The Lost Ball Saga- Travails of a Golf Ball

I come from a very distinguished family of golf balls. I am a Titleist. I was happily playing in the golf courses from Delhi to Munnar to Shillong and Simla. My owner had a ‘single handicap’. He also used to hit long and straight. This is borne by the fact that I have travelled over the fairways of so many golf courses across the country. And got used to sleeping in the same pocket of the golf bag with the same set of friends for a long time.

But alas, all this changed one day!! My owner decided to gift me to his nephew when he heard him wailing about how many balls he loses every day. I shifted to Bhopal. I had a new home in an old golf bag.

My first view of the SCEPTA course at Bhopal made me fall in love with it. It was the month of December. The fairways were well manicured and the greens lush with sharply nipped velvety grass. While sailing over one of the fairways, I happened to look to my right and saw a flock of spot-billed ducks talking with even greater number of egrets in the water body. The barn owl on the bare tree in the centre of the lake just squinted at me as if knowing that very soon I shall be diving. But I landed fairly on the fairway. I flew over blossoms of ‘Kachnar’, lantana bushes and power lines. But at the end of two hours was safely put back into my new home. O it was exhilarating!!

Next day I was joined in my pocket in the golf bag by a host of riff- raff. I think they were 20 in number. They all looked like tramps. Dirty, their names faded and some of them carried injury marks. Poor things. Most of them were from the Callaway family and others from Taylormade and Srixon. There were a couple of Dunlops too. Any way being the first occupant of the bag, I welcomed them all and wished them safe journey across the fairways whenever they had to. We all became friends.

Each morning at the crack of dawn two of us would be taken out and the rest of us would brace themselves for a bumpy ride for the next couple of hours. I knew something was wrong when after about fifteen minutes two more of my new friends were taken out of the bag. I overheard the caddies talking to each other, “ Sahab ko khelna nahi aata hai.” Any way at the end of the day, while four Callaways had gone into battle, only one returned along with a Srixon.

I am not sure why I was not put on the course, but five times a week, two friends were taken out of the bag at the crack of dawn and another two to three over the course of next two hours or so. The first two never used to come back. Of the other three, one odd fellow was put back in the pocket. The first Sunday, which is the day of rest, we were just six left from the original twenty-one. There were other five homeless tramps who had joined us that week.

Sleeping in my bag kept in the balcony, I was woken up by the discussion my owner was having with his daughter who is a student of psychology. He was telling her how he had lost over 15 balls that week and had found 5. “Dad, that’s stealing. You must return those 5 balls to their owners.”

“But beta I do not know who do they belong to.”

“Then you should just put them back where you found them.” “Maybe they will come back looking for them when there is no pressure of the four-ball behind them pushing for a pass”, she replied.

“But what about the balls that I have lost?” he asked.

“That’s your problem. You should improve your game” she replied with finality. Discussion over. My boss had no opportunity to explain the concept of ‘finders-keepers’ for lost golf balls. He was marked a thief.

Entire next week we found ourselves in the driving range. None of my friends were taken out of the bag. Apparently balls for practice were taken and returned.

After that there was a slight reduction in the number of balls not returning home. With the approach of summer months and the undergrowth vegetation drying up, new tramps kept turning up every day. Our joy knew no bounds one day, when even though we lost three friends over nine-holes, we found four new ones.

All the new ones had very interesting stories to tell. There was a dignified Callaway who having helped his owner register the longest drive, just could not be found in the rough at the next hole. He was destined to be part of my family three days later when we were looking for a Taylormade in the same rough.

In the mean while I had made a small hole in the bag and enjoyed the scenery outside. The spring time saw the flowers in full bloom and the riot of colours was simply enchanting. I thoroughly enjoyed the bumpy rides.

There was another Callaway in a fairly good shape who joined us later that month. He was telling us how his boss used to discount the number of times he was hit from a tee to it’s green and then from the next one and so on for every hole. Now that is cruelty unleashed. We balls know that we are made to be hit. That’s our destiny. But the least that can be done to honour us for services rendered is to record diligently the number of times we are hit and not discount that. The poor Callaway was lamenting that this had been happening for quite some time. Over a round of 18-holes the poor ball used to be hit at least a hundred times but for the record his boss mentioned only 80 to 85. Having got sick of it he decided to just drop into the water hazard close to the 8^th green. He remained submerged and happily hibernated for three months before coming up once the water dried.

My daily bumpy rides continued.Since I was the only Titleist, I remained in the bag as a lucky mascot. New generations of Callaways and Dunlops came and went. As my boss’ game improved, the number of tramps reduced gradually. Tramps were being replaced by new shiny balls. We slowly got to know each other and shared stories. The two soldiers who went out everyday came back happy and tired. We had very few casualties in those months.

As the saying goes, it was too good to last. My boss had a heart problem and we remained off the course for four months coming back after the monsoons. The water hazards were full, the fairways were like rough and the rough were really rough. And to add to my worries the boss had forgotten to hold the club properly let alone swing it.

It was simple massacre over the next few weeks. Each day was like a battle. So many new balls went out of the bag and very few remained. It was time to go the driving range. Even that had enough grass to trap the balls. So, after two days the boss conferred with his caddie and went back to the course. But the new balls in the bag were replaced by tramps again.

