Assessments to be conducted in order to understand the client’s problems and formal assessments
Team effectiveness
One of the theories that will be useful in assessment of team effectiveness will be the five element model proposed by Jex and Brix (2008). It should be noted that team effectiveness refers to the process of bringing people in a group and getting them to cooperate with one another on work tasks so as to generate better results. In the case study, the company has a series of managers and directors who need to work together strategically in order to yield effective outcomes in the company. Some of them include Paul, Sue, Karen, Ken, Matthew and Bob. All these individuals have contributed towards current problems so their effectiveness should be assessed so as to pinpoint which issues are ailing the organization.
Jex and Brix (2008) start with team composition as one of the first elements used in assessing a team’s effectiveness. An effective team must combine personalities, attitudes, skills, knowledge and abilities of team members appropriately. It has been shown that a diversity of skills, knowledge and abilities can contribute very positively towards outcomes within any one organization (Barrick et. al., 1998). In this case, since Karen comes from a different knowledge background from Ken or any of the others then it can be said that this area is not a problem for the team. On the other hand, there could be a big challenge in terms of the attitudes and personalities in this group. Individual traits are always good indicators of how well a team will perform. Effective teams always tend to have a high level of agreeableness and conscientiousness. An agreeable member is one who fosters cooperation with others, is highly likable, trusting and has a good nature. This team appears to be low on agreeable members since Paul appears to object to almost all the suggestions made. Matthew also opposed group suggestions and Ken did not appear to embrace the idea of working alongside other individuals within this department. Conscientiousness refers to the qualities of being prudent, having a high degree of self control and an ability to be achievement oriented. Matthew voiced a very clear concern; that the team tends to spend plenty of time discussing too many issues such that it becomes very difficult for them to make decisions on any of them. If these assertions are true then it is likely that the team is not achievement oriented. Their strategy meetings are not focused so they clearly lack the quality of conscientiousness. In fact, this explains why a clash has arisen between them. This team’s performance is going down because team goals are not being accomplished at the desirable rates. The personalities of the team members appear not to have been considered during the selection process.
The second aspect that will be assessed in team effectiveness is team task design. Here, one needs to look at whether the team tasks are actually working for that concerned group. Most of the time, one needs to assess the significance of the task at hand, the identity of the task, its autonomy and the feedback that may be generated out of it (Hackman et. al., 1980). Each team member needs to feel that his or her tasks possess those qualities otherwise performance will fall below par. In this case study, it is clear that the task designs have a huge problem. Although the tasks are challenging and interesting, team members are not very keen on cross implementation. Brian got himself in trouble by ignoring the compliance department. If he had worked together with Karen then chances are that he would still have been maintained in the organization. Some of the members appear to undermine particular team tasks while elevating the importance of others. For example, when Karen told Paul that she needed to work directly with staff in his team, he immediately labeled her as being pushy. This illustrates that Paul does not understand the importance of certain cross functional team tasks (Hackman et. al., 1980). Furthermore, there appears to be an overlap between the retail operations and external deposits sections in the back. The heads of these two divisions are not sure about their team tasks so some of them appear to be carrying out work that is not supposed to be done by them while others are missing out on vital components of their division.
It will also be crucial for the assessment program to consider organizational resources. Any team can work with organizational as well as human resources in order to enhance efficiency. All the managers and executives in this team require organizational resources like information, equipment and training from the company. In this case, team members are supposed to deal with the issue of new regulations that will require more compliance and paperwork. The team feels that they have very little time to accomplish it and even have fewer resources to do so. Such a deficiency could compromise the efficiency of the team if it is not corrected so it needs to be dealt with. There may be new equipment or facilities that will be needed in order to get the compliance going. However, as the team stated, all they have are their current resources. They have not examined the possibility of redirecting funds from some of the non essential functions to this pressing problem. Team members are trying to do everything in the same way and that will just not be possible given the limited resources. In this assessment, team specific resources like human resources and budgetary needs will have to be re examined. Already it has been stated that unless new staff can be hired then people’s bank will not cope with the compliance regulation. This is a pressing problem to them because it will compromise their success.
Team effectiveness can always be undermined by team rewards so these should definitely be analyzed. In this case, reward systems need to be designed in a manner that will reward people on a team level because cross departmental work is common (Locke & Latham, 1992). The current organization already has a problem with this because they have not thought about how they can reward staff for working collaboratively. Reward systems are an important motivator and always affect team outcomes (Wageman & Baker, 1997).
