Teamwork and Motivation Problem of Friendly Bank - Coursework Example

Teamwork and Motivation Problem of Friendly Bank Introduction Change is inevitable in an organizational context and a company has to cope up with the changes to ensure its sustainability in the complex, global business environment. Recently, with the development in IT integration and more importantly as a result of Global Financial Crisis in 2007, many industries had experienced severe structural changes in order to ensure their existence in a recession driven world economy (Axson, 2010). However, consequences of such financial downturn affected the Banking Sector the most. At one place, degradation in Information Technology has changed the whole concept of traditional banking and the recession dragged most of the private banks on a verge of shut down (Robbins, Judge, Millett and Boyle, 2013). In this paper, the effect of such structural changes on Friendly Bank will be analyzed and the role of team leaders and supervisors will be evaluated to understand their level of efficiency to motivate the team members and drive them towards achieving newly formed organizational objectives, keeping at pace with changing organizational cultures (Tissington, Hasel and Matthiesen, 2009). Organizational Context and Circumstance Friendly bank, online banking division of Parkers Plc, is one of the high street banks of Southampton, reputed for its excellence in customer services. The targeted customer segment of Parker Plc being white, middle class and wealthy, the bank enjoys competitive advantage by ensuring security and stability to all its customers. According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank, Hector Brogan, Parker Plc is distinct from all other banks because with Parker, the customers know where their money is. However, as a result of severe financial depression, especially in European economy, in 2012 the bank was driven almost on a verge of bankruptcy. Though the bank had survived from hostile takeover by a major competitor in 2013, more than 60% of the branch network of Parker Plc were closed and replaced by online banking operations to reduce operating cost. It restarted its operations under the head of Friendly Bank, established in the outskirts of Southampton, near the existing regional office of Parker Plc. Redundant employees of Parker Plc were shifted to the online and phone banking customer service operations of Friendly Bank at a less salary package. Emphasis was shifted from customer service to sale of wide range of financial products for generating additional income for the bank and accordingly Sales against Target (SAT) was introduced as a performance indicator. Additional bonuses were also announced which was achievable after meeting the pre determined targets. Disciplinary actions were appointed on missing the targets on regular basis. According to the reports of early 2013, Friendly Bank appointed 300 customer advisors among which 60 employees were previously appointed at Parkers Plc. However, within only six months of the company, Hector Brogan started experiencing a large number of internal problems in Friendly Bank in terms of organizational culture, motivational problems, team management and decision making inefficiencies (Excerpt from case study). In the next segment of analysis, the behaviour of these two segments of employees, long stays- the old employees from Parker Plc and short stays- fresh appointees of Friendly Bank in organizational framework will be discussed to evaluate root cause of the problems and recommend suitable suggestions so that the bank can exist and progress in future as well. Discussion and Analysis Organisational Culture Problem Organizational culture enhances the behavioural specifications of the human assets of an organization which are reflected by the mission, vision, assumptions, systems, norms, beliefs and values taken by the organization. When a company experiences structural changes, the key challenges experienced by the company is due to the internal cultural complexities (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulte, 2011). According to the case of Friendly bank, with the development and application of Information Technology in the UK banking industry, it has become utmost important for all banks to introduce 24hours phone banking and internet banking operations so that individuals can manage their finances according to their own convenience and in a cost and time effective method. Hence, the management of the newly formed bank is trying to bring changes in organizational systems and values, keeping at pace with the external progressing environment. Organizational demand from employees has also been increased to meet the extended responsibilities. Apart from that, due to the financial crunch, the parent company Parker plc had to shift its concentration from quality customer service provided through branch baking to sales oriented financial services delegated over phone banking. Hence, the employees who were previously working for Parker Plc and eventually transferred to Friendly Bank, such as Sheila Pendeford, are experiencing two cultural complexities. Sheila was appointed in Friendly bank as a Team Leader of customer service executives. First, as Sheila received a smooth transition from Parker Plc to Friendly Bank, she couldn’t understand the convolution in external environment and hence, she took the whole change in system very calmly. Next, as a result of working 8 years long in Parker Plc as branch banking executive, characteristically she has become very empathetic towards all customers. Her serving attitude made her very less aggressive so that she can drive a team of 14 young employees towards achieving sales targets set by the management. In contrast, the other employees such as Sheila newly joined team member, Paul Harrington and her Assistance Team Leader, Carl Evans aggressively struggled for achieving the Sales against Targets (SAT) and maximizing their additional income (bonus and quarterly incentive) as possible. Where Sheila strived to retain a responsive and gracious environment in Friendly Bank, Paul and Carl attempted to establish competitive ambience. Therefore, previous cultural assumptions