Corporate culture in banks

"A company's culture is often buried so deeply inside rituals, assumptions, attitudes, and values that it becomes transparent to an organisation's members only when, for some reason, it changes." (Rob Goffee). "A company needs smart young men with the imagination and the guts to turn everything upside down if they can. It also needs old figures to keep them from turning upside down those things that ought to be rightside up." Henry Ford.
Corporate culture can best be described as a combination and admixture of rites, rituals, traditions, values, regulations, taboos, myths, mythology, legends, customs, habits, habitat, heroes, symbols, cult and artifacts of an organisation. Broadly speaking and keeping in view the rapid changes in the organisational dynamics the world over, the modern day corporate culture revolves around the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, values, policies and procedure of any corporate body. Corporate culture energises, empowers and strengthens an organisation and gives it a new identity.
Corporate culture aims at the realisation of organisational goals and also to deal with the stakeholders. Thus norms, guidelines or expectations and hopes and aspirations of each and every stakeholder is managed at best to avoid any conflict and accomplish the goals.
THE STAKEHOLDERS ARE:
1. Owners/directors - their aim is to have fair returns on their investments in the corporate body.
2. Management - its aim is to have a reasonable share in the profits of the organisation.
3. Customers - Without customers, there would not be any such body existing. So the customers want a fair deal for them, values for their accounts, excellent personalised service and importance.
4. Staff, or better known by the euphemism of associates, want a reasonably good compensation, congenial working environment, chances for their promotion, progress and career development
5. Vendors - they desire timely payment of their supplies at reasonable rates; they also like to have a transparent system of contract awards.
6. Civil Society - though invisible, but it is still visible and equivocal in matters of payment to staff and treatment meted out to them; it also keeps a silent watch and vigil over the activities of any corporate body, its environmental impacts on the society and economic mismanagement (if any) which might give rise to discontent due to inequitable compensation being accorded to various levels of staff and lack of transparency in recruitment.
7. Lastly, comes the government, which would like a corporate body to behave as a responsible citizen and pay taxes while not disturbing the socio-economic equilibrium or adding to its woes.
The importance of the corporate culture is recognised the world over. But in our country, it is not appreciated in proper perspective. But now it has re-emerged in recent times, which is a healthy sign for corporate dynamics. Corporate culture and organisation complement each other, rather they have a complex fish-and-water relationship.
The basic elements that determine and comprise the corporate culture are as follows:
-- System and style of management
-- Habitat or work place
-- Habits - people at work, their attitude and behaviour
-- Communication
System and style of management The system and style of management must be based on an open-door policy, avoidance of conflict, and managing all stakeholders efficiently and affording an aura of satisfaction to each one. The management style of an organisation might be conservative, or modern, or strong if the staff responds positively to its organisational goals. It is feeble if the staff does not know what style of governance is there and so they either do not respond or display a very faint response to management's overtures. Actually it must be both employee-friendly and customer-oriented.
However, If the system is based on Sethocracy (enterprises run by seths), then the seth is the sole fulcrum around whom the entire wheel of an organisation revolves, even minutia and trivia are reported through high-level and lowest back channels. Thus the rewards and compensation are decided on the basis of this reporting which is not checked for veracity. But in most of organisations, specially smaller emerging banks, modern benign governance is also noticeable where the system and style is tailor-made to satisfy the customer needs, and not impervious to the employee aspirations which are channelized to meet the targets. Gone are the days of top-heavy hierarchical and bureaucratic styles which, if followed rigorously, results in employee dissatisfaction and turnover.
HABITAT OR WORKPLACE The environment in its macro-unit (head office) and micro-unit (branch level) must be warm, friendly, congenial and impressive. It has been reported that most of the employees opt for a particular company by knowing beforehand its culture, style, environment, and the level of motivation available. The pay package is kept on a backburner in many of the cases, as the employees know that there is ample room for their progress in such a company. Similarly the micro-unit should have the attributes of homely and customer-friendly place. A customer should feel that the bank branch is his partner in facilitating his trade, commerce and business. The motto should be: A satisfied and happy customer is the best customer who acts as a mobile goodwill ambassador to attract more business.
HABITS OR PEOPLE AT WORK The people must be courteous, have pride in the ownership of the organisation, besides achievement-oriented. Since the bank is a service industry, the person selling the service is inseparable from the service itself, like the conjoint Siamese Twins, therefore the customers regard both the service and the banker as the one and same. Progress and growth of an employee is the progress of the organisation. An employee grows alongside the organisation if the level of customer-satisfaction is optimal. It is more or less a symbiotic relationship, best kept if the both the management and employee behaviour is positive and contributory.
The approach of the organisation has to be positive and it must strive to have the right number and right people at the right place and right time. It must be kept in mind that self-satisfaction and job satisfaction are the best satisfactions in the world. People must be encouraged to be innovative in their approach, but also cultivate a higher sense of loyalty to the mission and vision of the bank and contribute towards the growth of the organisation with dedication, selflessness and pride.
COMMUNICATION In fact, both formal and informal communication (grapevine) can be effectively used for bringing about beneficial changes in the environment and improving the existing system. For furthering the objectives of the organisation, communication channel must not be based on chain (bureaucratic) or wheel (autocratic) which delays action on important matters but it should be patterned on the shape of a garland which is circular and does not constrict or restrict the flow of communication. In a garland type of communication, the employees are actively engaged in decision-making process and it acts as a morale booster. In centrally-controlled communication channels such as chain or wheel, the organisation is stable and performance might be good, but the morale and productivity suffers in the long run. On the other hand in circle or garland type, the performance increases. If the employees are not informed what is expected of them, then the organisational goals are distorted down the line. A good rapport between the customers and the organisation on one hand and between the management and employees is necessary.
In short, corporate culture is therefore synergy, in which co-ordinated action helps in fostering and nurturing the organisational climate and building up its image among the customers as well as general public. "Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got." Peter F. Drucker