HUMAN

BEHAVIOR IN
ORGANIZATION

SUBMITTED BY:
AVINASH AGGARWAL 09P011
HARMIK SINGH SETHI 09P021
NAVDEEP JAKHAR 09P034
PRASHANT PRIYADARSHI 09P043
ROHIT SHARMA 09P049
SUPARNA BHANDARI 09P056
 Case : Gurgaon Branch
Question: If you were the branch head, how would you evaluate the accountant
in his current role and how would you handle him?

ANALYSIS OF THE CASE

The case focuses on the Gurgaon branch of a nationalized bank. There are
many issues that the branch is facing as per the case. The major issues are
illustrated below:

1. The branch is having a negative growth over the past three years and is
the only branch of the bank in Gurgaon.
2. The aggregate deposits have been falling at the rate of 10% whereas they
were growing at the rate of 32% in other banks in the same region.
3. Recovery of loans has been abysmally negligible. As a result, net non
performing assets have risen to 4.2% of the branch’s total assets which is
twice the national average.
4. There is no ATM facility in the locality.
5. Poor disbursal of advances in the branch
6. The bank is not customer centric and service oriented.
7. Unionized employees, inter-union rivalry and officer-staff conflict is high.
8. Lack of cooperation and trust amongst employees.
9. Lack of motivation
10. Bureaucratic work environment
11. Lack of human touch, insensitivity of the officers in their dealings with
subordinates.

Below is the discussion of these problems in the purview of Human Behavior in

Organization.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:
 Current organizational structure is shown below:

Senior Bank Manager

Accountant Senior Manager

Term Extension
Remittance Current Credit
Deposits SB Counter Counter
Accounts
Incharge

Pool of Clerical and Subordinate staff

At the top most level is the Senior Bank Manager. The next levels in the bank
hierarchy are self explanatory as shown in the figure above.

1. HIERARCHY: The bank has a highly hierarchical structure. This is evident

from the following facts given:
• The SBM has not been able to get an ATM opened in the area and
requires the permission of the zonal and the regional head.
• The SBM is the senior most authority and everyone knows where the buck
stops! As a result of which most of the suggestions given by clerical staff
are overridden by officers and an officer has to be taken into confidence
before they can get anything implemented.
2. HIGHLY CENTRALIZED STRUCTURE: The decisions are taken at the
officer level. As the clerks do not have a say in the decision making process,
they do not have a sense of belonging and responsibility and look up to their
seniors for even the most minor decisions. This also has implications related
to the sharing of responsibilities and work burden. This is also emphasized by
the fact that they do never turn up for work in time. Moreover, the clerks and
the subordinates shirk off their responsibilities and the whole burden of work
falls on the senior management, which in turn effects the output of the senior
management. This has resulted in the poor functioning of the bank. This is
evident by an instance where when the printer of the savings account counter
stopped working, the assistant who handled the counter, instead of updating
the passbooks manually himself, sent all the customers to the accountant
who was kept busy updating all the passbooks.

3. BUREAUCRACY: The authorization process of even the routine processes

like withdrawal and deposits is bureaucratic. A customer wanting to make a
demand draft of more than INR 25000 need two authorized signatories on the
demand draft. In addition, most of the times the customers were not attended
to on time and therefore even for a minimal work, the customers had to wait
for long periods of time. Any attempts by the clerical staff to cut down
bureaucracy were met with criticism and cynicism from the officers (esp.
accountant).

4. LACK OF STRONG LEADERSHIP: There is absence of strong leadership

as evidenced by the fact that there is a lot of indiscipline in the bank’s working
culture( unionization, inter-groups rivalries, officer-staff spats). This results in
lots of differences in the team. The SBM exercises coercive power over his
subordinates, but that too he has not been able to do very effectively, owing
to the labor unions. Coercive power is the power that is based on agent’s
ability to cause an unpleasant experience for the target. The SBM is
impersonal, cold, work centric and detathced without any vision or the growth
 of the branch. Financial performance is his obsession and he does not give
any leverage to his employees if there is any default on the tasks assigned.
This creates a lot of dissatisfaction in his subordinates. The only work that he
focuses on is the one, which will add on to his achievements and career
growth in the eyes of his superiors and not towards the general well being of
the branch.

