UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UITM), CAWANGAN NEGERI SEMBILAN,

KAMPUS REMBAU

FACULTY of COMMUNICATION & MEDIA STUDIES DIPLOMA in

COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

CMP281 - COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT TITLE:

CASE STUDY: THE CHAOS BETWEEN THE BADMINTON ASSOCIATION OF

MALAYSIA (BAM) AND LEE ZII JIA

PREPARED BY:

NAME STUDENT ID

NURUL BATRISYA BINTI ZAILANI 2020871016

SARAH BATRISYIA BINTI ZULKARNAIN 2020613648

TASNEEM MAISARAH BINTI AZRUL HISHAM 2020490554

SORAYA NAQUIAH ABD TALIB 2020890956

NURKHAIRULAIMAN NAJMI BIN MD KAREEN 2020863968

MUHAMMAD ARMAND BIN RAZALI 2020880796

CLASS:
N5MC1104B

PREPARED FOR:
MADAM SUHAILA KAMAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1 2
Executive Summary 2
Background 2
Chronology 4
Goals and Objectives 6
The Problem 7
Strategies and Techniques 9
Results Achieved 13
Conclusion 15
PART 2 16
REFERENCES 17

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PART 1

Executive Summary

In January 2022, the Malaysian Badminton Association issued a statement that Lee
Zii Jia would be sued after deciding to move individually and more professionally. Various
criticisms have been levelled at the association so much so that they offered a salary of RM1
million within a year as an apology to Lee Zii Jia. Various criticisms have been raised by all
parties, especially the former national badminton player, Dato 'Lee Chong Wei also gave
great criticism to the chairman of BAM after the issue became a hot issue discussed by the
media. Not only the suit, but BAM also suspended all Lee Zii Jia's participation for two years
(Daud, 2022). This issue became more heated when BAM issued the statement so that
Malaysians strongly criticised BAM for being too disappointed with the association (Talkah,
2022). After the issue was hotly debated, many parties did not support the action of the
Badminton Association of Malaysia or BAM because it did not allow players to move
individually and more professionally. After the association realised their mistake, the
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) released Lee Zii Jia to move more professionally
after he appealed to the party regarding the issue of suspending his participation. The
Malaysian Badminton Association also needs to establish good relations with all badminton
players. Not only that, they also need to discuss before issuing a public decision to the media
(Saaid, 2022).

Background

Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM)

As we all know, Malaysia is famous in the badminton sports category. The Badminton
Association of Malaysia (BAM) is Malaysia's governing body for badminton. The
organisation was established in 1964 (History, 2020). It is known to be the home for all
national badminton players ever since. Young and growing badminton players had always
dreamed of joining the BAM community, they aspire to become like their idols and have the
mission of making Malaysia proud by winning a gold medal. On 11 November 1934, BAM
was founded in Kuala Lumpur as the Badminton Association of Malaya. The Association is

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recognised and affiliated with the world governing body, the Badminton World Federation
(BWF), the regional governing body, Badminton Asia (BA), and the Malaysian Olympic
Committee (OCM). According to Malaysian law, BAM is also registered with the Sports
Commissioner of Malaysia under the Sports Development Act 1997.

It is believed that BAM seems to be one of the strongest associations for badminton in
Malaysia. Nevertheless, even a strong build organisation like BAM has problems in
managing. A while ago, a controversial issue arose among the BAM team and even the
society when Lee Zii Jia, a famous Malaysian badminton player had decided to resign from
the BAM to pursue a professional career and go independent. This raised a lot of questions in
the media press industry. BAM themselves were shocked with Lee Zii Jia’s decision.

As a community that majorly loves the sport, badminton, it is quite the contrary to see
a good badminton player like Lee Zii Jia himself, backing down from joining the national
team. Lee Zii Jia has been playing for Malaysia for about 6 years now. In addition, he won
the gold medal in men's singles at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games and his first BWF Super
1000 title at the 2021 All England Open. Lee is the current Asian men's singles champion,
having won the title at the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships and has become an idol
figure to younger national badminton players. It is shown that Lee Zii Jia has achieved
Malaysian society’s expectations in the badminton field and made Malaysia proud. However,
we tend to forget that even a famous national player like Lee Zii Jia has his own goals and
values installed within himself.

