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Banking On Diversity

10/12/08 3:05 PM
Case 1
Page 1 of 16
http://www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/bsad560/Case-BankingDiversity.html
Banking on Diversity: Familiarity Breeds Contempt at Security
First Bank
Introduction
Tossing the report summary she had just read for the third time onto her
desk, Susan Respess leaned back in her chair and squeezed the small
nerf basketball. It was difficult to believe an employee could write
about Security First Bank, "I hate this place. I wish to God that I could
win the lottery and walk away from this "hell hole."
But someone had. The evidence was staring her in the face in the text
of this preliminary report on communication in the organization.
Whatever the other communication issues may have been, what caught
her attention and focus was the harshness of many of the comments
made about fellow workers, supervisors, and managers from different
cultures. The existence of problems with the working relationships of
the nonexempt workers, as well as their reactions to management, was a
shock to the system.
Disappointing Results
It was clear that Susan's previous efforts at improving morale and team
building in the operations group (OG) of Security First Bank were not
as successful as she had expected. In fact informal indicators pointed to
a steady decline over the past few months. As vice-president and
manager of personnel, Susan was responsible for benefits, affirmative
action, and training, which, by default, put her in charge of company
morale. This also gave her the unpleasant task of going into the office
of her boss, Chester Blanchard, executive vice-president for operations
(EVP), with a set of reasons why her department's past efforts had not
brought about the anticipated results. In addition, she needed some
significant insights into the current problems among the nonexempt
workers, as well as ideas for rebuilding morale.
Susan looked across her office and glared through the wall...