The last component of team effectiveness that should be assessed according to this five factor model is team goals. All team goals must be accepted, specific and their difficulty should be appropriate (Aube & Rousseau, 2005). For a team to accomplish particular tasks, they need to ensure that the level of difficulty in those tasks matches team members’ capabilities. They need to be convinced that they are the best match in the entire organization for the level of difficulty in that goal. In the case study, this appears to be a problem. Ken has already identified the fact that there is an overlap between the retail operations division and the external deposits division. He believes that his group is the most competent in achieving the goal of managing the new corporate banking business that has just been acquired. However, because the bank was from downtown, then it is likely that the retail operations team feel that they are the most capable group in handling this challenge. Unless the company can clarify which team is the most suitable for handling that team goal or portfolio then they may not carry out their tasks well. Team members also need to accept team goals (Locke & Latham, 1990). In other words, this assessment should evaluate how effective the team members have accepted their team goals. As the situation is currently, there are a number of issues missing from the group of managers and executives. First, it appears as though most members (with the exception of Ken) have not embraced the fact that they will need to collaborate with the compliance department. If they thought that Karen’s need to work closely with members of Paul’s team was pushy then they are definitely heading in the wrong direction and need to be corrected (Mitchell & Silver, 1990). All these leaders have not realized that the way they did things is what got them in trouble in the first place yet they are reluctant to change. Paul kept mentioning the phrase ‘This is how we’ve always done it’. Unless Paul and other likeminded leaders can accept the new goals that compliance requirements place upon them then they cannot move forward. On the flipside, goal acceptance is still a problem for the entire leadership team with regard to leadership development (Locke & Latham, 1990). Most do not feel the need to engage in leadership development and want a hands-on approach to their affairs. This group should work on its goal or they will not progress. Lastly, goal specifity is another crucial component of the assessment program. As the situation is currently, most members are not sure about the goals involved in leadership development. Some have already misunderstood it as a process of teaching them how to be nice to employees. Such reasoning can undermine the effectiveness of this intervention because if the organization does not rally behind it then chances are that it will not do well.
Organizational citizenship behavior
For any organization to achieve its goals and objectives, it requires employees who behave in a manner that contributes positively towards those goals and that is considered as productive behavior. Those sorts of individual behaviors that are not recognized formally through the reward system but are crucial to the proper functioning of the organization are what are identified as organizational citizenship behavior. The reason why this mode of assessment was selected was because task performance is not sufficient enough to reveal some of the internal roles that may actually contribute to the realization of company goals. Technical aspects can never be sufficient enough; other components of employee psychology need to be revealed so as to see how effective the organization is in general. Organ (1988) came up with five factors that define organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). These include altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue and courtesy.
Altruism refers to those helpful behaviors within an organization. When an employee keeps on assisting his fellow acquaintances then that person is altruistic. The reason why this quality is important is that it enhances cooperation between employees or leaders since all individuals are bound to need some help at one point or the other. It prevents staff from acting selfishly because they are concerned about other people’s well being. This would increase the rate at which projects get completed because those who have some little time to spare would dedicate that time towards assisting others who may be falling behind. In the case study, it is evident that altruism is lacking. Most of the leaders are more focused on their own departmental goals and have not thought about helping others. It was especially evident when Karen made her comments.
Courtesy is another crucial factor to the success of any organization. These kinds of behavior are often evident when employees consider other people’s needs. Here, they may tell a coworker that they have other commitments and will not be able to make it to work (Sundstrom et. al., 1990). Such employees usually think of the effects of their behaviors before going ahead with them. In this team, it is clear that courtesy maybe lacking because serious comments made by one individual can sometimes be turned into a joke by others. Paul and the rest of the team members who laughed at Karen lacked courtesy towards her because they could not see that she was serious or that she was simply doing what her job title expected her to do.
Sportsmanship refers to that quality of staying away from negative behaviors that weigh down on job performance. Many members of this leadership team appear to be lacking sportsmanship. Instead of accepting that they already have a lot of work on their plate and look for solutions, most of them are complaining that the work is too much. They are not thinking about the positive outcomes of leadership training and simply want to focus on one thing (Luthans & Krietner, 1985). The worst case of lack of sportsmanship occurred when Paul stated that things are always done in a particular way in that organization so leadership development is not necessary. He knew that the atmosphere within the company was not conducive for ‘business as usual’ but he objected to the first attempt at improving that situation. Similarly, the same thing can be said about all the other leaders who objected to the leadership initiative in the company. They were whining about additional work instead of thinking of alternative solutions.
In the workplace, a number of individuals may be conscientious but others may not be yet this is a quality that denotes self discipline and going beyond one’s call of duty; a crucial component of a successful team. Conscientiousness also implies sticking to the rules and always planning ahead. This entire organization seems to be having a major challenge with this. First of all, the company already had a compliance department in place and was required to mitigate future risks by working with that department. However, none of them have done thus explaining why they now have to play catch up after legislations were passed. All these issues would have been avoided if the employees were conscientious (WICO3, 2006).
