Friendly Bank Essay

1. Introduction

A work team is a relatively permanent group of individuals whose members coordinate their

activities to achieve one or more common objectives. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) define a

team as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common

purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Harris and Harris (1996) also explain that a team has a common goal or purpose where team

members can develop effective, mutual relationships to achieve team goals. According to

Hackman (2002) a team has four features; a team task, clear boundaries, clearly specified

authority to manage their own work processes, and membership stability over some reasonable

period of time.

After a week of shadowing Keith Elliot the Customer Service Manager at Friendly bank I

identified a number of problems which the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hector Brogan should

address. These problems range from organisational design and culture, team working,

motivation, power problems to leadership problems.

2. Organisational Culture problem

Culture refers to the climate and practices that organisations develop around their handling of

people, or to the promoted values and statement of beliefs of an organisation (Schein, 2004).

Schein (2004) highlights that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and

manage culture; that the unique talent of leaders is their ability to understand and work with

culture; and that it is an ultimate act of leadership to destroy culture when it is viewed as

dysfunctional.

From the case study it is clear that Friendly bank suffers from a culture problem. Parkers

allowed branch staff who were to be made redundant the opportunity to transfer into the

customer services operation at the new headquarters. Some of the staff including Sheila found it

hard to change their working styles despite the significant shift in the organisational culture. The

long stays were seen as a big problem as they did not seem to care about meeting their sales

targets as well as the profitability of the bank. Keith noted that Friendly’s as a business, was

designed to make money with relatively low overheads. That was why the bonus system was in

place - to encourage people to work harder and to develop a little healthy competition between

the teams. Long Stays just don’t seem to realise this.

3. Team working problems

Effective teamwork relies upon individuals working together in a cooperative environment to

achieve common team goals through sharing knowledge and skills. Teams are an integral part of

many organizations and should be incorporated as part of the delivery of tertiary units.

Successful teamwork relies upon synergism existing between all team members creating an

environment where they are all willing to contribute and participate in order to promote and

nurture a positive, effective team environment (Luca & Tarricone, 2001).

Friendly bank established work teams with an objective of improving customer service,

motivation and to increase profitability. To ensure that the teams are effective the bank trained

the team leaders including Sheila. Her team has a number of problems. Sheila is not competent

and is less interested in the Sales Against Targets (SAT). The team members are also fed up with

Sheila’s lack of drive and some have simply lost patience with her patronising attitude and with

management’s unwillingness to do anything about it. Sheila also seems to be interfering with

other teams and has been spending most of her time with other customer advisers. She frequently

offers to help out other TL’s and customer advisors, although they don’t ask her. She has left the

team members to manage on their own and it does not worry her at all. Her team has not been

achieving the targets due to her incompetence.

4. Motivation/ Individual problems

Friendly bank introduced the bonus system in order to encourage people to work harder and to

develop a little healthy competition between the teams. Sheila’s team especially lacks cohesion

as the members are pursuing different objectives. As the team leader she is expected to motivate

the members towards achieving their sales targets so as they can earn the bonuses. Sheila

focuses on making friends rather than performance of her team. This has forced some of the

members to form a small team ‘satbusters’ so they can focus more on performance and achieve

the team’s targets. There is lack of motivation within the teams as evidenced by the departure of

Jennie who was fed up. However Paul the replacement thinks Sheila is incompetent and hopes

to take over the team leader role if she is sacked. While the bank aims to increase revenues and

profitability through the team targets and bonuses there are a lot of individual differences

amongst the team members hence making it very difficult for them to work together.

5. Stress/ Power Problem

According to Lazarus (1977), stress is a situation that someone regards as threatening and as

possibly exceeding his or her resources. Lazarus pointed out, that the stress evoked by an event

depends on how people interpret the event and what they can do about it. Power can be described

as the capacity to mobilize people and resources to get things done (Katz, 1998). Lawrence and

Robinson (2007) take the perspective that organizational power reflects actions of any individual

or organizational system that controls the behavior or beliefs of an organizational member. This

implies that power is the ability and capacity to influence organizational outcomes.

Sheila seems confused over her team leadership role. First of all she does not understand the

Sales Against Targets figures. She is therefore very reluctant to implement the SATs in her team.

Secondly she is incompetent as a team leader since she has failed to steer them to achieve the

targets. Thirdly she spends most of her time with other customer advisers instead of

concentrating on her team. Keith is looking for a way of forcing her to leave the job but has not

succeeded yet. He recently took her for another training just to see if she could get the point but

it did not work. The entire management and staff are undergoing stress as a result of Sheila’s

problems. Keith does not seem to have power to control Sheila. If he has evidence that Sheila is

the cause of the problems in her team then he should go ahead and either ask her to step down or

even remove her. There are some power struggles within the team with Paul undermining his

team leader hoping to take up her position.

6. Leadership/ Decision Making problem

According to Northouse (2010) leadership is a process that involves influence, occurs in groups

and involves common goals and purpose. Kelloway & Barling (2010) define leadership as a

process of social influence that is enacted by individuals in formal positions of power or

leadership positions within an organisation, such as managers and supervisors. The CEO Hector

Brogan is the head of Friendly bank and has done the necessary changes in order to improve the

performance of the company. Effective leadership is however lacking at the lower levels. Keith

has not demonstrated effective leadership in dealing with the team leaders and the team

members. Particularly in handling Sheila’s problem he has failed to act decisively. Sheila also

has failed in her duties as a team leader.

7. Conclusion and Recommendations

It is quite clear that the situation at Friendly bank requires urgent attention by the CEO in order

iron out all the problems. Most of the issues concern Sheila’s incompetence and her lack of

commitment to the team and sales targets. It is recommended that the CEO summons Sheila and

demands that she steps down as a team leader to pave way for a more committed and effective

leadership. If she is not willing to do so then she should be removed from the position. It is also

recommended that the CEO to direct Keith to monitor closely the teams and their performance in

order to boost performance. He should encourage team working and ensure that team members

are adequately motivated.

References

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Katzenbach, J. and Smith, D. (1993).The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organisation. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY

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Lazarus, R. S., and Cohen, J. B. (1977). Environmental stress. In Altman, I., and Wohlwill, J. F.(eds.), Human Behavior and the Environment: Current Theory and Research, PlenumNew York, pp. 89-127.

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Schein, E.H.(2004). Organizational Culture and Leadership, Third edition, San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.