The Rivalry Between BAM And Lee Zii Jia

In January 2022, Lee Zii Jia had shocked the country when he stated that he had
resigned from the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to become professional and
independent. Lee Zii Jia stated that the reason why he wanted to leave BAM was because of
"the pressure of being in the national side" and the "regimented lifestyle" (Malaysia's
Badminton Star Lee Zii Jia Banned After Quitting National Team-Sports News, 2022). When
the decision was made, BAM did not support his moves. Instead of being reasonable, they
decided to punish Lee Zii Jia with a two-year ban from all sanctioned tournaments by world
governing body the Badminton World Federation (BWF) (Malaysia's Badminton Star Lee Zii
Jia Banned After Quitting National Team-Sports News, 2022). The vast majority of
tournaments on the badminton calendar are sanctioned by the BWF, and each country's

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association is responsible for registering its players. This solemnly implies that the Malaysian
governing body can effectively prevent Lee Zii Jia from competing.

Due to the overwhelming feedback from the media press, this issue was seen as an
unnecessary punishment by the society and even for Lee Zii Jia himself. The issue went viral
on social media and even on the news. Lee Zii Jia was under a lot of pressure and it can be
clearly seen when Lee Zii Jia's departure is seen as the most high-profile departure from the
national squad (Palar, 2022), especially given that Malaysia has no other player of his calibre.
In short, the issue left an impact towards the organisation and the player. It can be seen
clearly how Lee Zii Jia is treated poorly by the BAM. Not to mention, how this issue could
affect Lee Zii Jia’s career for the future as well.

Chronology

Around December 2021, there had been rumours about Lee Zii Jia wanting to leave
the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM). This is owing to the fact that there was a
party who willingly offered RM4,000,000 to support the growth of his career (Ramli, 2021).
But this issue has not been further discussed as BAM gave a statement to the media, ensuring
the whole nation that the player was still committed and was not planning to remove himself
from the organisation. The organisation’s secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh also added that
the player himself did not have any knowledge about this sponsor which is why he did not
say anything to the media.

On January 11, 2022 though, once again there was speculation that Zii Jia was
planning to leave BAM. This time, the media decided to ask Zii Jia himself, but still he
denied it and said this was all just a rumour. The curiosity of all nations peaked on January
17, 2022 when BAM and Zii Jia were seen in a meeting and judging by how pressured Zii Jia
looked at that moment, the public started throwing lots of assumptions and speculations.
Nonetheless, when both parties were being interviewed by the media, they decided to just
stay silent and refused to state any comment regarding this matter. Situation got worse on
January 18 when Zii Jia finally revealed the truth to the public by stating that he was being
serious about leaving the organisation.

On January 19, 2022, news broke that Lee Zii Jia had resigned from the BAM to turn
professional. BAM's president, Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria confirmed that the world

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no.7 tendered his resignation on January 11. (Cheong, 2022) Datuk Micheal Tang, the
treasurer of BAM stated that Lee Zii Jia’s resignation is certainly a huge loss, and the entire
BAM family is saddened by this. Since there was news about the third party wanting to
sponsor him, a lot of speculation had been made; assuming Zii Jia accepted the offer.
Nevertheless, according to Lee Zi Jia himself, he ensured the media and public that his
decision had nothing to do with money and he did not have any intention to accept the offer.
Nonetheless, he refused to comment further about factors that motivated him to quit BAM as
he wanted to settle the issue privately with the mentioned organisation.

After resigning from BAM, on January 21, Lee Zii Jia was announced to be banned
from tournaments for two years as a punishment for quitting his national team to go
independent. Zii Jia has been held up as the heir to Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei, rising
rapidly up the rankings and scoring a breakthrough victory at the prestigious All England
Open last year. Following some poor performances in recent months, including at the
Olympics, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) disclosed this week he had quit
the body and wanted to play as an independent. But the association refused to back the move,
instead deciding to punish him with a two-year ban from all tournaments sanctioned by world
governing body the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

After receiving this heartfelt news, in order to save his career, Zii Jia has decided to
submit an appeal to the two-year sanction to BAM in the next three days after the
announcement which is on January 24 (Paul, 2022). BAM realised it was a harsh act as a lot
of people had been condemning them, however they said a strict decision was needed.
According to BAM, the 23-year-old had cited "the pressure of being in the national side" and
the "regimented lifestyle" at BAM as reasons for quitting. Lee Zii Jia, who is previously seen
as one of Malaysia's best hopes of winning the country's first ever Olympic gold medal, had
yet to comment publicly since news emerged. Not to mention, World number one Viktor
Axelsen of Denmark voiced support for Lee Zii Jia’s decision to go independent by saying "it
is his career and his life after all". (Malaysia's Badminton Star Lee Zii Jia Banned After
Quitting National Team-Sports News, 2022)