Lastly, organizational citizenship behavior also involves civic virtue. This involves the representation of the company in a positive light. In other words, instead of merely focusing on other coworkers, an employee needs to think about their company generally. In this case study, members also seem to be having a problem with civic virtue. Most of them are not representing the organization well. Customers in retail operations are already complaining about the poor treatment they receive from this organization. Consequently, employees need to step up in order to meet those expectations.
How the assessment would address the organizational psychology issue
An assessment of team effectiveness through the personality traits will assist in determining how team members in executive positions need to be selected on the basis of their personalities so as to be more effective (Barrick et. al., 1998). However, since a general overhaul of the team membership is unlikely at this time, then the team members can at least be informed of these differences so that they are aware of them. This would also allow them to try and minimize the negative effects of their personality traits so that they can focus on the team goals rather than the conflicts that would arise within the group due to these differences.
Assessing team task designs through the team effectiveness framework will help to reveal some of the task specific issues that are causing misunderstandings in this team and in the organization in general (Hackman et. al., 1976). The assessment will help to clear the overlap between Ken’s tasks and the head of the retail operations’ tasks. This will definitely improve their outcomes as the right division will have been selected for the right job. Additionally, it will minimize time wastage due to repetition of tasks that may occur out of a lack of clarity
Resource analysis will help in identification of the missing resources that will compromise team effectiveness and will contribute towards minimization of that problem in the future. It has already been shown that the team does not know how it will fully implement the new compliance procedures so they may be lacking information needed to do so. They can acquire this information from a chartered accountant who has carried this out before. That implies hiring one such consultant and working with him closely. Alternatively, information can be found through indirect consultation with other companies that have implemented these compliance procedures successfully. The assessment will also identify some of the missing equipment needed to carry out this assignment. For instance, the company may require technological changes through purchase of software designed for such changes (Jett and Britt, 2008). The technological manager will need to give the possible alternatives available to the company so that numerous changes can be instated. Resource assessments will also allow the company to look for different ways of dealing with its human resource shortage since this has already been identified as a pressing problem. They may opt to hire external staff for these compliance purposes alone i.e. on a contract basis. People’s Bank has a series of resources in their hands so they may get the additional resources needed to pay this additional staff from their vast asset base. On the other hand, if they choose to invest more in information and training then they could meet their goals without hiring. These are all options available to the organization owing to the assessment of resources done earlier. Team members may not have known or even thought about these alternatives if they had not identified the current resource shortage. The assessment will also help to draw a budget that will prioritize the most important issues including the current compliance procedures.
An analysis of reward systems within this organization will ensure that individual team members do not override one another when making decisions or performing tasks because most of these teams are interdependent (Locke & Latham, 1992). This approach will change the attitude of team members towards collaborative work. Comments such as the one uttered by Paul when Karen told him that she needed to work closely with members from this division are indicative of independent mindedness. It seems the company recognizes individual performances more than team performances and that was why Karen was branded as pushy. One way of changing such attitudes would be to link reward systems to team performance and collaboration. That would definitely trigger some changes in Paul’s and other members’ perceptions.
The assessment of team goals will allow the leadership team to respect the compliance division and will enhance their level of cooperation. It will reveal the possible instances of poor team goal acceptance especially in terms of the compliance regulations and will cause them to work towards the right solutions (Locke & Latham, 1990). Poor goal specificity will also be revealed through this analysis especially in terms of the leadership training introduced through this consultancy. The team will need to understand why they need a consultant and that this process of leadership development will not simply be a worthless effort. Once they realize that it will translate into better team performance then chances are that they will commit to these outcomes and will solve all the organizational psychology issues that are ailing them (Aube & Rousseau, 2005). Also, the issue of goal overlap will be clarified because the best team for dealing with the new corporate banking acquisition will be selected. Having better team goals will also ensure that all leaders are not working individually. The compliance procedure will require team goals and the assessment will reveal this missing aspect.
An assessment of organizational citizenship behavior through the quality of altruism will help to reveal some of the non monetary parameters that could be hindering this team from moving forward. People’s bank will identify some of the psychological issues that are causing project delays or a negative environment within the company. Sue – who suggested the consultancy – explained that employee morale has gone down as a result of Brian’s release. There are rumors going round the organization and these are detrimental to the organization. Most of these employees probably think that they may be next in line. Since most are already insecure about their jobs then the last thing that would concern them is the need to help others yet that it a concept that can never be ignored in effective teams (Luthans & Krietner, 1985). When employees are too focused on their personal needs then they fail to look at the bigger picture and will impede organizational performance. Such employees will lack initiative and may never do more than their call of duty demands. This assessment will cause the leaders to be aware of altruistic behavior and thus relate it to employee morale. They can then look for ways of dispelling the rumors and inculcating a spirit of helpfulness within them.
