Resolving Conflict in a Carrom Tournament: HR Challenge and Conflict Resolution Strategies

Dear Seniors,

I am here to address a seemingly trivial issue that has escalated into a complex situation in our office. We are currently organizing a carrom tournament for the employees, and we have two types of coins designated for use. New coins are meant for matches, while old coins are to be used for practice sessions.

As we have reached the semifinal stage of the tournament, a problem has arisen. One of the teams mistakenly utilized a new coin for practice, which was discovered by their opponents, leading to a dispute. Upon investigation, it was revealed that several individuals had been using new coins for practice covertly.

I seek your advice on how to effectively resolve this matter. It is worth noting that my Managing Director (MD) is heavily involved in this situation and has tasked me, as the sole HR representative, with finding a solution. Furthermore, I have not received an appraisal for the past five months, with the MD promising a salary revision in March last month. I harbor concerns that this issue may have been fabricated by the MD to avoid my appraisal. Kindly provide me with your guidance on how to navigate this situation.

Thank you.

Dear,

Please don't blame the problem creators in this situation; think of the solution instead. It is not the responsibility of the head to address this issue. As long as you have information about others also using the new coin, you can either disqualify those who cheated or violated the instructions, or instruct the entire team to practice with the new coin for the next round onwards.

Biju

Hello,

To avoid such problems, you can establish rules and regulations for the events to occur, circulate them, and have them signed by all teams. As one of my friends rightly suggested, please use new coins for practice. However, in my view, the coins will not lead to any drastic changes in the tournament's outcome.

Moreover, try to interpret your top management's input positively. They may be interested in learning about your problem-solving skills. Consider this an opportunity to work on finding a solution that fits well in your situation. Engage in decision-making processes and seek the opinions and guidance of top management (possibly a representative) before sharing it with everyone.

I hope this effort leads to a salary revision for you and allows you to continue your service to the company for a long time.

For this silly question, you may suggest hard decisions from the HR side to your M.D., in writing only. Cancel the tournament on the basis of not playing the game with the spirit and violating several rules. Clearly, explain your actions to the M.D. regarding the steps taken to address this malpractice. You must document all the malpractices, which will be beneficial to you in the future. You can demonstrate that everything you are doing is solely to protect the company name and the respect of the M.D. Lastly, be strong.

Regards, Manish Bali

First rule, check if there really is a conflict. Speak to the opposing team discreetly if they have raised this issue. If they are serious, you need to be seen to be taking action. Award some penalty points or find another way to show that you are upholding the rules. But whatever you do, make sure you make this an example. Don't try to penalize every team.

This issue may seem trivial, but you might as well use this opportunity to improve your employee relations. Humor is a good approach. Handle this with a smile, not like a school teacher.

Dear Ebinezar,

The unfortunate part is with your order which says "we told employees to use new coins for matches and old coins for practice." If this was an order, then one should have strictly implemented it. You should have taken the consent of all the participating players on a piece of paper stipulating a clause therein that whosoever breaks the condition of the order shall be disqualified from the match. Since this was not done, now in my opinion, you have two options before you:

(i) Cancel the entire match played till now and start a fresh match, which I am sure will be difficult as the winning team will not agree to it.
or
(ii) Continue the match giving them the benefit of the doubt, as it was not possible for you to supervise the practice of teams as to which coin they are/were using.

(iii) Take a mature decision after taking into account all the ground realities and stick to the same.

The second part of your query is subjective, hence no comment.

BS Kalsi
Member since Aug 2011

It is surprising that HR has to play its role in Carrom also. Very funny.

Pon

Greetings Ebenezer,

After reading through your post, I wish to state that no question or situation is silly; every situation is challenging and sparks a brainstorming session in this forum. The number of replies you have received is self-explanatory.

I wish to state a simpler formula, which in my opinion, will take away the stress for you.

Call all the participants and explain to them the situation without mentioning the team or individual names. Then conduct a secret ballot on whether the tournament should continue or not. Also, inform them that if the ballot concludes that the tournament should not continue, the revised schedule will be announced at a later date. Assure them that the ballots will be counted transparently in their presence, with an election officer nominated by them. The election officer's ballot will be kept separately, and in case of a tie, it will be used to make decisions. The election officer should be someone who can convince the participating members about the outcome. The responsibility for moving the tournament forward now lies with the participants.

If the ballot indicates that the tournament should continue, gather opinions from the participants on whether any penalties or additional rules should be imposed to progress the tournament.

Before conducting the secret ballot exercise, subtly communicate through the grapevine that if such issues arise, management may consider hosting similar tournaments. Avoid mentioning the ballot exercise beforehand to prevent participants from preparing a specific response. However, ensure it is not obvious that you made this comment.

I trust that better judgment will prevail, and I am confident that all participants will vote to continue the tournament without causing any disruption.

This is a valuable lesson; establish the rules for future tournaments and move forward.

All the best!

Regards

Dear Ebinezar,

Who has framed carrom rules in your company? Who is the leader for the contest? Whether draft rules were given to both of the teams? Whether both the teams have given their memorandum of consent for following rules? Whether your boss has fixed any match fixing to test you? Who is the grievance handling officer.

Before handling this issue, try to identify who is the cause for all these problems, try to detain him and make an enquiry. Give a memo to both the teams and let them answer your queries, without which no issue will arise at all.

Hi,

I can empathize with your situation. HR is most of the time pulled into issues of personal ego among staff. It is more of an ego hassle than an actual hassle. A simple thing like not making the new coins available for practice could have not led to this issue altogether. However, you can declare all the matches null due to a violation of rules. Also, twist it by mixing both sets of coins. Please try to make your boss understand that there are bigger issues to solve than figuring out who has practiced with the new/old coin.

I don't think that for a silly issue as you have mentioned, the MD would refuse your appraisal for 5 months. If it is correct, then why don't you buy a pack of new coins which will hardly cost 50 to 100 bucks and get your appraisal done, instead of posting for suggestions. Even I regret to state that we professionals do not give heed to such silly issues from the management/employees. It would have been far better to work in a company with pride than to deal with these silly issues.

Sorry to state that here the company is obliging the employees by organizing the carom tournament, which professionals should avoid.

Sir,

This is not a silly question. The problem is the mentality of employees. As one of our friends said, your MD is testing your problem-solving method. Arranging new coins for the tournament is not a big cost for the company at all. You should formulate rules and regulations and implement them. You have to evaluate the employees' mentality and respond accordingly.

In this issue, you should assign somebody to issue the coins duly signed by the user.

Wishes.