On January 27, 2022, it was official that both Lee Zii Jia and Goh Jin Wei are now
free to play independently and not under BAM. (BAM Lift Ban on Zii Jia and Jin Wei, 2022)
This was announced by BAM, thus, putting an end to the contentious issue which was
sparked by Zii Jia's resignation from BAM with the intention of turning professional earlier

5
this month. BAM stated that the association took into consideration the appeals made by both
players as per official procedures before reaching the decision to release them from their
respective contracts with BAM according to mutually agreed terms and conditions.

Goals and Objectives

It is crucial for BAM to find the right and proper resolution for this matter as they are
considered as one of the huge sport organisations in Malaysia. They have to take care of their
image since it represents most of the nation’s badminton players. For the purpose of this case
study, we will state several things that BAM was particularly concerned:

1. Prevents further conflicts and arguments between BAM and Lee Zii Jia

As you can see this issue has led into some misunderstandings between both parties.
This issue needed to settle in order to prevent future arguments. Disputes can be settled at an
early stage, before legal proceedings are commenced, or much later. For the first issue,
regarding the ban on Lee Zii Jia, it has made him upset as he cannot enter tournaments. Lee
Zii Jia had actually submitted fresh terms in order to continue his career with the national
body. However, after much deliberation, BAM decided to reject it because his requirements
were unrealistic and impossible to be fulfilled. BAM instead offered Lee Zii Jia several
lucrative incentives that included monetary benefits in recognition of his talent and in
consideration of the fact that BAM had nurtured him since he was 13 years old. (Zii Jia
Banned From Representing Malaysia for 2 Years, 2022) This was a good action from BAM
to reduce the tension between both parties. If BAM was not being reasonable, there might be
some conflict that would happen among both of them.

2. Persuades Lee Zii Jia to stay in BAM

The thing that BAM wanted the most was for Zii Jia to stay in the organisation as they
had been taking care of him since last decade. They wanted to convince the player to keep
being under BAM as they wanted to continue seeing and helping him with his growth which
is why BAM came up with an offer to raise Zii Jia’s salary to approximately RM1,000,000
per year. This is because BAM thought that money might be one of the factors on why Zii Jia
wanted to leave BAM. BAM also decided to conduct several meetings to have a further
discussion on this matter so that the best solution could be reached by both parties. They said

6
the decision to ban Lee Zii Jia is hoped to work as reverse psychology so that the player will
not leave the organisation.

3. Figures out and fixes problems inside of BAM

Last but not least, when Lee Zii Jia decided to resign from BAM, it was a devastating
loss towards the association and fellow Malaysians as they have lost their future talent in the
badminton world. Sports supporters had responded to the news that the mentioned national
shuttler had left the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) for good. Most of the
supporters suggested that BAM needs to get rid of the deadwood in the organisation and at
the ministerial level before the nation’s badminton can make any real progress. Truly, it
would be difficult to not add to the negativity surrounding the nation’s major sports. In
addition, those supporters have already drawn comparisons with BAM to other sports bodies
notably the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). As a consequence of that, BAM is
advised to do a post-mortem and figure out what is the root of the problem and they have to
get rid of it immediately before it gets worse.

4. Prioritises national players’ welfare

Finally, as stated by BAM, Zii Jia had cited "the pressure of being in the national
side" and the "regimented lifestyle" at BAM as one of the main reasons for quitting. Not only
that, he also claimed to be stressed as he was often being compared with Datuk Lee Chong
Wei and he was afraid to not be able to live up to the society’s expectations. Thus, BAM
figured it is best to focus on the players’ well-being. By allowing this resignation, Lee Zii Jia
would be less pressured if he decided to leave BAM and perhaps even may give a better
performance. In addition to these, BAM Deputy President, Dato’ Dr Jahaberdeen Mohamed
Yunoos told the reporters that Zii Jia's decision could affect the training programmes and the
body’s finances if he did not wholeheartedly want to be there.