It will be important to examine the level of courteousness in this organization because not only will the company work towards eradicating common vices in the workplace that slow down work but it will also boost the positive environment herein. It is likely that this will show leaders some of the things that could be reducing employee morale even without the conscious knowledge (Luthans & Krietner, 1985). For example, when the other team members were laughing at Karen, most thought that this was nothing more than a light moment but through this assessment, the team members will begin watching what they talk about and will be careful about the hidden messages that they send to others. Morale, even amongst executives or other senior leaders, can contribute substantially towards organizational outcomes so this is definitely something that should not be undermined.
An assessment of the level of sportsmanship will provide insights about little scenarios that are slumping down work. The leadership in this firm will realize that their constant whining about all the extra work in the leadership training program is simply a case of poor sportsmanship (Luthans & Krietner, 1985). Furthermore, this assessment will ensure that they reconsider other options of getting the compliance relations up and running. Even Matthew stated that the group rarely makes decisions when they meet but instead focus on a diverse array of things. It will cause them to stop complaining or at least reduce it because they will know that this is an example of poor organizational citizenship behavior and it has a negative effect on work performance.
An assessment of the level of conscientiousness in this company will reveal the level of self discipline among the workers. It will also cause a vast majority to avoid slackening off especially when it comes to important matters such as compliance. If the organizational members realize that they are indeed responsible for the mess they are in then they are likely to be more focused and committed to solving that issue. Employees and leaders are likely to be more disciplined and more goal oriented through this assessment.
It will be important to assess civic virtue because this will be a platform against which they can adjust organizational perception to the public. This will be crucial to the profit making goal of the organization because once the firm is perceived negatively by some, it will lose business (Luthans & Kreitner, 1985). This has already been shown by the departure of certain clients who felt that they were not treated as importantly as other customers in the external deposits section. Additionally, others felt that they deserved a greater investment portfolio but the company was not offering them this. In order to deal with those inefficiencies, People’s Bank should work on improving some of these loopholes by boosting their perception in the eyes of the public.
Understanding of the issues involved in the vignette
First, of all, this organization is going through ethical and legal challenges. One of its employees- Brian was fired because he filed fraudulent and misleading financial reports. He did not behave ethically and this created a very unconstructive environment in the organization. Clearly the organization lacked accountability mechanisms thus putting irresponsible employees in a position where they could engage in fraudulent acts. The systems should have been so tight to the point of preventing such conduct. People’s Bank’s practices did not match state, accounting and federal requirements and this was the reason why the organization got in trouble in the first place. As stated earlier by one of the employees, Brian was fired because most departments at People’s Bank were “not liaising with the compliance department in order to mitigate risks”. If they had worked closely with Karen’s team then chances are that the disaster would have been avoided. There is a visible ethical gap within this institution and it should be corrected as soon as is reasonably possible. However, implementation may not be easy because it appears as though the rest of the team still do not realize the ramifications of such attitudes; most still view compliance as a disturbance rather than a personal duty (Winum, 2003). If they viewed these ethical issues in a different light then it is likely that their organization will be well on its way to the top. For the company to witness a substantial change in its performance concerning this issue, it should sensitize its members concerning the importance of behaving ethically.
Low employee morale is another problem in this institution. After the scandalous acts of Brian and his subsequent release from work, chances are that other employees are worried about their possible stay in this company. Unless communication channels are reopened then the employees will keep feeling like outsiders and very little will be accomplished.
Time management is challenging this organization very seriously. The team members are overwhelmed by the new compliance regulations set in the company. They also realize that they have very little time to get this extra documentation so most of them are apprehensive about the tasks. They doubt whether the company will be in a position to accomplish this mission within the confines of their current resources. Unless everyone acts responsibly and manages their time well then this mission will not be accomplished. In fact, this is the right time to get a consultant who will actually cause members to identify organizational bottle necks and thus be well on their way to success.
This firm has problems with its prevailing culture. It appears as though most employees are so set in their ways and prefer not to be told about new and transforming issues in their firms (Van Vianen & De Dreu, 2001). They are not aware that it can indeed be possible to look at these components and thus draw plans that can contribute towards the realization of those goals. Employees have a poor relationship with the public or its clientele and this is hurting the business. If they can respond promptly and easily to consumers’ needs then chances are that they can boost their performance. This is all part of the poor organizational culture that exists within this firm.
One of the most pressing concerns in the organization is weak group cohesion and teamwork among organizational leaders. The brief meeting that the leadership team had with the consultancy revealed a lot of gaps in the group cohesion of these leaders. Most do not respect each other; they communicate poorly with each other and also tend to concentrate on tasks rather than relationship building. If interpersonal relationships are ignored then chances are some members may be disappointed and they will do poorly in their respective tasks.