5. LACK OF MOTIVATION: The employees are not motivated to perform their

duties. According to the Hertzberg’s two factor theory, salary is a motivational
as well as hygiene factor. The salary component is very less as compared to
private banks in the case given. The employees therefore are demotivated.
There is a lack of sense of responsibility therefore there is no job satisfaction
and therefore no motivation. Moreover, there is a lack of empathy and human
touch in the work environment and therefore employees are highly
demotivated and unhappy about the insensitivity of the branch head and the
accountant to their personal problems. The SBM himself is demotivated in the
case as he has been promoted only twice in 24 years of his service in the
bank. Therefore, he is also not motivating and supportive of his subordinates.
When there are conflicts in the senior management, the subordinates are
bound to be dissatisfied and demotivated.
EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT LINKED WITH MOTIVATION

Employee Two-Factor
Theory Y
Participative Involvement Theory
Intrinsic
Management Programs Motivation

ERG Theory
Employee
Needs

6. LACK OF TRUST: The accountant does not trust his suboordiantes. He has
little faith in others and is not comfortable in delegating work to others. He
considers every task as his individual responsibility and believes that as he is
answerable to higher authorities, he can not trust others. The SBM has little
trust in the clerical staff.

7. POLITICS IN BRANCH: If employee A is the member of union X, he will

probably not help and cooperate with employee B of union Y at work. This is
evidenced from the fact that the employees in the branch admitted that the
conflicting relationships between the officers and the clerical and the trade
union rivalry has been the hot bed for organizational politics manifested in the
form of backbiting and gossiping. Gossiping had sometimes led to unintended
consequences as well such as manipulation in promotion. There was a huge
gap between the officers and the clerical staff because of the differential
social status, financial benefits and lack of decision making.
EVALUATION OF ACCOUNTANT FROM THE BRANCH HEAD’S
PERSPECTIVE

The question aims to evaluate the accountant as far as his job responsibilities
and role is concerned. The focus of the discussion is to evaluate to the extent to
which the accountant is meeting the expected job responsibilities and whether he
is able to go beyond the listed responsibilities.
The job description of an accountant is mostly a managerial work. His major
responsibilities are:

• Staff management
• Maintaining attendance
• Allocation of duties on daily basis
• Maintenance of premises
• Other operational aspects of the branch including maintaining dispatch
register.

EXPECTED PERFORMANCE

A typical day at work expected out of the accountant starts with assigning the
tasks for the day to his subordinates (clerks). The clerks are directly reporting to
the accountant and are answerable to the accountant for every work assigned.
Moreover, in case there are any cases of absences, the clerks are answerable to
the accountant. The accountant also looks after the performance of the clerks. In
case the clerks are not able to perform, they are answerable to the accountant
for any incompetence whatsoever. In addition, the accountant is also responsible
for other operations of the bank such as maintenance of the premises (repairs
etc.). Other tasks include maintaining dispatch registers, and helping customers
with customer entries.
ACTUAL PERFORMANCE

The actual performance of the accountant is tabulated in the points mentioned

below:

• STAFF MANAGEMENT

Jay could not manage the staff effectively as it was shown from the fact that
the staff had frequent quarrels with Jay as this can be proven from the given
argument in the case between Jay and clerk.

• WORK ALLOCATION ON DAILY BASIS

Jay was doing this duty consistently well but this work on a daily basis used to
hamper his overall efficiency.

• MAINTENANCE OF PREMISES AND MAINTAINING ATTENDANCE

Jay was fairly consistent in this work.