The Problem

Being a huge organisation or a company means every action taken or every decision
made will be observed by many parties especially the society. If an organisation made a huge
mistake publicly, there is a big possibility lots of people will start criticising their actions
either in real life or on social media. This is what happened to the BAM regarding the ‘chaos’
between the world number 7 badminton player, Lee Zii Jia when he decided to resign from

7
BAM. This all began when BAM made a hasty and rushed decision to announce their
response towards Lee Zii Jia’s resignation letter to the press. The public was furious over
the claim made by the Second Vice President of BAM, Dato' Sri Dr. Jahaberdeen. This was
regarding Lee Zii Jia who had been banned from participating in any competitions held
by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for two years.

The Internet was flooded with thousands of comments from the society, condemning
BAM’s ‘cruel punishment’ towards the young badminton player. This is due to the fact
that if Zii Jia was banned for two years, it means he will miss the 2024 Paris Olympics and
Asian Games. BAM is said to be such an inconsiderate organisation as their decision
clearly will be affecting Zii Jia’s career in the future. Many said it was selfish and indeed an
immature action since he was still young and not to mention, badminton players are free to
plan their own path. The situation had gone tougher for BAM when the public had created
approximately three online petitions, protesting this whole ‘banning’ decision (Zheng Guan,
2022). One of the petitions named “Don’t ban Lee Zii Jia” gained more than 120,000
signatures at that time which proved that Zii Jia had a lot of supporters that stood with him.

Not only that, this ‘chaos’ had also caught the attention of other badminton players’
outside Malaysia. (Kronologi Kemelut BAM-Lee Zii Jia 2022) The world number 1, Victor
Axelsen gave his thoughts on this situation by explaining this situation through an analogy of
someone being unhappy at their workplace and wanting to quit. In one of his Facebook posts
on 21st January 2022, he mentioned that everyone should be able to have the right to move
out from an environment, especially if they realised they are no longer happy staying there.
Even though he did not clearly mention BAM’s name, he did ask if this is what we wanted
for our athletes in 2022; for them not to be able to make a choice for their own sake. This
particular response from Victor has made the whole Malaysia to continue criticising BAM,
saying this action of theirs is truly embarrassing as it is getting attention from international
players.

In addition, with this situation happening, a lot of assumptions regarding BAM have
been made by the public which has indirectly affected their image badly. Many speculated
this organisation has internal problems that needed to be fixed before it gets worse. (Mat,
2022) The former world number 1 player, Roslin Hashim also believed that the problems
inside of BAM is one of the factors that led Zii Jia to making a decision to leave the
organisation. He personally did not think Zii Jia’s decision was because of the sponsor

8
offered to him. Roslin was also curious as to why Chan Chong Ming, the national women’s
double coach, who also made a decision to resign from BAM after joining the body for just a
year (Anil, 2021). He suggested that the Malaysia Sports Commissioner should do a
post-mortem as well as further inspection on BAM before they lose more and more players.

Owing to the fact that comment was made by a former Malaysian badminton player
has led the society to thinking and viewing BAM as a problematic organisation. Not to forget,
this ‘chaos’ between BAM and Zii Jia occurred after BAM announced their decision on firing
243 athletes as well as reducing 50% allowance for the players that are still bonded with the
training contract (Malaysiakini, 2022). Aside from that, the former Minister of Youth and
Sports (Malaysia), Steven Sim, has also criticised BAM’s decision to ban Zii Jia as
‘drastic’ and ‘unhealthy’, not just to the player, but also to the organisation. It is clear that
BAM must make a firm decision in this case to stop other players from following Zii Jia's
behaviour, but declaring this punishment is not the right course of action. This issue is
considered as one of the worst crises in Malaysia’s sport industry.

The Minister of Sport and Youth (Malaysia) is advised to take immediate and
reasonable action before it starts affecting Malaysia’s sport industry’s prestasy badly. This
issue is not only about Lee Zii Jia and BAM, but now that it has spread widely, opinions from
every perspective are to be taken into account before making the final decision. He believes if
the root of the conflicts or problems that are happening inside of BAM remain unresolved,
this situation may have gone worse. Not only that, BAM needs to clarify their actions or
else the mentioned organisation is going to remain labelled as ‘problematic’ which may
cause more badminton athletes to leave them in the future if they are not being cautious
enough.