Research and evaluation
Assessment procedures that would address appropriate organizational issues
As stated earlier, this firm is dealing with a series of organizational psychology issues but there are also certain issues that are tied to the organization itself. The first assessment would involve organizational behavior. This is a crucial component of the bank’s success because it looks at how people influence, communicate and behave towards one another thus contributing towards the overall organizational culture prevalent in the institution. If organizational behavior minimizes communication and people’s influences then that would undermine performance. This assessment will involve DISC personality assessment. The major essence of the DISC assessment is to look at observable traits that denote people’s behavior. ‘D’ in DISC stands for dominance or one’s responses to crises (Business Success tool, 2011). This will be a crucial component because the company has been through a crisis in its financial reporting sector so it will be imperative to look at how other people reacted to the situation. Also, it will predict how people will react in case the compliance deadline will not be met. ‘I’ stands for Influence and this will be important in showing how certain people alter other people’s behavior. This can be very useful if the influences are positive but quite detrimental if the reverse is true. ‘S’ stands for steadiness which denotes one’s ability to take action when one’s environment demands it. In other words, it is an analysis of the external and internal match in the firm. Such a measure will be especially useful given that some of the bank’s clients are taking their business elsewhere. The company needs to know how well its employees respond to needs externally. It is never enough to stick to what one knows or what is expected in one’s line of duty; individuals must get constant feedback from their environment especially with regard to their consumers. ‘C’ stands for compliance or ability to meet rules and regulations within one’s workplace. It should be noted that this assessment never really measures one’s full personality but it focuses on behavior. It therefore provides a reasonable platform for changing behavior through communication rather than trying to change a person’s personality. In the DISC test, employees of People’s Bank will be expected to answer a number of questions that will have choices. Their answers will be categorized in the DISC table and a description of their personalities will be made (Business Success tool, 2011). For instance, participants will be asked about their attitude towards change in the workplace. They will also be expected to state how they contribute during creativity meetings or instances in which ideas are welcome. Some of them will give information about the relationship between their decisions and external components of the decision i.e. economic and political decisions made. Participants will be expected to give their input concerning their decision making process. Some of them may be more factual than others. Employees will then reveal how traditional or nontraditional they are through those responses. Their preference for details will be shown and they will also explain whether they get nervous about making certain major decisions or not. Members will also answer questions about how important time is to them or whether this is really a non issue. They will give information about how well they relate to change and whether agenda items in meetings are so important to them. Employees and leaders will be asked about how well they respond to confrontational leaders or whether they tend to switch off when they have to deal with such situations. Their attitude towards strangers will also be examined and how they respond to situations that seem to be attacking their credibility (Business Success tool, 2011).
Another component that will be analyzed is organizational change. Kurt Lewin came up with a method of assessing organizational change known as force field analysis. This assessment method will be used in the organization in order to find out how well the company is handling change management. Currently, People’s Bank is dealing with a big change; it is implementing a compliance procedure so it needs to make sure that change management is going well. It will then decide which actions are needed in order to respond to those issues and thus embrace a different dimension of the change process. This assessment emanates from the fact that any workplace will go through certain forces when making changes. Here, some decisions need to be made, processes and systems will need to be altered and people will be influenced in one way. The assessment tool will allow People’s Bank to identify those factors that may cause people to oppose the changes that occur.
The force field analysis of organizational change management will be done through a series of procedures. First of all, there will be a team meeting that will gather all relevant team members (Baulcomb, 2003). For instance, if an issue has cropped up with regard to the retail operations sections, then all leaders in this section as well as the compliance leader will be needed in order to make sure that they all understand those missing components. They will place the force field template in the middle of their discussion table. In this arrangement, the template will have a heading of the issues. The meeting’s purpose will be recorded and a brainstorming session will commence so that disturbing issues can be identified. This will be followed by a brainstorming session and a list will be made of all the people who oppose the suggestions and the ones that support it. Members will also brainstorm all the issues involved in restricting improvement or communication. All these factors will be assigned specific numbers depending on how disabling or enabling they are and the team members’ ability to change this will be noted so that they can have a clear picture of everything that is going on in the institution. The most destabilizing forces will be given due attention and so will the most supportive forces (Baulcomb, 2003). Team members should work on altering disabling forces more than the supporting forces. An action plan will be made as noted in the template document. All these factors will be placed in the table and will be classified as either driving forces or restraining forces. No change or ‘change’ will be identified as the suitable direction for handling these components. The items under restricting forces should be added on the basis of the strength of their scores. On the other hand, the things on the supporting side should also be added. If the figure on the supporting side outweighs the one on the restricting side then the change under consideration will go on well without altering anything. However, if the figures on the restricting side are higher, then the proposal will not succeed unless something is done to deal with the restrictions (Thomas, 1985). A chairman will then be selected in the proposal and this person will be responsible for all the new things that need to be implemented. The next agenda will be identified and this will go on as the company continues to improve. As time progresses, the enabling forces will continue to increase as the disabling forces will keep on getting fewer and fewer.
