ASIAN CASE RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOL. 10, ISSUE 1, 103-142 (2006) ACR] The case was prepared by Abinash Panda, Assistant Professor in Organizational Behavior Area, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Rajew K Gupta, and Satish K. Kalra, both Professors in Humare Behavior and Orga- nizational Development area fat Managenent Development Institute, Gurgaon, India as a basis for class discussion rather tan to ilustrate either effective of inefective han- ling of an adnainistrative or business situation. Please adress all correspon- dence to any of the three ‘authors: Abinask Panda, Assistant Professor, Orge- hizational Beluviour Area, Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI), Janshed- pur, India, 831 O01, E-mail: ebinash@xlri.acin, Rajew K. Gupta and Satish K. Kalra, Professors, Human Behav- jou and Orgenizatioual Development Ares, Manage- ment Development Institite, Gurgaon, India, 122 001, E-mail: " rgupto@mdiacan; sialra@uudi ac. Gurgaon Branch** INTRODUCTION, The quarterly report of the second quarter of 2003 was out. Dr. Alok Verma, the Senior Branch Manager (SBM) of Gurgaon branch of a nationalized bank, was a worried person while he was glancing through the financial siatement. The Regional Office in Delhi was concerned about the negative growth of the only branch of the bank in Gurgaon over the past three years. The aggregate deposits had been consistently falling at the rate of 10% though these were growing at the pace of 35 and 32% in the region and the bank nationally during the same period. The growth in the amount of loans sanctioned during this period was also not significant. Loan recovery had been abysmally negligible. Poor recovery of loans was contributing to non-performing assets of the branch as well as the bank. The Net Non Performing Assets (NNPA) in the branch was 4.2% of the assets compared to the bank's 2.2%. Many of the customers, who seemed to be loyal to the branch, had closed their accounts in the branch and migrated to other new private banks, which had opened. branches in the same locality. The Regional Manager had asked Alok to visit the Regional office to explain what ails the branch. “Abinash Panda, the'first author is thankful to Prof. L, Gurunathan of XLRI for his insightful comments in the earlier drafts of the case. "This case is based on data collected through observation, interviews with, format and informal discussions with the employees of the branch. The observation data has been presented in the form of field notes. ‘©2006 by World Scientific Publishing Co 2E3