MGT523 ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Section I

CASE ANALYSIS SHEET

ATHENA BANCORP

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AU1813051
OVERVIEW:
The Athena Bancorp Philosophy Beth Daniels is enthusiastic about giving to the society around
her. This aided her discover the specific market that she aims to support; the 24 million
underbanked Americans, which is a phrase used for a domestic household that “has a checking
or saving bank account, but also acquire financial products beyond the banking arrangement”.
Her idea is practical but hard-hitting, and although her five-year plan is nothing short of
impressive, it’s hard to build up a business in such a ground-breaking manner. Contrasting its
rivals, Daniels seeks to run a bank that not only creates a flourishing and rewarding business,
but also improve and educate its clients. Keeping it consumer-focused, maintaining this attitude
in mind, Athena Bancorp holds the managerial personnel head count low, to fill up the banks
with as several resourceful personnel as it can.

VALUE OF HUMAN RESOURCE:

Before analysing the troubles at Athena, it is essential to recognize how the bank approaches
the employees as a resource, in relation to its customers. Each division of Athena Bancorp was
operated with branch managers, relationship managers, and desk clerk. Bank supervisors
oversaw operations, supervised team, qualified, trained, evaluated staff, authorized
transactions, and harboured professional relations. Relationship managers, on the other hand,
agreed loans and cooperated with clients. Cashiers handled deposits, withdrawals, and
transfers. Each department had two to five cashiers at work at any given time. Both branch and
relationship managers, however, devoted considerable time at work with customers and pitched
in at the cashiers’ windows whenever necessary. Although Athena Bancorp have better pay-
scales than its rivals, there is a trap which is precisely briefed by one of its relationship
managers, “When you look at what we make on an hourly basis, it’s not so good. We work
hard for the bonus pay.” There is plenty of proof to think that being a consumer centrical bank,
Athena Bancorp is likely to ignore staff’s mental and emotional wellbeing; whether it’s the
high staff turnover rates, the raised nonattendance, or even the smaller worker engagements.
Athena utilizes a greater pay-scale to attract workers, but studies have indicated that some of
the high spirit businesses in the world don’t beat the salary listings. This perhaps adds some
credibility to the stating that “it’s not always about money”. In short, even though Daniels
believes her staff as her extended family, the importance that the administration places on the
operations staff is fairly doubted.

PROBLEM ANALYSIS
To entirely comprehend the challenges being encountered by Athena Bancorp, the problems
have been broken down to three basics levels.

Employee Problems
Lengthy working hours are usually correlated with work-related grievances and mishaps,
mental ill-health, and unwell behaviours. The quarterly worker engagement surveys
introduced, by the chief human resource executive Paul James, had seen a drop in the results.
Objections like “disapproving and unsupportive relationship manager” and “pestered-looking
teller” were pretty more frequent. This reveals how much the personnel were encountering the
impact of the fast-paced setting that Athena had designed. Extreme working hours is mostly
linked with reduce efficiency, inadequate work performance, health troubles and low
enthusiasm. Many companies lack systems to detect, assess, and achieve the challenges that
initiatives place on the managers and personnel who are supposed to do the work, which is
what Marin Weisbard six box model under leadership is mentioned of a strong leadership in
place, who helps everyone to go about their work every day with a sense of purpose and
confidence, whereas, at Athena employees here it is in demanding job responsibilities,
weariness sets in quicker that the average. This shows that along with work hours, strength to
perform is also an affecting aspect. In addition, responsibility vagueness can trigger worker
dissatisfaction and reduced organizational dedication, which eventually lead to in low job
execution. Given that the majority of the personnel were expected to pitch in wherever
required, it was easy to fall target to uncertainty, thus experiencing in the process. According
to the worker engagement surveys, people felt less understood, cared for, and rewarded, and
even didn’t trust in the leadership as much any longer. The job obscurity, lack of commitment,
and higher exhaustion are all consequences of the extended working hours, heightened levels
in anxiety and low job fulfilment.

Staffing Problems
Athena Bancorp guaranteed a high-touch client service and minimum consumer waiting time.
The duration of a customer trip, too, was controlled by the consumers themselves. These
programs generated a greater job intensity, causing in elevated levels of exhaustion.
Nevertheless, Just hiring is not the answer at Athena, since even the recruitment practice is
problematic. Daniels had positioned such an rigorous standard on the staffing process that
candidates most often didn’t meet up the job conditions. Making sure that an indefinable things
like “personality” is suitably pursued out in a applicant is not simple. Faith is a crucial element
of organisational relations and administrations attempt to the problem of trust is of intellectual
and sensible significance, and Daniels, by choosing to hire each member of staff herself, reveals
a lack of trust in her hiring team. This absence of coherence amid what Daniels intends to
accomplish and how the remainder of the company operates is affecting a inconsistency that is
a hinderance to the company's development.

