St.

Mary’s University

MBA-531 Managing Organizational Behavior

Assignment 3: Organizational Assessment

Case study of Wegagen Bank S.C
Section B, Group 2 Members: 1. Harun Musa
2. Henok Seifu
3. Gelila Samuel
4. Eden Leulseged
5. Biniam Getu
6. Adugna Dinku
7. Betlehem Desalegn

Submitted to Dr. Roman Kifle

Date: April 15, 2022

Table of Contents
1. Description of the organization ............................................................................................... 3

2. Organizational Structure Culture and leadership..................................................................... 3

2.1. Organizational structure ................................................................................................... 3

2.1.1. Organizational Structure Chart ...................................................................................... 4

2.2. Organizational Culture ..................................................................................................... 5

2.3. Organizational Leadership ............................................................................................... 6

2.4. The impact of the structure, culture, leadership ............................................................... 6

2.4.1. The impact of the structure, culture, leadership towards the attainment of the
organization’s effectiveness and efficiency…. as a result, the organizations goal, and
employee’s wellbeing .............................................................................................................. 6

2.4.2. On the Behavior of employees .................................................................................. 7

2.5. Teamwork and Team Performance in the organization ................................................... 8

2.6. Conflict resolution in the organization, is there a policy and is it effectively

implemented? .............................................................................................................................. 8

2.7. Change management practices in the organization. ......................................................... 8

3. General perception of the employees of the organization ....................................................... 9

4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 10
 1. Description of the organization
Wegagen Bank SC was established on the 11th of June 1997 EC. It came to life as a result of the
entrepreneurial wit of sixteen (16) founding members who recognized the critical role that
financial institutions would play toward creating a sustained economic development and were able
to put in an initial paid-in capital of Birr thirty million (Birr 30 Million).

The Bank, as it started back then, operated through its Head Office located in Gofa Sefer, Addis
Ababa. In October 2017, Wegagen moved to its 23 Storey Headquarters Building in front of Addis
Ababa Stadium, Ras Mekonnen Street.

This Year the bank had revised its five year strategic plan along with its vision, mission, values
and organizational structure as shown below here.

➢ Vision: “Aspiring to be a champion of excellence in banking

business in Ethiopia”
➢ Mission: “Maximize stakeholders value by providing diversified banking services through
competent and motivated employees and up-to-date technology”
➢ Values
o Team Work
o Integrity
o Innovation
o Responsiveness

2. Organizational Structure Culture and leadership

2.1.Organizational structure

Wegagen Bank is governed by the Board of Directors consisting of a Chairperson, a Vice

Chairperson and eight Directors. The overall management is entrusted to the management team
which comprises the President/Chief Executive Officer, who is appointed by the Board of
Directors, four Vice-Presidents and sixteen Directors as well as Manager of Engineering Service.
As at March 31, 2022, the number of employees of the Bank stood at 4845
We can describe the structure of Wegagen bank as hierarchical structure with clearly defined duties
to each position, established procedure and level of authority in which the employees knows where
they are I the chain of command, to whom they are accountable and report to.

We can also describe the characteristics of the structure as bureaucratic but during our assessment
we came to now that somehow they manage to have the flexibility needed in today’s market which
is most unlikely to find in many organization that have bureaucratic structure.

2.1.1. Organizational Structure Chart

 2.2.Organizational Culture

During our assessment we were able to find that organizational culture of the bank was at its best
performing level. The company’s objectives and its employees’ motivations were all pulling in the
same direction. And due to that high performing organizational culture the bank were enjoying a
great performance in terms of profitability and other key performance indicators. But this only
stays until the bank faces crisis and during that crisis period everything changes. The way the
employees along with the management respond to the crisis shows the real picture of their
organizational culture.

