HND CASE 商务行为技巧Balance Bank PLC

12级HND商务案例

Balance Banking PLC is a medium player in the financial sector. In response to external market pressures and having absorbed a small building society, it underwent a major

restructuring programme just under 12 months ago. The restructure resulted in a number of changes to departments and teams throughout the organisation, including changes at senior management level. As part of the restructuring there were a number of redundancies. In

addition, a large number of staff were moved around, and now find themselves in new teams with new line management arrangements.

Motivation was and continues to be low and the Trade Unions have been highly critical of the senior management team over the last 12 months and feel that their members are paying the price for poor management decisions. The continuing economic climate means that the

organisation is continually under pressure to perform and staff feel insecure about their future prospects.

The New Customer Engagement Team was created under the new structure and brought together two former teams under one manager Jess Green. Managers in the old structure had to apply for the manager positions in the new structure under competitive conditions, a

process which caused considerable upset among existing managers. The position of manager for the New Customer Engagement Team had four internal applicants. Jess was surprised at her own appointment mainly because all the other applicants held manager positions in the old structure and that she was the only applicant with limited experience in that particular area. Her appointment caused a bit of a stir. Of the other three applicants; one was appointed to another team manager post in the new structure; another accepted a redundancy package; whilst the other applicant is still with the organization, but not as a manager but as Lead Financial Assessor reporting to Jess.

At a meeting, following her appointment, with her line manager it was stressed that the organisation had to regain the confidence of its stakeholders including its customers. The

organisation had to rebuild and each manager had to ensure that the performance of their team was geared to achieving the strategic objectives of the organisation namely:

1.To achieve financial security and return to profit.

2.To become a place of choice for employees.

3.To create an open and transparent management style.

4.To focus on customer and shareholder needs.

5.To focus on long-term quality profitability.

6.To create a new business mix and manage the business risk

At the same meeting Jess was advised that she had been appointed to the post because of her drive and enthusiasm. The interview panel had been particularly impressed by her fresh thinking and clear ideas as to how the team could be developed in the medium to long term future. Shortly after her appointment she put forward a paper as to how the new teams could be taken forward to ensure their contribution to the organisation’s strategic objectives. Jess’s new team consists of members of the former New Accounts team, members of the former Risk Assessment team, and four staff from the recently acquired building society. The new team consists of 16 staff: 10 full time staff and six part-time staff. The former New Accounts team was viewed as a middling performing team, it did make its targets over the years but generally struggled and seemed to require a lot of attention in order to do so. The manager of the old team retired eighteen months prior to the restructure and the team had been managed on a caretaker basis by other managers until the restructure. As a result the team struggled with a lack of direction.

12级HND商务案例

The role of the new team is to provide a focus for new customers and to ensure that new accounts are established without difficulty and with a minimum of fuss. One area that has increased in significance over the last year is the area of risk assessment. Every new customer is credit screened and before any account is established a full financial risk assessment has to be made. A copy of the team structure can be found in Appendix 1.

Since taking the team over Jess has found the stress of the job almost unbearable at times. Her new ideas were thwarted, in part by the need to ensure that new performance targets were met but the main stumbling block was a reluctance of staff to embrace change. Her drive and enthusiasm was interpreted as overbearing and in one case perceived as bullying behaviour. The stress of the job was also apparent in the monthly team meetings which while initially having been designed to generate involvement had become no more than 30 minute briefings based on performance targets. As a result staff sit quietly, take brief notes and clock watch The past 12 months presented considerable challenges with the introduction of new

operational systems, new working practices as well as building a new team. Staff felt that the changes were imposed rather than negotiated and had disengaged with many of the processes. Jess patched the gaps by doing a number of the jobs herself resulting in her working longer hours than necessary and her focus being on day to day issues. The nature of the work had also meant that previous tasks i.e. new accounts and risk management continued. As a result the divisions within the team were maintained and there was very little movement between the two areas. The four building society staff who had transferred to the team were allocated between the two areas reinforcing the structural divisions.

As far as senior management is concerned the new team continues to under-perform. Jess has on a number of occasions had her leadership style questioned by senior management, particularly when there was an informal grievance about bullying raised. After some

discussion with HR it was agreed that a mentoring arrangement may benefit Jess. In order to prepare for her first mentoring meeting Jess was asked to reflect on her team and the team members in order to discuss strategies designed to increase the performance of the team. In preparation for the meeting Jess penciled the following notes:

Jack –has been with the organisation for over twenty five years and is a highly experienced and respected member of staff whose counsel is sought on a variety of issues. Staff would rather seek Jack out for decisions than me. Much of his knowledge has been gained through his experience and isn’t formalised in any way. He is slightly bored with his existing position but is due to retire in a few years so is not interested in any of the promoted posts in the new organisation. While he is happy to work with me he tends to view me as a junior member of staff and I tend to defer to him if any debate arises.

Carol – has been with the organisation for fifteen years and whilst a good operator she tends to stick by the rules regardless. There have been a number of complaints over the years, the majority of which have resulted from Carol’s abrasive style which tends to rub people up the wrong way. In most of these cases Carol’s decisions have been the right ones but her inability to communicate well creates difficulties with internal and external customers. She is a little intimidating and I tend to avoid any conflict situations with her. Carol was quite outspoken at the initial team meetings but recently hasn’t appeared interested.

Russell – has been with organisation for twelve years and was, until the restructuring, the manager of the Risk Assessment team. Regarded as a good steady hand he was widely

expected to be appointed to the position now held by me. His motivation is now very low and he has made it publicly known that he will not create any difficulties for the new team and that he will only do the bare minimum i.e. doing no more than his contracted hours, coming in on time and going home on time, and doing no more than the job in hand. A couple of staff including those transferred to the new team feel loyalty to Russell and feel that he has been

12级HND商务案例

‘hard done by’. My hesitation over a number of critical decisions has reinforced the idea that Russell would have been a better appointment among these staff.

Elspeth – has been with the organisation for two years and has shown considerable ambition. She is poorly qualified but is now trying to address that through part-time study. Her work is good but is not of a particularly high standard and her inexperience tends to come through in some of her decisions. Her poor organisation skills mean that she continually fails to meet deadlines and often has to put in extra hours to cope. In addition, her attendance over the last six months has been giving cause for concern.

Abda –has been with the organisation for four years and has just returned from maternity

leave. She is a highly competent and qualified member of staff and tends to be very traditional in her ways not particularly welcoming of any innovation/changes. She is very friendly with Jack and will perform the tasks in the way that he decides rather than some of the new methods suggested by me.

Brian – transferred from the risk team where he had been employed for 12 years. When Russell had been seconded to a project elsewhere in the organisation he acted up to his manager post. Good strong administrator but like Abda tends to be resistant to change.

Despite having acted up to a management position Brian seems to be happy where he is and did not apply for any of the promoted posts in the new structure.

Richard –part time member of staff who is extremely willing and enthusiastic who has been with the organisation for two years. The first year was a difficult year as he felt that he was dropped in the deep end with an induction programme focussed on ticking boxes with very limited support. Having survived that he is viewed as a well qualified and well liked member of staff but he is frustrated with the lack of any full-time opportunities in the organisation. André –a part-time member of staff who reduced his hours some years ago due to family commitments, after about 10 years as a full-time member of staff. He is highly regarded and brings a sense of humour to the team albeit many of his comments tend to be cynical about the organisation and how it is managed. I feel that his joking undermines my position but I am unsure how best to tackle this. Given the external circumstances it is unlikely that the current recruitment freeze will be lifted for another 12 months, although I feel that there will be opportunities once my team is established.