of Sheila are reflected in her existing organizational behaviour. Paul, though motivated for work to some extent, started the culture of grapevine which may also hamper effective workings of the company (Flamholtz and Randle, 2011). Teamwork and Motivation Problem Teamwork is an individual art and it shows the team leader’s competence to integrate and motivate the team towards predetermined goals of the organization. Team work develops delegation and efficiency in workplace, enhances circulation of ideas and builds support systems in an organization. An organization will cease to exist if all employees come together to achieve organizational objective (Dweck, 2013). This can be attained only if all the small teams in an organization accomplish their division of work with a proper guidance of effective team leader. In Friendly Bank, one of the key concerns is teamwork as a result of lack of guidance and motivation from the team leader. Sheila though appointed as team leader and was provided adequate and relevant trainings, inherited limited qualities, required for becoming a team leader. She had subsequently failed to address all issues raised by her team player. Her effortless attitude towards SAT could not motivate and guide the team members towards achieving it. Hence, those individual members such as Paul and Carl who were self motivated to achieve that £1000 to £1500 beyond their salary, felt disappointed by Sheila’s way of driving team. According to Keith’s view, Shelia along with other long stays failed to understand that, in a recession driven emergency situation how much important it is for Friendly Bank to maximize their sales to obtain a moderate revenue base. Hence, such effort from management had not communicated to the employees in absence of a good team leader and most of the employees as well failed to realise the importance of maximizing sales. There were no unity, trust and integration among teams (Beck, 2012). Sheila became redundant in the organization without any proper substitution for leadership. If such condition prevails for a long time, Friendly bank will definitely experience a big shatter in the upcoming future. Power Problem and Decision Making Problem According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, power distance shows the degree to which less powerful employees of an organization are acknowledged and guided by the powerful ones, if the power is distributed equally (Cummings and Worley, 2014). In spite of providing less remuneration due to financial downturn in the UK market, management of Friendly Bank tries to exercise Reward power by providing performance based bonus and incentive system. However, such incentives couldn’t prove to be a motivational factor for employees due to absence of appropriate driver to communicate and inspire employees to work for enjoying the extra benefit provided by the company. Sheila couldn’t exercise the power, the management authorised her which had resulted severe job dissatisfaction, leading to massive employee turnover. Though the newly appointed college graduates like Paul and Card were self motivated, lack of strict supervision resulted in unhealthy competition among them for increasing sales and for this purpose they adopted various malpractices such as false selling and providing misleading information regarding accounts which in turn obstructed the century long brand image of the bank (Armstrong, 2009). Conclusion Friendly Bank is characterised by a strong and experienced management base that includes senior banker like Hector Brogan and Chris Hackett. However, management’s decision for placing wrong employee as team leader had slow down the whole business process of Friendly bank. Sheila failed to prove herself as an asset for the company in spite of having significant experience in banking sector and attending sufficient training for becoming a successful team leader. The situation had worsened with the contradictory working attitude of Carl and unethical business practices of the newly joint employees such as Paul. Hence, appropriate recommendations Recommendations After studying the organizational framework of Friendly Bank, it is evident that the Bank is experiencing serious challenges in terms of its leadership, motivation level of employees and cultural complexities and many more. Hence, initially, the company should communicate the reasons behind changing the style of operations from traditional banking to contemporary banking and the importance of maximizing sales from the company’s perspective as well as from the standpoint of employees (Adeniyi and Adeniyi, 2010). This will help the employees of Friendly Bank to clearly understand organizational objectives and strive to achieve the target to enhance organization’s income and their own incentive as well. Serious changes should be introduced in leadership by appointing new team leader who is experienced in this field and is capable of motivating employees enough so that they can efficiently contribute towards organizational goal and strengthen the foundation of Friendly Bank. Reference List Adeniyi, M. A. and Adeniyi, J. A., 2010. Effective Leadership Management. Bloomington: AuthorHouse. Armstrong, M., 2009. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London:Kogan Page. Axson, D., 2010. The Management Mythbuster. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Beck, C. R., 2012. Motivation: Theories And Principles. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Cummings, T. and Worley, C., 2014. Organization Development and Change. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Dweck, C. S., 2013. Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development. London: Psychology Press. Flamholtz, E. and Randle, Y., 2011. Corporate Culture: The Ultimate Strategic Asset. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Robbins, S., Bergman, R., Stagg, I. and Coulte, M., 2011. Management. London: Pearson Higher Education. Robbins, S., Judge, T. A., Millett, B. and Boyle, M., 2013. Organisational Behaviour. Sydney: Pearson Higher Education AU. Tissington, P., Hasel, M. and Matthiesen, J., 2009. How to Write Successful Business & Management Essays. London: Sage Publications. Read More