• OTHER OPERATIONAL ASPECTS

Jay used to manage the operational aspects well but he was a kind of person
who did not delegate responsibility naturally. And he even believed in
maintaining the records manually and he did this work majorly by himself.
This had an effect on his capacity and efficiency to work and at the end of the
 day due to the excess load that he had taken up he used to get very tired.
And consistently being tired made him regularly irritated and hamper his
overall relationships with others.

As opposed to the managerial job that an accountant has to perform, Jay was
performing many clerical jobs also with too many job responsibilities. This had
led to a decline in his performance. He did not prove to be a good manager as he
did not trust people easily and could not delegate responsibilities whenever
needed. His performance was inconsistently meeting expectations and much
was needed to be improved. As the accountant was assigned a lot of duties and
a lot of people had to deal with him, then his inconsistency led to decline in their
performance as well.

SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION

• Motivation

There is a general lack of motivation in the branch towards achieving

organizational goals. This is due to multiple reasons such as diffused nature of
responsibilities, avoidance of risk taking behavior, poor team orientation and
break down of communication between the employees and managerial staff. At
one hand, there is a tendency to pass over the work to next person in hierarchy
and on the other hand, there is a hesitation in delegating the responsibilities by
the managers. There is a lack of trust and cooperation between the employees,
which is again a bad sign in a team setting. There is general absence of
discipline and customer orientation - a pre requisite of a successful organization.
As a result it is no surprise that branch is slipping in performance indicators.

To solve the motivational problems in the branch:

 All the employees should be brought together in a common informal

setting to diffuse the hostility and mistrust people feel towards each other.
  There should be an informal evaluation on the basis of psychological tests
and the results to be shared with everyone. This will enable a consensus
on a common viewpoint by understanding each other’s viewpoints. People
will develop empathetic understanding towards each other and will
become more open to accept others opinions.
 People should be given collective goal setting exercise, which will allow
them to understand the virtue of team effort in setting realistic goals and
accomplishing them. Collective effort leads to generation of positive
sentiments.
 Training of employees to develop to develop organizational pride and
synchronization between personal and professional goals. This will allow a
better identification with the organization.

Along with institutional training, manager can motivate the employees at

individual level using a variety of motivational techniques. Since every person
has different needs, different kind of incentives can be provided for different
people according to their needs. Considering the public sector setup, it is difficult
to achieve this at the branch manager level. However, this can be provided in a
limited manner by providing overtime, appreciation, public praise etc. Further, the
manager should talk to every person individually about their individual problems
so as to generate positive sentiments in the branch. In most of the cases, this will
ingrain the feeling in the employees that they are wanted, and respected in the
organizational setup. Whenever the conflict arises, the effort of the manager
should be to solve that in an amicable manner, at the very first instance, so as to
prevent it from escalating.
Another way to improve motivation is to build a healthy work environment This
can be done by improving personal relations among the employees and to bring
people together in an informal settings such as party, picnic, festivals etc. The
new manager would like to take initiative in organizing parties for branch
employees which will allow them to interact with each other informally. There will
be a provision for regular picnics with families which will allow the families to
come together and will reduce the chances of conflict

• Change in Leadership style

There is a need for change in style of leadership in the bank. There is a feeling of
resentment among the management and employees towards each other. Both
the parties are accusing each other of lack of commitment towards their duties.
The kind of culture that is prevalent in the branch is “Kartanism”, where in, the
management have assumed the role of karta and are responsible for most of the
decisions taken in the bank. They do not consult or allow the participation of
clerks and peons in the decision making process. This has also resulted in the
tensions between management and the unions. The lack of participation prevents
the flow of information to the unions, which results in opposition by the union.
The case of an employee being fired by the management and then reinstated
and transferred to some other branch is a perfect case wherein the union was not
involved in the decision making process and hence, in the end went against the
decision of the management.

To diffuse such tensions in the future, there is a need for more involvement of
employees in the decision making process.