Strategies and Techniques

The decision by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to not register the
No. 1 singles player in the country for any Badminton World Federation (BWF) naugan
competition for a period of two years was a severe punishment for the action taken by Lee Zii
Jia, who quit the national team. Datuk Seri Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos, Deputy President
of the BAM, emphasised that in order for national players to participate in any competition
held under the auspices of the BWF, they must first have consent from the association.
However, as a result of the action that was done, BAM has decided not to register Zii Jia for

9
the BWF competition for a period of two years commencing on January 18, 2022. This
decision was made because of the consequences of the action that was taken to discuss the
problem and come up with strategies and methods for resolving it to hear the issue and
provide solutions. (Malaysia's Badminton Star Lee Zii Jia Banned After Quitting National
Team-Sports News, 2022)

BAM stating Lee Zii Jia as one of the best players.

During the whole conflict between BAM and Lee Zii Jia, Director of Coaching at
BAM, Wong Choong Hann said that losing Lee Zii Jia would be a significant setback for
BAM. He said, "We will be losing our top player, and then we will have to scramble to train
other athletes." There will also be a time limit even if they are preparing for their other
athletes to be elite shuttlers. The coach clarified that he had not discussed Lee Zii Jia's future
with BAM with him. He did advise to wait until BAM confirmed or denied the rumour
though his employment status with BAM is still uncertain (Chuah, 2022). As stated above,
based on Chapter 11:Conflict Managements under what can we do if there is conflict, we
can see that the director was trying to separate the people from the problem by saying that
BAM need time to train their other athletes in order for them to be elite if they let go of Lee
Zii Jia. He did not further complicate the situation or state something bad about him that can
bring harm to Lee Zii Jia's name. Furthermore, he also tried to focus on interests, not
positions. This means that he knew that Lee Zii Jia was interested in playing badminton and
was really good at it. So, he was trying to not think or mention Lee Zii Jia’s positions in
BAM although he was an amazing player among other athletes.

BAM is willing to have meetings with Lee Zii Jia along with his family.

Before Lee Zii Jia officially leaves BAM, he was seen to have a meeting with BAM a
few times. There is this one time where Lee Zii Jia has left his practice for the meeting twice,
once alone himself and once with his sister, Syakirah, Academy Badminton Malaysia’s
(ABM) journalist observed. She also continued by saying she was unsure whether Zii Jia had
submitted his resignation. After the meeting, things in BAM were tight, as well as the
Minister of Youth and Sports was also made aware of the situation (Chuah, 2022). Another
meeting was also held when Lee Zii Jia disclosed that he and BAM had reached a mutually
beneficial deal. Lee Zii Jia said in a message on his Facebook page that BAM President Tan
Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria had granted him permission to play professionally and that he

10
was pleased that the matter had been handled. Lee Zii Jia’s parents were also present for the
meeting too, which took place at the National Badminton Academy (Zainal, 2022).

Due to that, we agree that BAM was using a few Conflict Management method in
handling this conflict such as communicate continually and honestly by BAM held a heart
to heart meeting with Lee Zii Jia and his family (Zainal, 2022), BAM keep on listen, listen
and listen some more to Lee Zii Jia by held meetings, BAM recognize and accept the
feelings of the individuals involved by understanding Lee Zii Jia and agree to let him go for
the sake of his future and BAM also define success in terms of gains rather than losses and
devised options for mutual gain by doing the right thing and sees that it will bring
advantages to Lee Zii Jia rather than bring loss to BAM. Moreover, BAM also shows that
they are using one of 5 Styles of Conflict Management which is collaborating. Collaborating
is when the needs and desires of each party are taken into account, and a win-win solution is
found so that everyone is happy. This frequently entails everyone being on the same page,
discussing the issue, and working out a compromise (Andreev, 2021). This can be seen when
both BAM and Lee Zii Jia agree to go their separate ways without having any conflict
anymore at their last meeting together.

BAM made a press release statement about Lee Zii Jia.

A day before Lee Zii Jia's formal departure from BAM, BAM had made a press
release statement about Lee Zii Jia. However, the press release statements did not once
mention the word sorry neither to Lee Zii Jia or Malaysian Netizens for what they had done
against Lee Zii Jia. It only stated “We have an established set of processes and procedures
that must be followed. The actions by the BAM Council were based on these official
procedures with the information that was presented to them.” and “We are looking into the
matter with great urgency to find an amicable resolve.'' (STATEMENT ON LEE ZII JIA, n.d.)