Organizational development will be an important part of the assessment. This aspect will be studied because organizational development always reflects how a firm is increasing their viability and effectiveness. Organizational development denotes how well the attitudes, structures, values and changes in the firm are causing the company to improve (Leonard, 2003). This will be measured through action research and the major goal should be to ensure that the organization’s members are motivated to change through proactive initiatives. This assessment will always be done in three steps which include the unfreezing phase, the changing phase and the refreezing phase. The first component of the stage is planning and here assessment of a prevailing problem will be done by collecting data, doing a diagnosis of the problem and anticipating feedback on it. The next phase should be transformation. In this assessment, the client will need to carry out his or her own respective changes through the use of feedback mechanism. In other words, all the information learnt through a role analysis will be used to alter client systems such that they can relate fully to the objectives. The role analysis will then be followed by the results assessment. Here, after the corrective steps have been taken, they will be measured such that the client system can be assessed for possible needs; a few adjustments will be done (Leonard, 2003). However the change maybe so dramatic that it may necessitate going back to the original phase and starting all over again. The reason why the first phase was called unfreezing was that it signifies a period when the organization became aware of its problems. Also, the reason why the last phase is called refreezing is that it involves trying out new behaviors and seeing whether they work. If this is the case then those new behaviors should become part of the organizational mechanism of problem solving. In other words, this assessment process will always be focusing on the problem and the actions needed to correct them. It is diagnostic and ensures that all data are placed back in the system such that all decisions made are dependent on practical information collected. Through such a process, People’s Bank will ensure that it is always in a state of improvement and that its organizational development is based only on realistic aspects.
Organizational performance will be analyzed through the use of the balanced scorecard. In this approach, most of the attention will be drawn on collaborating with the employees rather than simply evaluating them. As it has been previously stated, this company is suffering from low employee morale so all members need to feel like they are part of the processes instated in the firm. Managers will be responsible for carrying out these measurements so they need to be highly informed about the training needs and other biases that may compromise their evaluation processes. This will involve continuous education and information acquisition on their part. For the worst performers in the system, all concerned individuals need to know when they have performed well so sometimes this may involve increasing the rate of performance evaluation amongst them. Long and short term goals must be examined in this appraisal process so that there will be adequate direction in the process. It should be emphasized here that unless all the behaviors in the test are specific then chances are that the results recorded will be quite poor. Eventually, the success of this performance assessment will not really be on the appraisal but the behaviors that bring about the results (Kaplan and Norton, 1993).
The balanced scorecard’s major goal will be to align business activities with the overall company strategy. This will ensure that all performance is in line with strategic goals and that the communication processes both inside and outside the organization are in tandem with this vision. The reason why it is called ‘balanced’ is that it does not focus on the financial dimensions of performance evaluations like other processes have done; it looks at different dimensions and ensures that most of these components are incorporated in the pieces. The balanced scorecard will allow People’s Bank to look for new ways of executing their strategies and thus engrain performance measures in the day to day activities of the company. This will not be an academic exercise but will be one of the most immense contributors of success in the company. Emphasis in this process will be on learning as this is pressing problem for People’s Bank; they are not in touch with the processes in the external organizational environment and they also do not communicate well internally (Kaplan and Norton, 1993).
The first phase that will be analyzed in this process will be the internal business process. At this point, the company will make sure that the business process is fully examined through the organizational mission lens. In other words, the company will look at how well it is responding to the needs of its clientele. The services offered to consumers need to be the ones that consumers require. People’s Bank is in dire need of a change in this area because many of their customers have looked for alternative service providers. Leaders of all major departments in the organization will need to sit down and think of ways in which they can analyze the effectiveness of their goal achievement through these measures. In other words, they will decide on the performance metrics for that part based on organizational goals.
Financial measures are still a crucial component of any company’s functioning. Therefore, this analysis will ensure financial metrics. Normal financial performance will be analyzed through key indicators and this will be backed by the collection of other related data such as cost benefit and risk related financial data. However, it should be noted that many organizations have been focusing too much on financial measures and this has contributed to their unbalanced view of their performance so this should not take up too much of the evaluation process time (Kaplan and Norton, 1993).
On the other hand, this measure will not be sufficient; the company needs to know how well they are satisfying their consumers. Sometimes financial outlooks may look okay but they may not inculcate information about the degree of customer focus in the institution. In other words, their discontentment with company offerings maybe indicative of what could happen to the company in the future. The metrics used in this analysis will be based on customer segments.
Strategy maps will be a crucial component of this exercise as well since they determine whether or not value was created within the firm. In the strategy map, People’s Bank will create a step by step process that will show connections between organizational goals (Kaplan and Norton, 1993). These goals are normally related to one another because one may alter how the other is achieved and this could eventually impede the whole process. Stakeholders need to be aware of the relationship between them so that they can control these aspects as much as possible. During the learning and growth process, the company will benefit by improving performance in those areas and thus affect its internal processes positively. Most of the issues that need to be altered relate to financials and consumers which are usually dependant on the internal processes in the firm.