For the last three years the banks reputation has been damaged through mainstream and social
media, more than 100 branches became dysfunctional due the war happened in northern region of
the country, and top level managers of the bank had been arrested because they were suspected to
have relation with wanted suspected criminals by the government. These facts create frustration
and management instability within the bank which eventually changes the organizational culture
in a way which is negative. Instead of fighting for the bank to come out from this crisis, most of
the employees became a problem themselves.

Because of the above reasons the bank develops toxic organizational culture which can described
in the following points.

➢ Lack of adhering to core values

➢ Lots of gossips in the office
➢ Customer’s criticism of employees
➢ Bad reputation
➢ Improper communication due to the frustration
➢ High employee turnover.

Even if the defamation of the media against the bank was totally unreasonable the bank itself has
to take responsibility to some extent. The reason we say this is because, if the bank was diversified
enough in terms of business concentration and composition of the top level managers they would
have prevented the crisis.
 2.3.Organizational Leadership

Just recently the board directors of the bank changes the overall leadership of the bank by hiring
top level managers from outside and within the bank to cope up with the crisis mentioned above.
The current leaders of the bank did not waste any time to change the situation and just within the
last six months they accomplish major changes within the bank. Some of the major
accomplishments are listed here below.

➢ Revision of the strategy along with its vision, mission and values
➢ Develop new structure which create more vacant position to promote senior staffs
➢ Salary adjustment
➢ Practice corporate social responsibility.

We can say that the current leadership of the bank is going in the right direction because they
analyze the situation, develop new strategy, make decision, and implementing new initiatives as
they are striving to improve the bank thorough plan, research, and coordinate efforts which
eventually will help them to accomplish organizational goals that help companies thrive.

2.4. The impact of the structure, culture, leadership

2.4.1. The impact of the structure, culture, leadership towards the attainment of the
organization’s effectiveness and efficiency…. as a result, the organizations goal,
and employee’s wellbeing

As stated in the above these three factors have put a huge effect towards the effectiveness and
efficiency. The three factors are interdependent by themselves, structure affect leadership style and
leadership affect organizational culture. That’s why when the negative situation occurs, Wegagen
Bank have faced challenges in everyday activity and couldn’t run things smoothly like before. As
the structure determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled, and
coordinated when the leaders were arrested it left a huge hole in giving direction, coordinating the
day-to-day activity, this also have affected the employees by causing fear, demotivation and self-
isolation from the company. They started to search for a stable work environment leaving Wegagen
Bank with an employee whose attention is divided and less productive.
In addition, the Banks resources was either limited by rules or frozen by the national bank leaving
the bank with no choice rather to work inefficiently. The bank was unable to meet the customer
satisfaction due to lack of resource. Employee absenteeism and turnover have added a fuel to the
crisis making it hard to attain organizational goal and negatively affecting employee’s well-being.

But recently after the new leaders were introduced the culture seems to be returning to the positive
one. New customers are opening accounts, services given to the customers have been improved
and in the near its expected that the bank will return to its profitability. Employees are becoming
more motivated, productive and responsible like before.

2.4.2. On the Behavior of employees

We have roughly pointed out some of the issues in the previous paragraph. But in this section, we
will try to see it briefly.

The complexity of the organization requires that there must be an effective participation from
every level of the organization. As the above factors are interdependent, they are essential in
increasing the motivation of the workers. But like we have been saying until recently, there was a
negative environment where there are many demotivated employees that are less productive. Also,
in contrary these employees have a change in attitude where their feeling about the organization
have changed and their action was to get less involved in the job, to be less committed to the
organization and left it and get the feeling they are not backed up by the bank anymore.

Organizational culture expresses shared assumptions, values and beliefs, and is the social glue
holding an organization together. But in a low-level culture minimizes the play, purpose, and
potential felt by its employees and this was what happened in the past four years at Wegagen Bank.
A weak culture has emerged losing its common values and codes of conduct for its employees,
which should help them, accomplish their missions and goals. Work recognition and job
satisfaction have drastically decreased and followed by turnover.
 2.5. Teamwork and Team Performance in the organization.

