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GSBS 6190 – HUMAN RESOURCE AND ORGANISATION
Assessment weighting: 40%
Submission Mode: Via Canvas
Use APA7 style of referencing
Word limit: 2500 words, excludes references and appendices.
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
As a Human Resource and Organisation Development expert, you have been approached by Michael
Crawford, the Head of HR and OD at YourBank, one of the largest banks somewhere in Australia. The
bank has over 100 million customers across various products, including credit cards, personal
banking, loans, business products, wealth management, and many other products and services.
The bank is buying smaller competitors to increase its market share and customer base. Many
employees who work at the bank have not been in their jobs for a long time and report
dissatisfaction in their roles. This results in staff turnover numbers being high. In addition, the
opportunity of internal promotion is limited, meaning many people start in their positions and never
progress any further, resulting in staff becoming frustrated and going to competitors for more
money and progression opportunities.
YourBank employs 150,000 staff globally. The majority of the staff are located in Australia, based out
of many different offices spread across the Sydney CBD.
Michael has provided you with the following information on the bank:
• The roles at the bank are broken into different types; these are the operational roles that
support the products, call centres, and back of office functions that process customer
requests.
• These teams work in silos with little internal communication or engagement, making it
difficult at times to service customer needs between the teams.
• There are a limited number of knowledge-based roles; these individuals manage products,
run projects, or act in a compliance or risk function.
• There is little engagement between the operational and knowledge-based teams, resulting
in change occurring by the knowledge-based teams failing to disseminate to the operational
teams.
• The operational teams have experienced many changes over the past 24 months from
product management and regulatory focus. These regulatory projects are usually imposed
on the bank by the banking authorities. Often regulatory changes need to be implemented
fast, and failure to do so can result in fines or breaches. They can cost the company
financially and cause reputational damage with a flow-on impact to
customers, who might take their business to competitors.
• The bank’s mission statement is to support customers with their financial needs and to
contribute to the financial empowerment of the community and Australian economy.
• The bank’s core values are leadership, accountability, customer service, and commitment.
• The bank’s long-term strategy is to become more profitable and have a larger market share;
as such, they are focused on revenue and customer market share volumes. Annually the
bank profits $150 billion and holds a market share of 60% of all customers in the Australian
domestic market and 45% of the global banking market.
• The bank’s organizational structure is complex, with teams being broken down based on the
customers they service or the types of products they support. The hierarchy shows an overly
top-heavy organization with many middle management roles and a small volume of lower
agent roles, demonstrating a high amount of revenue invested into wages and salaries of
senior managers. This means that more subordinate management roles are overworked and
underpaid.
• The bank is also looking to invest in technology businesses in the fintech market and
telecommunication businesses, diversifying their portfolio and enhancing their market
share.
• The processes that underpin the operation of the bank are identified as fragmented. The
bank regularly invests in technology enhancements, implementing new technology to serve
their customers better. However, internal investments in technology are not always
considered significant.
• YourBank believes their people should function with these broken processes by
implementing ‘work arounds’ when they do not function effectively. The bank therefore
does not see these fragmented processes as a priority.
• Change is a common occurrence at YourBank. Customers are frequently impacted by
product changes that affect their ability to use the products effectively, often resulting in
excessive calls into the call centre with customers seeking assistance on these changes.
Change is communicated poorly to customers, with some of them receiving notification of
the changes and others not.
• YourBank is focused on fast change that needs to be implemented in the timeliest manner
with little cost and effort. The bank is often the receiver of change through regulatory
requirements; these can come directly from the regulators or senior managers agreeing to
these changes as they see fit. There is a noticeable disconnect between lower-level
management and upper management. Senior leaders do not understand the business and
the work the lower-level management teams perform.
• Employees face numerous changes occurring at once. People working in these operational
roles report change fatigue in keeping up with their daily work and ongoing organizational
change.
The processes:
Michael informs you that the processes that underpin the operation of the bank are identified as
fragmented. The bank regularly invests in technology enhancements, implementing new technology
to serve their customers better. However, internal investments in technology are not always
considered significant. YourBank believes their people should function with these broken processes
by implementing ‘work arounds’ when they do not function effectively. The bank therefore does not
see these fragmented processes as a priority. Michael has heard of process reengineering but he
doesn’t understand how to commence the analysis of business processes.
Michael is aware that your skills are broad and is hoping you can help him with a confidential
matter. Michael invites you to a confidential meeting where you enjoy a coffee together and he
shares the following:
Michael is having issues with the small team of HR and OD managers that report to him. The team’s
performance isn’t ideal, he needs to improve the team’s productivity and refocus them on the job at
hand. Michael finds they are easily distracted and often focus on the wrong things. He recalls a
recent issue with one of the HR and OD managers where he had set delivery deadlines for a very
important project but the manager spent too much time focused on making the presentation
‘pretty’ failing to produce the right information he needed to deliver. This meant the project wasn’t
effectively delivered. He has also identified operational problems with the team and he needs to
address these matters urgently because his team needs to play a critical role in the implementation
of a Vulnerable Banking Program, which has a delivery date of the end of the financial year. Michael
is concerned the team often lacks initiative and he feels he needs to micromanage the team to get
their deliverables met.
Michael has identified technical delivery issues, concerns with cooperation with tasks and a lack of
cohesion with the team functioning. Michael has done some googling on groupthink; he isn’t sure
what groupthink actually means but suspects it may be impacting the team’s performance.
What does Google say?
Before you start the brief for Michael you google YourBank and you see the following: YourBank has
made recent headlines in the news for its lack of adherence to regulatory laws and poor internal
operations. The headlines have reported senior leaders conducting the business inappropriately to
maximize their yearly bonuses. Branches have made the news for their poor customer service for
customers identified as financially vulnerable. There is speculation that the bank has approved large
personal and mortgage loans to customers who cannot afford these loans so staff can meet their
sale numbers. One of the regulatory bodies has identified YourBank has failed to adhere to multiple
sanction laws resulting in fines and breaches of international and domestic laws.
The search pages show the following key words:
• Over priced products
• Top heavy organisation
• Poor communications
• Questionable leadership
Based on the information contained in the case study and keeping in mind the widely understood
HRD and OD principles and processes:
1. You need to provide Michael a brief outlining the following:
a. Provide Michael with the key OD issue here and propose a plan of different OD
interventions that will improve the effectiveness of the affected areas of the bank.
Discussing your professional judgement, OD methodology used and guided by OD
values and assumptions, rank these in the order of importance for Michael so he
knows which ones to prioritise and fund you for subsequent OD interventions. (10
marks)
b. Elaborate and justified your choice of OD interventions focusing on at least two key
levels in the organisation. (15 marks)
2. Provide Michael a confidential report outlining how he should manage his HR and OD teams’
performance issues relating to the following:
a. Group cohesion? (4 marks)
b. Groupthink (6 marks)
3. Provide Michael with a plan and guidance for sustaining these OD interventions once they
are completed (5 marks)