Leadership intervention
From the problems prevalent in this institution, it is clear that a leadership development intervention will be crucial in transforming this company (Bass, 1998). In the vignette, it appears as though most of the leaders still think of leadership in the individual basis rather than looking at it in terms of the organizational or system basis. Unless leaders can cause their followers to rally behind them and achieve wide organizational goals then all their efforts will simply have gone to waste. Furthermore, too much emphasis on individual leadership has led to the attitude of “this is how we have always done it”. This leadership development program will address such attitudes and hopefully align the company back to its strategic objectives and successes (Bass, 1998).
The following will be the goals that will be achieved in this program: to create leaders who can cause followers to change – not just people who get the job done, to increase the level of collaboration between leaders in People’s Bank and to develop leaders who are creative and adaptive not just people who are good at their area of specialty. It should be noted that these goals will not just develop individual leadership capabilities but will also contribute to the overall organizational limitations.
The first step will be to select the participants in the program. The people who need this intervention the most are the senior and middle level managers as they are the major drivers and decision makers in the organization. The number of participants will be dependent on the size of the company and the number of managerial job positions. The next phase will be organizational analysis because unless the company is well understood then any leadership initiatives will be baseless. This will be done through employee interviews. They will give the consultancy information about their work processes, evaluations, creativity, collaborations and many other components of the work environment. Ultimately, that analysis will be followed by the organizational survey. This will entail data collection on leadership, risk taking, strategy planning, change management, conflict handling, training, recruitment, financial resources and many others. The reason why all this information is necessary is that they will guidelines on areas that need to be changed. Lastly, individual assessments of all the participants will be done. In this process, all the people who work closely with the leaders in the intervention program will be asked to give information about those leaders’ strengths and weaknesses. Eventually, this will be useful in determining the parameters that need altering in these processes (Winum, 2003).
The training phase will involve four components which will all possess components mentioned earlier. First, participants will go through core leadership sessions. Here, there will be one on one coaching sessions with participants; they will also be engaged in presentations and small group discussions. They will also learn about peer feedback through the feedback coach. The latter session will take up about one percent of all the time allocated towards this exercise. By the end of this session, all the leaders will be expected to write down their personal development goals and bring these in line with their career goals (Whitney, 1994).
After core leadership, all participants will engage in a collaboration and teamwork phase. At this point, they will get an opportunity to sharpen their teamwork skills through a series of models. They will learn about the best decision making approaches in the team, when to allocate projects to individuals or teams, how systems and teams are interrelated and the effectiveness of teams in general. Some practical sessions will go on where participants shall apply their knowledge in real life scenarios. They will be expected to be analyzing those situations and will come up with suggestions on how the future can be improved through such an analysis (Winum, 2003).
Creative leadership will follow soon after this approach. Here participants will be taught issues related to the creative process and how that affects organizational processes. They will be made aware of the importance of the creative process with regard to leadership (Golstone et. al., 2008). Strategic leadership will follow this initiative and it will focus on vision and its effect on the future. It will also expect them to alter their strategies in order to reach organizational goals. All the sponsors, partners and support will be offered in order to make change feasible. The intervention program will also contain action learning projects. As the name suggests, all organizational members will be expected to work on certain problems that have been identified within the company. The participants will form a team and will be expected to deal with each one of those issues as they come along. A learning coach will assess the situation critically in order to ensure that deliverables are met and that all of them fully understand these impending challenges. The great thing about such an approach is that it will allow all program members to be involved in practical problems in the firm while continuing to learn about other challenges. After action learning, leaders will be expected to do personal coaching in the middle of the program. Its purpose will be to ascertain that all the individual development plans laid out by the leaders are being adhered to. It will allow them to get focused upon their personal development and be unstuck if this is the case. It is likely that this intervention program will be completed after 2 years.
Evaluation of program
Evaluation will be done in a simple and clear cut way so that team members can follow through on the goings on in the intervention. These measurements will be done through three parameters. The first will entail getting feedback from coworkers, subordinates or other people who work closely with participants in the leadership program. Since evaluation at the beginning of this program involves the issuance of this feedback then the same thing should occur at the end of the program. This aspect will be analyzed through the 360 degree feedback and any changes will be noted.
The second phase of evaluation will entail an organizational survey that will engage everyone in the company. The third assessment will involve the actual participants in the program. A few of them will give their take on the impact of the program and how it changed their leadership perspectives. All aspects such as innovation, conflict handling, accountability, financial resources and many more will be rated and the ratings will be compared to those ones that had been collected during the commencement of the program.
