Reference no: EM133596154

Case Study: One day in a Dairy Queen in Ottawa, I witnessed an altercation between a customer and two employees. The customer came in with her daughter to get a blizzard. While she was ordering from one employee, the other one started making what she had requested. She was handed the ice cream and said what is this, did you make this without wearing gloves. We had seen the employee wash her hands and thought that this was a strange request, but they made her another one. This time, the customer said, "Let me see your hands. I need to make sure there are no open wounds." The employee seemed confused but complied and then the customer seemed to see that she had tattoos and became upset once again. The employee tried to calm the customer down by communicating that she had done as she had requested and was now unsure of what was wrong. The customer then demanded to speak to their manager while her daughter, who was around 7 years old, rolled her eyes behind her mother. The employee with the tattoos, who had been trying to accommodate the woman, then stated, "I am the manager". This appeared to send the woman into a rage as she was becoming increasingly upset and saying that she needs to fix what she made. The manager was trying to figure out what the customer thought she had done wrong, which just seemed to upset her more as she seemed to think that they knew what they had done.

The customer demanded that the employee without the tattoos put on gloves and make another blizzard. After they were given yet another blizzard, she demanded her receipt and stated she wanted the name of the owner as she was going to complain about how rude the store had been to her. She said that they did not know who she was and that she would have their jobs. Then, she took her child by the hand and left the establishment in a huff, while mustering under her breath about how they were never coming back.

After the customer and her daughter left, the two employees then began discussing what had happened and the manager appeared to be trying to calm down the employee who seemed scared that the woman would follow through on her threats to have them fired. The manager was saying how she knew one of their bosses and would explain the situation, but this would have been their word against the customers and, as the saying goes, the customer is always right.

This prompted my mom into action since we had witnessed the whole thing and knew that they had done nothing wrong. My mom asked for the receipt, which seemed to alarm the employee and asked to see that manager's hands. She then said she was only asking this as she was going to write her own review and write in the comments what had actually happened. While discussing the conflict, they seemed just as confused about this conflict as we had been. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that things were opening back up again after COVID, but we may never know. One day when we went back there, the employee thanked us and said the review my mom had written, as well as her comments, had saved their jobs since the customer did end up filing a complaint. Even now, we are still on friendly terms with the two employees there.

QUESTION:

How does this theory help to explain how the conflict unfolded? What insights does it offer about why people acted and communicated the way they did in the conflict? How does it help to explain the outcomes of the conflict? Again, besure to draw from specific details and points in the theory.