contact, product return, technical report, service representative, change a mailing address

Is the access quick and easy?

In organization-initiated communication, organizations must consider the intended message, channel (medium), and receiver characteristics.

In customer-initiated communication, consider the establishment of toll free calls, web sites, priority access for providing services and collecting customer data.

7) Reward Strategies- Frequent, best customers

Partnership Management Program

Switching costs: financial penalty, time loss, psychological barrier

Termination Penalty

Customer Complaint Management Strategy

Problem Identification and Management Rather tell the company than switch to a competitor or tell someone else. Acting rather than reacting.

Build numerous mechanisms for identifying customer problems.

1) Customer satisfaction survey

2) Mysterious shoppers

3) Websites, other contacts points

Conflicts and Customer Complaints

Level of dissatisfaction

Attrition of blame

Cost/benefits of actions

Personal characteristics :

1) highly educated,

2) self-confident,

3) aggressive,

4) Older women.

Dealing with complaints

Having the skill to interact with different types of people. Trained in methods of interaction and in different style of communication.

Be customer-centric. Let the customers know that they have been understood.

Express regret

Resolve conflict

Accommodation, Compromise, Termination

Follow-up and prevent recurrence

Keep in touch and listen to customer

Resolve conflict

A disagreement in which the views of the customer and the organization appear to be incompatible.

Accommodation: a settlement that emphasizes cooperative behavior.

Compromise: mutually acceptable middle ground that is somewhat satisfactory to both parties.

Termination

RECALL MANAGEMENT:(continuation from notes written in the book)

1) Differentiation strategies:

Channel Differentiation

Different channels of distribution can be used to serve the customers.

Due to usage of technology, internet is becoming one of the important channel of distribution.

The internet:

Is a location-free, time-free distribution and communication channel.

Functions as a communication channel for companies that provide product or service information online.

Serves as a transaction and distribution channel for companies that conduct online commercial transactions.

Becomes the entire distribution channel for digital products.

Image Differentiation

A company can differentiate itself by creating a unique experience online, called “experience branding.”

Through experience branding firms can better retain customers, target key segments, and enhance profitability.

Some Web sites invite users to upload content and comments, which gives them a competitive edge.

Differentiation Strategies

Trout and Rivkin proposed specific differentiation strategies common to offline and online businesses:

Being the first to enter the market.

Owning a product attribute in the mind of the consumer.

Demonstrating product leadership.

Utilizing an impressive company history or heritage.

Supporting and demonstrating the differentiating idea.

Communicating the difference.

2) Personalisation Strategies

Personalization …..

Personalization relies upon the tacit and implicit knowledge of individuals and is more focused on the sharing of knowledge mainly through direct person-to-person interactions. Personalization could perhaps be simply described as a “people-to-people” approach.

Personalization places emphasis on informal-knowledge sharing (such as channeling individual expertise through creative, analytically rigorous advice) where the focus is on connecting knowledge workers.

In personalization usage of IT tends to be in support of connecting workers, for communicating or to facilitate transfer of knowledge, rather than to store it.

This approach is more appropriate in organizations facing unique problems or a high level of creativity is needed to meet specific needs or when similar problems require customized solutions because of the influence of a highly adaptive environment

It is quite understandable that what may be most appropriate in one part of the organization might not be most effective everywhere -- so implementing these strategies requires an inherent amount of flexibility and extensibility to address both current and future requirements, with an eye toward the balance of prioritization and meeting localized needs.

In marketing, personalization refers to using specific information about a customer to tailor the marketing message uniquely to that individual.

Personalization is also a key tactic for implementing one-to-one marketing strategies that strengthen customer loyalty and often provide a high return on your marketing investment.

Personalization is marketer-driven, in other words a marketer can personalize the message it sends to each customer (i.e. send a reminder of an upcoming birthday

Dear Julie,

Congratulations on your wise purchase of our superior product

Customization is user-driven, which allows users to specify the nature of what is offered to them.

Product differentiation tries to differentiate a product from competing ones, personalization tries to make a unique product offering for each customer.

Personalized marketing (One to One Marketing) had been most practical in interactive media such as the internet. A web site can track a customer's interests and make suggestions for the future

Personalization and customization can help build customer loyalty and make it less likely for customers to switch to other suppliers.