Strategic Problems
Athena Bancorp set off as an energizing strategy that targeted to make a change by focus on an
exceptionally overlooked portion in that society. Every further proposal, however, made it
more complicated than sticking to single philosophy and working in the direction of meeting
it. Combining a collaborative high-tech platform was Daniels’ answer to the overburdening of
her personnel. Sadly, the computer software was not operational yet, and according to James,
it would take an additional year of improvement prior to the computer software unveiled in its
preliminary stage. Plus, they had to attend to training periods on how to make use of it and get
employed to working with it, which involved additional work for the already overworked
personnel.
Overstraining personnel, hiring inaccurately, and numerous initiatives are a few of the main
challenges being faced, and the longer Daniels awaits, the tougher it would be to recognize and
find suitable answers for each crisis.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Like most organizations, there are always several approaches to resolve an matter. However,
like most companies, one cannot just think short-term or long-term. In this situation, Daniels
requires to take actions to fix all that is going incorrect with Athena, with instant but long-
lasting outcomes. The social practices of worker involvement, role clarity, control, social
impact, and selection of incentives are a few of the general aspects to improve job effort. The
strategic intention of reward management is to create and execute the bonus policies,
procedures, and ways necessary to help the accomplishment of the company's business
objectives. Paying the workers better salaries is futile when considering they are not paid for
extra hours. If the work hours cannot be decreased, they need motivation to put in the extra
time and strength. Improving job fulfilment is also an efficient way that would increase worker
confidence and reduce work burden, one which results in a healthy work set with reduced
stress; lessening the odds of breakdowns significantly as well as it decreases turnover ratios.
The Nadler-Tushman congruence model can be applied here where Denials can make the
organisation structure and culture make in fit together, as an organisation can only succeed
when the people who do it and the work that is supposed to be done is congruent with one
another.
Steps 1: analyse each element
• Work: start by looking at the significant responsibilities that strengthen Athena's
operation, from two perceptions – what work is done, and how it is handled.
• People: look at who co-operates to get these jobs done – managers, colleagues,
executives, for example.
• Identify the abilities, expertise, knowledge, and education that they acquire. Then,
discover how they like to be remunerated, satisfied and accepted for their work. Also,
considering how dedicated they are to the organization, and what profession
development expectations they have.
• Organizational Structure: mapping Athena’s organization's structures, systems and
procedures. There are separate business divisions for example, local and operational.
• Culture: discovering the unwritten rules of Athena Bancorp can help Daniels to bring
here company together, she should try to understand her employees’ beliefs, values,
behaviours, their attitudes and what all drives them, she can do this by communication
and through information flows around the organisation.
Step 2: analyse the relationships between the elements:
• Work and People: is the job being performed by the most able and competent
individuals? Does the job meet individuals' requirements?
• Work and Structure: is job done in a well-organized way, given the managerial structure
in place? Is that structure adequate to meet the requirements of the work being done?
• Structure and People: does the formal company structure let the individuals to work
collectively efficiently? Does it meet up individuals' demands? Are people's opinions
of the formal structure pleasant or misleading?
• People and Culture: are the individuals working inside a culture that best fits them?
Does the philosophy make use of individuals' own means?
 • Culture and Work: does the culture improve or deter work performance?
• Structure and Culture: do the culture and the managerial structure match one another,
or is it unparallel?

Step 3: build and sustain congruence:

It is true that the emphasis of Athena Bancorp was towards its clients; but it doesn’t imply that
it should ignore the workers in the process. James indicated a significant problem, “Our people
are our strategy. Without them, we are just another bank.” As a CEO, it is crucial for Daniels
to have staff that can efficiently hold on her idea to the clients. The bigger Athena Bancorp
moves, the more she would be from the client. That’s why it is crucial for employee buy-in.
Her idea needs to be computed and integrated right from their hiring policy. While earlier hired
procedures don’t indicate error; the staff size and structure indicate quite a larger room for
improvement. Alongside with an expansion in staff size, there requires to be a major change in
the job descriptions as well as adherence to the organization. Personnel who experience role
precision are 53% more effective and 27% more effective at work than workers who have role
vagueness, while further research demonstrates that total work performance improves by 25%,
this can be achieved through making responsibility charting to get more role clarity which is
currently lacking in the system. All through clear explanations of their jobs, the workers would
not only be lessened off extra troubling duties, but also be capable to participate in their jobs
better, to understand and be more helpful. In spite of Daniels needing everybody to be capable
to benefit the consumers, reorganization will guarantee individuals can be employed
exclusively for what they’re great at. This not only improves the quantity of individuals they
can consider, but also gives the workers the certainty to specialise, instead of being a ‘Jack of
all trades and Ace of none’. Furthermore, to help guarantee that work ambiguity doesn’t
reappear, frequent job evaluations and feedback is essential. Minimal surveys and third-party
inspections would help save the vision and structure in order while delivering substantial
outcomes; as without short-term wins, too many individuals give up or keenly join the ranks
of those individuals who have been opposing change
There can be simple training sections and short films that can be shown at regular intervals in
a month so that the personnel buy into the changes faster. One of the major difficulties with
firms bring about change is the mistake of under-communicating the idea. Change is not
possible unless the masses are ready to assist, often to the point of making short-term losses.
Actual and continuous communication will make sure that all modifications are taken up by
workers and guarantee a faster and easier transition.