For us, BAM was trying to solve this conflict by using one of the 5 Styles of Conflict
Managements which is competing. Competing can be defined when it comes to how they
believe a matter should be handled, one party is adamant and would not relent until they get
their way. This may occur when there is no time to look for a different solution, when moral
considerations require the adoption of a certain course of action, or when an unpopular choice
must be made (Zainal, 2022). However, Lee Zii Jia also competed with them by gaining
support from the Malaysian Netizens and his fellow athletes along with former athletes on

11
social media platforms. Thus, we can see here that the source of the conflict that happened
between both of them is because of change in the environment and human drives for
success, competition. All just because Lee Zii Jia wanted to be a professional badminton
player but BAM did not want to because they admire and did not want to lose one of their
great athletes.

BAM willing to increase Lee Zii Jia’s income up to RM1 Million

The Badminton Association Malaysia (BAM) reportedly offered Malaysia National

Player, Lee Zii Jia RM1 million in order to make him stay in BAM. This action is taken by
BAM as a Message Strategy in order to motivate Lee Zii Jia to stay with BAM. The RM1
million offer is an arrangement of BAM that may help through inoculation uation
techniques as it is a two-sided argument between Lee Zii Jia and BAM. In order to
effectively convey the value of their organisations, BAM must first discover the best ways to
express that value to gain the public's attention and support to convince Lee Zii Jia.
Therefore, through the media, it is informed that it is the first time in BAM history to offer
that huge amount of salary to an athlete in order for them to continue serving for BAM. In
addition, The salary does not include the other benefits and bonuses that BAM offers its
players, nor does it include the prize money they win at tournaments. This portrays how
important Lee Zii Jia is in the organisation, appreciates his talent and is an important asset for
the organisation. However, Lee Zii Jia declined and turned down the offer and clarified that
money is not the reason he left BAM (Leong & Fong, 2022).

BAM’s approval on Lee Zii Jia’s request.

Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza

Zakaria has approved the request of national men's singles ace Lee Zii Jia to play badminton
professionally. This wish was granted by Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria. Mohamad Norza
gave a quick response to Bernama when they asked him to elaborate on the allegation that
Lee Zii Jia had made in his Facebook post earlier today regarding his move to be an
independent player. This came about after Zii Jia posted that he had obtained the blessings
from Mohamad Norza to become a professional player after a private heart-to-heart encounter
with Mohamad Norza along with his parents.

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 Zii Jia had written that he had met with Mohamad Norza together with his parents On
the other hand, BAM said yesterday that they had confirmed that Zii Jia had sent an appeal
letter on their decision, and they promised to find the best solution as soon as possible. As
formulating Communication Strategy, BAM and Lee Zii Jia applied Communication
Objective as it shows what they want from this interaction is to find a solution for Lee
Zii Jia. Not only that, we are aware that BAM has a higher audience involvement as BAM
is the Key Decision Makers that has power to influence the outcome of the
communication. Power usage is a kind of communication that enables individuals to
comprehend and react to social circumstances. The link of power usage as a communicative
activity is manifest in interpersonal interactions, societal hierarchies, and participatory
subordination.

Results Achieved

After a few meetings conducted by BAM with Zii Jia, they finally agreed on letting
him go to pursue his career as a professional player that no longer serves for BAM. He will
not be practising with the organisation anymore but he will still be allowed to register and
compete in the upcoming tournaments. In an interview with the media, Zii Jia expressed his
gratitude towards the BAM as they have given him ‘blessing’ to proceed his career as an
independent shuttler (FMT Reporters, 2022). He understood it was a tough call for the body
as they have been taking care of him since he was 13 and he said it was not an easy decision
for him to make as well. He also thanked the Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri and also
Dato’ Sri Ahmad Faizal, the Minister of Youth and Sports for showing their concern in this
matter. Zii Jia promised to keep improving his performance to make Malaysians proud.

From this situation, we can see that he has his personal reasons for quitting BAM and
it clearly is not because of money. This is due to the fact that he still insisted to leave BAM
even after being offered RM1,000,000 for his yearly salary by the BAM. In this case, BAM
did try to persuade Zii Jia to stay by listening to his side of story carefully this time, trying to
simplify the arguments and finally coming up with an offering to increase a higher amount of
salary to Zii Jia, hoping it would be enough to make him stay. This action of BAM’s can be
seen in Chapter Six which is Persuasion. BAM was being persuasive for the sake of trying
to change Zii Jia’s opinions in leaving the organisation. Even though they failed to persuade
Zii Jia, it is a great thing that they tried their best and used the right methods.