The assessment of the intervention program through the focus will also be done one month after completion. At this time, an analysis of the comments will be done in order to find whether there has been a perception of increased employee empowerment, change and transformation in culture (WICO3, 2006).
Leadership consultation and ethics
Legal and ethical dilemmas faced
Fraudulent financial reporting has been cited as one of the major concerns at People’s Bank and has even led to a series of scandals within that vicinity. The falsification, alteration and manipulation of any documents are recognized by authorities as fraudulent financial reporting (EQA , 2006). Deliberately omitting or misrepresenting events in financial statements and other such transactions also constitutes misleading financial reporting so this was a legal and ethical issue that Brian violated when working for the company.
The truth of the matter remains that all representatives handling an organization’s financials are governed by the standards of ethics. They are expected to be competent in that they should write clear and complete reports and should carry out their professional duties on the basis of regulations or laws of the country. This was a big problem for the concerned vignette because the company’s employees have not been complying with regulations, laws and other standards set by them. One can say that the prevalence of such a situation is an indication of the complacency in this organization. In the past, most members continued to act without adhering to these regulations and many have gotten away with it. This attitude has pervaded the organization and most employees have now disregarded the law. Sometimes subordinates find it difficult to stick to their responsibilities and obligations if they know that doing so would go against organizational culture. This presents an ethical dilemma because they may not want to rock the boat but at the same time may not want to act unethically. Brian’s case may have been the first of many similar incidents that could have been going on in the institution due to a culture of complacency concerning financial ethics.
All officers are also expected to have integrity. If they identify situations that would cause a conflict of interest or scenarios that would lead them to be prejudiced ethically then those representatives should refrain from them as soon as possible. They need to embrace the possibility that some information or opinions will discredit that person’s position. At people’s bank, a number of employees may face such circumstances and may be required to participate in unfavorable activities. In situations like these, they need to refrain from supporting those activities even if it may place their jobs in danger. Those individuals first need to realize that unless they can maintain the reputation of the organization, then they are basically postponing the inevitable (EQA , 2006).
Given these ethical and legal issues of financial handling, one of the things that needs to be done is to create a culture of ethical decision making (EQA , 2006). First, members need to be informed about all the rules and regulations applicable to their line of work. Unless members fully understand what they are expected to do then chances are that they will sidestep these procedures or will fail to conform. They should be told about the importance of the compliance department and need to work hand in hand with the division in order to minimize scandals such as those ones that occurred previously. Telling the members about the regulations is not sufficient; People’s Bank needs to create a system of accountability that stems from members’ own initiatives. Once they are educated about the importance of these regulations then the new standards will need to be put in place. Constant monitoring by Karen’s team will ensure that all concerned parties who maybe in the process of committing such misdeeds are captured or prevented from doing so. All members of this organization need to be proactive about ethics as they have a tarnished reputation to repair. Lastly, members need to have an anonymous reporting platform such that they can anonymously report activities that could compromise the firm’s standing or ethical premises.
These procedures are likely to lead to a more accountable institution which respects the rule of law. Employees are going to be objective in their professional duties because most of them will deal with financials from the legal rather than the personal objective. It will also change culture and lead to prevention of scandals. Employee morale is likely to improve because most staff members will already be sure about what they need to do ethically so they will not need to second guess. A culture of compliance in the institution will be prevalent all throughout.
Professionals needed
In order to solve the problems in this organization, it will be important to have accounting consultants who are well versed with the rules and regulations within the country. They will help in initiating an ethical code in the organization, informing employees about their ethical responsibilities and thus creating a culture of accountability. The accountants should be highly accredited and should have had experience with many other organizations that have carried out the same activities as them.
This company is in need of professional researchers who can carry out the 360 feedback stipulated within the leadership development model. Because the assessment will require a lot of expertise in statistics, then they need to be qualified in these areas i.e. statistical analyses. The research will also be done in other areas of the organization such as DISC assessment and action research. It would be best to get professionals who can deal with these issues as efficiently and as fast as possible.
The company will need several team and personal coaches as these individuals will be responsible for dealing with those problems that are related to organizational behavior, motivation and teamwork. The coaches need to be aggressive people who have experience with organizations in the banking profession such that the transitions can be handled effectively.
There should be tax and auditing professionals who will need to look into the compliance processes. Since it has been identified that the company is having issues with organizing their time so as to meet these requirements then having experts to help smoothen their transition will be critical. They may have concerns about getting the additional resources needed in order to carry this out. The company will simply need to reprioritize their issues so as to ensure that they focus on the most pressing concerns first then deal with the rest as their results keep improving.
The last category of professionals will come from the organization itself. These will be Human resource personnel. They will contribute towards successful interventions by rallying behind some of the suggestions and recommendations made in the interventions. Without their support then external consultancy can never really move in such organizations.
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