Personalisation will help to ensure that services are more person-centred; community based and gives people more choice in how they receive their own services. It is about making services fit around the individual, enabling people to make decisions, maximising their life chances and giving them choice and control in the way care and support is delivered

Three Levels of Personalization

The first level identifies the customer by name and address (snail or e-mail).The name draws attention better than “Dear Customer” and communicates a sense of order and accuracy on the part of the company, as well as suggesting a desire to do further business with the individual.

The second level adds other information (data fields) about the customer to increase the personal value of the message. The focus is on content that is uniquely relevant to the individual customer.Transaction histories enable us to communicate specifically about past purchases. If we solicit information on recreational or reading preferences, for instance, we can provide additional content of special interest to the customer, either as added value or as a platform to promote other products and services.

The third level focuses on interaction. At this level, we are using the data we have about each customer to directly encourage a response—we make special offers; deliver premiums; or invite the customer to an event, such as a new product launch or owner club.

The marketing thrust at this level is action.

We aim to bring the customer back to the retailer to buy or experience a new product, generate a new order or build brand enthusiasm through participation in events.

Example

Dell Computers, one of the most successful online computer retailers on the Internet, has designed its personalization tools to make it easier for shoppers to customize their own product

specifications. The system guides customers through a range of choices in RAM, hard drives and peripherals, helping them avoid compatibility conflicts along the way. This is a case of not overdoing it with personalization and increasing serendipity. Dell doesn't waste users' time with needless features; instead, it personalizes only what the user needs to get a good computer. At the same time, the same referencing tool that steers the customers to compatible products also steers them to products they might not know about, such as different manufacturers' equipment, etc.

Techniques for gathering information for personalization strategies include:

Written mail surveys and questionnaires Written in-store surveys and questionnaires In-store kiosks Informal discussions Formal discussions/focus groups Anonymous suggestion/feedback boxes Online questionnaires Email

Personalization Tactics

Send email messages from a human, not a company Use recipients' real names in email messages. Segment your email database and personalize messaging Target content to speak to the specific needs of various marketing personas Create targeted landing pages geared toward different marketing personas Going One-to-One With Products Use marketing automation tools to trigger lead nurturing campaigns based on content

interest. Create targeted LinkedIn Company Product Page variations Experiment with Google+ topic Circles to target content Respond to prospects and customers in social media Use lead intelligence to personalize sales follow up.

Unit 3

CRM – Cost Benefit Analysis

Any managerial initiative, before implementation, needs to be appraised from the perspective of cost and benefit, and recommendation for application is made only when the benefits exceed the costs.

This cost and benefit analysis has to be done from the perspective of both the stakeholder who makes the business run ie the customer and the company.

CRM COST:

Hard cost :

Software licensing

Hardware fulfilment

Implementation cost

Consulting fees

IT labour

Soft Cost:

Employee downtime

Integration

Training

Implementation cost:-

IT Cost- hardware and software, implementation, labour, ongoing administration and support

Business Cost- planning, training, process change management.

Software Licensing:-

Cost of software, incremental per user fee, recurring annual maintenance fee

Procuring Hardware:-

Upgrades or replacements, installation, testing.

Maintenance and support

Vendor Consulting Fees

Training

CRM Benefit

1) To the Organisation-

Increased revenue through acquisition of new customers, retaining existing customers, and increased wallet share through up-selling, cross-selling, etc

Reduced costs through automation of many services, providing self services, differentiation, etc.

Identification of potential customers

Increased customer loyalty

Improved customer satisfaction

Customer database

Aiding client acquisition

Benefits of E-CRM to organisation

Service level improvements Revenue growth Productivity Customer satisfaction Automation

Benefits of implementing CRM system as per functional areas:

Marketing

Customer Support

Sales

2) To the customers-

Benefit of better service

Improved relationship

Social relationship

Involvement in process

Feeling of safety and comfort

Communication through contact points

Increased satisfaction and feeling of being special.