13
 To add, in the announcement made by Dato' Sri Dr. Jahaberdeen, he told the media
that they successfully reached for a win-win settlement. According to Chapter 8 in
Communication Management; Listening and Feedback, in order to be able to comprehend
the whole situation, both parties need to listen to what each other has to say instead of just
hearing. Individuals need to listen to what is not being said by the other party. As we all are
aware of, effective listening might help people in terms of solving the problems. Therefore,
after analysing the situation thoroughly, it is safe to say that initially, BAM was not practising
the effective listening skills as they have decided to involve the media instead of settling it
quietly with Zii Jia. This has caused the public to assume that BAM decided to change their
decisions just because they were criticised and condemned by the public. In our opinion,
maybe the critics, especially the ones made by the social media users did influence them a
little bit to rethink their decision but it is good BAM acknowledged their mistakes and was
willing to conduct a final meeting.

Many people congratulated both parties for being mature enough to sit down and have
a proper discussion to solve this matter as they do not wish to see a negative outcome.
Looking at the situation as a whole, we believe in order to settle this conflict, both parties
need to make a little sacrifice so that the disagreement and argument would not last any
longer. It is fair to say that both parties did lose something. As an analogy, BAM has to lose
one of their greatest assets, which is Zii Jia and they also have to consider the possibility and
risk of other players to leave BAM. As from Zii Jia’s point of view, he is now basically an
independent player who does not have any fixed income and will have to rely on his own self.
In our opinion, based on Chapter 11: Managing Conflict, the conflict management style
used is compromising, as both parties lost something throughout the process of reaching an
agreement.

However, on the bright side, since this is the first time in the history of badminton
Malaysia that a badminton player left BAM, we personally think this ought to be a lesson for
us all. It must be hard for the organisation to accept this, but we believe there will always be
new potential players that may join them. Apart from that, from this ‘chaos’, BAM has also
stated that they will now prioritise the welfare of the players by asking if there is any problem
to be fixed so that their performance can be enhanced. As one of the main factors Zii Jia left
the organisation is because of the pressure he faced, being compared to Datuk Lee Chong
Wei, BAM figured it is best for them to be more observant and they should always check up
on the players so that this incident will not be happening again, in the future.

14
 Conclusion

The difficulty of apologising in an organisational setting increases. Even seasoned

leaders might get paralysed by indecision when deciding whether and how to apologise. A
firm error is typically the result of a single department or employee, and uncontrollable
occurrences frequently make bad situations worse. A CEO or a whole organisation having to
accept responsibility can seem unfair too (Schweitzer et al., 2015).

In short, after BAM was heavily criticised by the community and other badminton
players, they tried to hold a discussion with Lee Zii Jia's family to discuss the crisis that
befell Lee Zii Jia. This is because Lee Zii Jia has sent a letter of resignation to BAM to move
individually and more professionally. Not only that, BAM also wanted to explain their
actions to Lee Zii Jia's family as soon as they received the news. After hearing from his side,
BAM decided to release Lee Zii Jia and let him continue his career as a professional player.
As a result, BAM also withdrew the suit and the suspension of Lee Zii Jia's participation
immediately after holding discussions with Lee Zii Jia's family.

In our opinion, based on Chapter 2: Communication Strategy, we can see that one
of the strategies utilised by BAM was the direct approach to persuade Zii Jia to stay by
offering to raise his salary. Although it was not a success to convince Zii Jia to stay, we still
think it is a good strategy. Aside from that, relating to Chapter 11: Conflict Management,
we believe conflicts are natural and a responsive organisation should be facing it in order for
them to change for the better. Not all of them are negative. Even though BAM received a
backlash from their action at first, the organisation has now learnt to be more careful in
making a decision and also in making statements to the media. They did not get to convince
the young player to stay, but still, BAM has successfully resolved the conflict with Zii Jia
with no hard feelings from both parties. We personally do not think both parties were
satisfied with the outcome of the discussion, especially BAM, but the way they managed the
conflict was great.

To conclude, it is normal for an organisation to make a mistake, however, it is really

important to take accountability of our own mistakes and grow to be better. From this issue,
we can see that, after all, good communication is really needed when it comes to solving
problems. Hence, before doing anything, it is advisable to take a moment to think so that
further bad consequences might be able to be prevented.

15
PART 2

16
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