Organizational characteristics, such as organizational culture are important to team work

effectiveness. Their used to be a good culture in the bank that encourages a group work to facilitate
the service that is given. Despite things have gone the wrong way for some time now, when the
new leaders are introduced, they are coordinating and initiating the workers to achieve an effective
team performance.

Furthermore, the common structure (Hierarchal) that is used in the banking sector have helped the
system by providing clear and defined roles, routines and ranks for team members, which helps to
improve team coordination.

2.6.Conflict resolution in the organization, is there a policy and is it effectively

implemented?

In a bad organization culture and leadership, the chance of conflict occurrence is high, that’s what
we have witnessed in the past. The structure of the bank is relatively the least factor to initiate a
conflict.

We have looked up and asked the HR department in the Headquarter unfortunately we were unable
to find a clearly stated policy about conflict resolution. So what we did was look from the
experience and asks the managers. They have told us the resolution technique depends on the
severity of the conflict. If it is a less sever conflict employees avoid each other, or someone gets
between and mediate the conflict. But conflicts which are severe are resolved by the rules and
regulation, suspension and termination are some of them.

2.7.Change management practices in the organization.

Change is mandatory under any circumstances in order to cope with both in internal and external
factors. But managing the change can sometimes be difficult because of the culture that might
make the employees resistant to change. Thankfully Wegagen Bank employees have been
compatible with the change. The reason is they have seen the worst during the pandemic and the
political crisis and the heat is still there, so they want to get out of this situation. In this 6-month
period they are adjusting themselves to the new hierarchal structure. In addition, they are more
motivated to achieve the newly drafted goals, objectives and strategies.

The leadership is the other factor that made the change smoother. The leaders have made their
ambition and need for change very clear to the employees, communicated very frequently to get
the perception of the employees, allocate resources for the achievement of the change and engage
in controlling and coordinating of these changes.

3. General perception of the employees of the organization

Due to the crisis the bank is facing right now most of the employees interpret the challenge in a
way it creates frustration among them. And during our assessment we find that most of the
employees including some of the top level managers think that the bank will either going to be
liquated or had no promising future which made the ban unfavorable place of employment. This
perception led to:

➢ The highest turnover rate ever faced by the bank. Even some of them left the organization
for less salary and benefits.
➢ Creates unmotivated staff.
➢ Poor performance in most of the key performance indicator.
➢ Increase in number of fraud in the organization.

But after the bank revised its strategy, change the structure and leadership and adjust the salary;
the perception of the employees towards the bank is now changing for good. The motivation is
coming back and we can see that in the recent performance of the bank. If the bank continues like
this, it will not take that much to reverse the crisis and change the perception of employees and
customers towards the bank which in turn will make Wegagen bank S.C a favorable place of
employment again.
 4. Conclusion

Wegagen bank has hierarchical structure with clearly defined duties to each position, established
procedure and level of authority. The organizational culture of the bank was at its best performing
level until the bank faces crisis and during that crisis period everything changes. The current
leadership of the bank is going in the right direction because they analyze the situation, develop
new strategy, make decision, and implementing new initiatives.

The bank has been hugely affected by both the external and internal factors. The external factors
such as politics have made the bank to work inefficiently and ineffectively. Internal factors such
as employee dissatisfaction, bad attitude, lack of motivation, turnover rate and less job engagement
have made the bank less productive.

One of the key issues that led to lack of diversity and discrimination was that most of our country’s
banks have been represented with some specific ethnic group. This led undiversified work
environment. Sometimes the organizational culture is highly influenced by it. When conflicts
occur, biasedness is seen.

Recommendation

➢ Our recommendation to Wegagen bank is to rebrand themselves by clearing their name

from all the bad publicity they have got into.
➢ To give more emphasis on motivating their employees through positive reinforcements like
reward and increasing salary.
➢ Providing training and development program to increase their skill set and adjust their job
attitude.
➢ Clearly stating policies for conflict resolution and to avoid stereotyping and discrimination.