Cost benefit analysis of CRM Implementation:

In order to establish CRM system within an organisation, one must assess

1) Implementation Costs

Cost of software licensing

Maintenance of support contracts

Database

Operating system

Hardware purchases

Maintenance of servers

Storage and network upgrades

Software integration and customisation

Designing

Development

Test and ongoing maintenance

Implementation labour

Ongoing administration and support labour

Planning and requirements meetings

User training and learning time

Process change management.

2) Tangible and Intangible benefits

Typically includes increase in staff productivity, cost avoidance, increased revenue and margin and reduced inventory through the elimination of errors.

Benefits could be divided into:

Tangible net benefits: tallies all of the planned project costs quantifies each of the tangible benefits and calculates key financial performance metrics such as ROI, NPV, and payback period.

Intangible benefits: key performance indicators(KPI) used to measure success or shortfalls of CRM projects.

3) Risk Assessment

Evaluating the risks of people, process, and technology can proactively mitigate their probability and manage their impact on project success.

Building customer loyalty in b2b commerce

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) came out with a concept of market intelligent enterprise which anticipates future needs of key customers and fulfilling them before they move to the competitor.

PWC defines MIE (Market Intelligence enterprise) as “ An enterprise that institutionalises the capacity to acquire and apply market information quickly across and effectively manages customer relationships with best customers and best prospects.”

Process of developing MIE

Customer-centric organisational structure

A customer centric business focuses on obtaining a competitive edge over similar businesses by creating a unique customer experience.

The customer centric attitude should flow downwards from management.

Embrace market

intelligent technolog

y

Aligning strategies

and processes

with customer

expectations Identify customer

expectations

Collecting customer

information as a strategic

asset

Managing customer

relationship on basis of ongoing customer value

Manage customer

experience

The two most important elements in establishing a customer centric organisation are an enterprise database and a workforce that can both willingly share information and make a willing commitment to customers, rather than to products or organisation.

It is a long, hard slog to become and maintain a customer centric organisation, but the result is a much more profitable brand.

Customer centric organisation requires that :

A customer strategy is well articulated both internally and externally and is championed by senior management.

There is alignment of resources to effectively deliver the customer promise Employees buy into the customer strategy and are themselves fully engaged. Egs: Aviva (press release)- “Aviva scoops award for putting customers at the heart.”

Standard life reports- “putting customer first.”

Three components :

Customer Experience

Customer value

Customer lifecycle

Turning an organisation into customer centric:

Evaluate

Design

Activate

Measure

Product centric v/s customer centric organisation

Product centric Customer centric

Goal Provide best product Provide best service to customer

Customer Most advanced customer

Most profitable and loyal customer

Priority Portfolio of products Portfolio of customer

Process New product development

Customer relationship management

Focus Seller side Buyer side

Mental process Divergent thinking Convergent thinking

Culture New product culture CRM culture

Organizational concept

Product profit centers, product teams

Customer segments and customer teams

Four essential steps of customer centric organisational structure

1) Communal coordination-

a central, enterprise wide database is the key. This is a two part process. The first involves standardizing and second part involves retrieving the information from all customer touch points.

2) Serial coordination-

creating business analytical capabilities that leverages the customer information repository.

Under this stage, various functional units mine and analyse the data related to customers and then refined data is been passed on to concerned business unit.

The main aim is to use this information for best marketing efforts. This activity helps out in bringing innovations.

It sounds on easy on paper, but it is not spontaneous and is fraught with obstacles. Traditional roles and structures create natural barriers to spreading information and lessons learnt. Some changes to company’s social and organisational structure will be required to overcome them.

3) Symbiotic Coordination-

Developing an understanding of likely future purchasing and consumer behaviour by implementing relevant information throughout the organisation.

The task grows even harder-from analyzing past customer data to predicting future customer behaviour.

This requires a two way flow of information among the analysts and multiple business units.

They collaboratively participate in four activities:

Creating models to predict customer behaviour.

Experimenting with various interventions designed to alter customer behaviour

Measuring the results of these interventions and

Using feedback from the front line to improve the models and subsequent campaigns.

4) Integral Coordination-

This revolves around enabling real time responses to customer needs that are made possible by coordinating all information among employees and the entire organisation at corporate level.

In this stage, the organisation can use customer information in daily interactions with customers, aided by employees who do more than pay lip service to customer service.