It’s been two months now and our losses have come down. The guys going out report back that they were getting into the holes at ‘one to two over’ consistently. On a good day two to three pars were also reported.

My bumpy rides continue, beginning at the crack of dawn. I enjoy the light breeze, the lush greens and the fairways. I am happy to note that my boss is walking more briskly and he is able to hit straight. Turn over of the balls in the bag is at its lowest and we are enjoying ourselves as one big golf family from one round to the next. Only I wonder when will my turn to sail over the fairways come? I feel I need to do my bit.

Conflict Management in the Workplace

The recent case of an airline pilot slapping his co-pilot in an international flight prompting the latter to leave the controls and walk out of the cockpit thereby endangering flight safety, should put workplace conflict firmly in center stage. That the co-pilot walked out twice and had to be cajoled by the cabin-crew to take back the controls indicates the degree to which she must have been aggrieved. The DGCA has promptly suspended the license of the pilot and the co-pilot has been suspended by the airline.

The airline and the regulatory body are proceeding with their inquiries and administrative procedures and actions to be taken in such instances. The airline HR team is as much to blame as the pilots for letting such a situation come to pass. We in the HR profession need to remind ourselves that there will be conflicts in the workplace and we need to keep ourselves ahead in the game if we are to manage the human resource of our organization effectively.

Recognizing the symptoms of a malady are as important as the malady itself for effective treatment. While branding workplace conflict as a ‘malady’ may not be entirely right, it does affect productivity if not addressed promptly. In this case some newspapers also reported that the pilot and the co-pilot were live-in partners. Well then, was it a ‘lover’s spat’? The HR should have taken cognizance of their status and made sure that either they got along well or were not rostered together.

While this is a rare case, workplace conflicts are fairly common and we experience them almost every day.

Conflict can manifest itself in various ways and varying severity. The cause largely includes differences between personality styles, values, expectations and goals. When conflict grows to a point where a supervisor needs to get involved, the situation has possibly reached a critical point.

Categorizing Causes of Conflict

The first step towards effective conflict management is to identify the root causes of conflict. According to psychologists Art Bell and Brett Hart, the eight common causes of conflict in the workplace are:

a.       Conflicting resources. People often have to share resources. We must develop empathy and team spirit to avoid getting into a conflict over sharing resources. The manager can step in and lay down priorities if required.

b.       Conflicting styles. Each one of us has a different working style. Key to contributing to a healthy office atmosphere is to understand each other’s style and as long as the organizational goals are being met, do not bother about it.

c.        Conflicting perceptions. All of us have our own world-view. We may perceive events in the workplace differently. The key to avoiding a conflict due to different perceptions is to have an effective communication system where everyone is kept informed so that independent interpretations are minimized and gossip should be dealt with severely.

d.       Conflicting goals. Very often we may be given conflicting targets. One manager may demand top quality while the other would insist on cost control. The operations guy would want to run the machines, the maintenance team would want to shut down and carry out preventive maintenance. It is best to talk to both of them, assess the impact on productivity and take a call.

e.       Conflicting pressures. 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. If you feel that team members are experiencing conflict because of clashing short-term objectives, reschedule tasks and deadlines to relieve the pressure

f.        Conflicting roles. There are many instances when as managers we have to assign tasks to a person beyond his normal role and responsibilities. This may cause a conflict in his mind as well as in the mind of the person whose responsibility it should have been. Communicate clearly with your team and explain why the task has been assigned to a different person. It will help immensely in maintaining a cordial atmosphere.

g.       Different personal values. As managers we have to respect the ethical values of each individual and avoid assigning tasks which are in conflict with a person’s personal values.

h.       Unpredictable policies. Office policies should be clearly defined so as to bring in consistency in dealing with various situations or issues. Unpredictable policies are bound to hinder proactive behavior of staff when faced with new situations.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict by meeting at least some of each side’s needs and addressing their interests. Conflict resolution sometimes requires both a power-based and an interest-based approach, such as the simultaneous use of authority and attempt at negotiation to reconcile each party’s interests.

There are several conflict resolution models. But the most commonly practiced is the Thomas-Kilmann resolution model. It is based on two factors, Assertiveness and Cooperativeness. While Assertiveness is about teams being opposite each other in a conflict situation, Cooperativeness is about both teams working towards a common goal in the same situation.

The 5-methods described in the Thomas-Kilmann Model are: -

a.       Avoiding.

b.       Accommodating

c.        Compromising

d.       Competing

e.       Collaborating

Assertiveness

·         Competing                                                                                     * Collaborating

                                                          *Compromising

·         Avoiding                                                                              * Accommodating

                                                                                                       Cooperativeness

The diagram above indicates that conflict resolution through Collaboration is high on both Cooperativeness and Assertiveness. Its outcome is not a zero-sum game like would be the case in Avoiding or Competing. Accommodating is passive in nature and Compromising may not yield the best results for the organization.

As managers we are required to adopt all these styles at different points in time in different situations. Having said that, in all workplace conflicts, ‘organizational interest’ is invariably the constantly affected party. And, therefore, it should take priority in all resolutions. Within an organization, it is imperative that the team members be proactive in identifying and resolving conflict situations before they reach the critical stage. Non-resolution shall invariably result in poor work quality, communication problems and exit of valuable human resource besides loss of business.