A viable alternative could be the Participative Style of Management Leadership

(PSML) and Consultative Style of Management Leadership (CSML). The
managers and clerks should be involved in the decision making process. This will
help the management in identifying the problems faced by the employees
working in the organisation. CSML and PSML will also act as a positive
reinforcement for clerks and peons, who will perceive bank as their own
organization. The bank will also gain in perceived organizational support.
Participation in management will help the subordinates in understanding the
management’s point of view. This mutual understanding will help decrease
tensions among the subordinate employees and management, which will
ultimately help in development of mutual trust between them.

Moreover there is broader vision required from the manager. The branch
manager is still occupied by the old scenario that existed in the industry. He still
has that laid back attitude which many banks had before opening of this sector
for private banks. The fact that he was content with just notifying his superiors
about the faulty printer shows that he feels no commitment towards the
organisation he is working and has no job involvement. The manager is also very
narrow in his approach towards running the bank. His main aim is to maintain
good financial ratios for his bank, which is a very narrow approach towards
running the bank. A part of this behaviour can be attributed to the fact that the
bank manager was an academician and had no prior experience in personnel
management. This contributed in the distribution of responsibilities in the bank.
Due to his lack of experience in personnel management, he delegated all his
duties regarding personnel management to the accountant which led to poor
personnel management practices in the branch.

The manager is still dependent on the income earned through interests for its
profits. With the competition growing in the industry, a number of products are
being launched in the industry which offer better and more risk free rates of
return. Many new features like net banking, mobile banking have been launched
by the banks, which has enabled them to sustain and grow their customer base.
The manager in Gurgaon branch is very narrow in his approach and is
completely dependent on one product for gathering profits. He was also not
providing support to the efforts of his staff who were visiting various villages in an
effort to mobilize deposits for the bank.

• Better customer focus

We know that most of the customers of the branch are rural people who have
limited education. A bank occupies a special space in their life. It is the caretaker
of their life-saving and a life-saver in case they want some loans. The rural
people would tend to attach more emotion and would prefer personal interaction
with bank employees than ATM, Internet Banking. Thus, the bank staff should be
sensitised towards their needs. We would provide them training in customer
services and interaction and thus try and improve the customer ratings of the
bank.

There is a need to customise the offerings by the bank with the customer
requirements. Since a majority of the customers of the branch were from rural
background, the branch needs to rethink its product offerings accordingly. There
is also a need to extend the customer service at more personalised level. Most of
the customers which come in this branch are illiterate and know very little about
the functioning of the bank. The bank should understand this need of customers
and should take concrete efforts towards easy fulfilment of customer needs.

There should be some staff employed who will cater to the enquiries of the
customers. The employees should be informed about the role the customers can
play in achieving the targets that have been assigned to the team. This will
motivate the employees to follow the much needed customer centric approach in
their functioning.

 Better performance appraisal system

The present performance appraisal system prevalent in the bank is too arbitrary
with no incentive value for the employees. Employees believe that their
performance is not a criterion for judging them. So, the present appraisal system,
besides having little motivational value, often creates jealousy and other negative
sentiments in colleagues. The employees in the bank often relate the success of
their colleagues with their approach in the management.

A good performance appraisal system should be fair, have motivational value

and differentiate between good and not so good employees. In the place of
present system of confidential report, there should be a system of open and
objective appraisal where performance should be quantified in terms of certain
identifiable targets. This will improve the credibility of the appraisal system and
will motivate the worker to work even harder. In this system a considerable
weightage should be given to the team goals. This will link the result of the entire
team together and will create a peer pressure on the worker to perform better so
as the team should achieve the target and get good rating. Further, if one worker
is not working hard enough, the entire team will suffer and such worker will be
exposed. This will make the employees compete with each other and discourage
unionism. The remaining weightage should be given to the individual
performance within the group and should be decided by the manager within the
group.