Title- “Stakeholders value and ethics”
Contents
Introduction: 1
Executive summary: 1
Ethics at individual level: 2
Reinforce organizational culture: 3
Ethical code of conducts towards customers as stakeholders: 4
The squashed tomato approach of Westpac bank: 4
Group dynamism in Westpac bank: 5
Conclusion and recommendations: 6
References: 6
Introduction:
The analysis deals with ethical values in the organizational and its relationship with the stakeholders and in the process of doing so, we have taken Westpac bank, Australia as an example. The bank is well known top bank of Australia and is highly renowned market pioneer in terms of market capitalization and profitability. The issues concerning our task are ethics associated with the bank as a service providing organization of this industry, values the firm is maintaining in terms of stakeholders rights and recognitions and other ethical issues in front of this bank. Westpac is a dominant bank in the banking industry is among four well known and highly known banks of Australia.
Executive summary:
There are some ethical conducts and concerns in every organization in order to grow to high standards and flourish with goodwill. Such ethical standards are attainable when the stakeholders of the firm are happy and motivated enough to create the organization as a pioneer of its industry. Attainment of ethical standards is not an easy task and it needs high risk management capacity, motivated workforce, strategic decision making power and several other perfections like customer satisfaction and service excellence. In terms of ethical concerns, it has been seen that this bank is highly competent and capable enough. The employees, customers, channel partners and other stakeholders are taken care of which we will see in further parts of the writing. Westpac has taken many initiatives to promote strategic human resource management and ethical code of conducts so that the stakeholders of the bank feel integrated and motivated towards the firm. In terms of its initiative towards employee value and motivation, the bank has introduced new policies and procedures for work life balance of the employees so as to retain them and motivate towards the firm. Employee engagement programmes, parental leaves like maternity leave, unpaid leaves for child care, if both parents work at Westpac, then they are entitled for 13 week paid leave and after regaining job from unpaid child care leave, entitlement to regain position on the same designation where it was left, similar initiatives have been taken to make the organization and its most important stakeholder happy and motivated for the firm and also to increase their sense of belongingness towards the firm. Apart from this, the bank has several innovative policies and programs for the directors’ motivation through discussion forums on regular interval with the CEO, organizational share holding so as to increase their belongingness towards the bank and also the right to decision making on very high degree so that self actualization needs of the employees gets fulfilled. Another very important and newly introduced idea in banking world is the freedom of flexi timing and flexible work arrangements especially for women employees. In Westpac bank, the caliber of women employees are fully utilized by flexible jobs or flexible time freedom which is a new concept and is not followed in most of the banks under banking industry. Many non banking financial institutions follow flexible shifts and time jobs but in banking industry, it has been seen for the first time.
Ethics at individual level:
Ethical concerns at individual level is balanced and properly managed in terms of Westpac bank. The employees and the customers have clear and transparent relations and interact with each other on friendly grounds. The individual employee of the firm or the bank is a brand in itself and employee branding concept is followed on genuine grounds there. The organization gives freedom and space to the employees to have their own business methods and interaction with their clients and this freedom of doing the work in its own way gives the employees dynamism to tackle the customer complaints and queries on individual grounds. Their sustainability strategy makes all stake owners handle their work with full efficacy and this fact is considerable on both external and internal stake owners. The customers on the other hand are highly loyal and service is also delivered which motivates them to be associated with the bank for long. Support from top management which the employees get in order to maintain the ethical standards in their own work is a matter of appraisal. With the help of implementation of such strategies, it cannot be said that the organizational intentions are purely rational and motivational, in actual sense, the profit arising in long run out of the sustainability of the employees, customer retention and loyalty is the core reason behind all such practices so that profit and employee retention is maintained even in times of economic crisis and external market downturn. [Macmohan and Pocock, 2011]
Another encouragement given by the bank to its stakeholders mainly employees and channel partners is its initiative towards being the world’s most diversity managed firm and the world best firm or bank in terms of flexible board of directors and women empowerment. The CEO of the bank is fighting to increase the proportion of female employees on senior designations so that it could follow its ethical policy of making the Bank as one of the most powerful diversity managed firm in the world. For the achievement of the same, Westpac is having a Westpac group diversity council headed by the CEO herself and its review meets and follow ups are done on regular intervals so as to make the bank as the most powerful bank or firm in the whole world in terms of ethical behavior and value of employee welfare.
Reinforce organizational culture:
The firm continuously works for management of organizational diversity and new reforms but the reinforcement of organizational culture towards being highly integrated and unified firm is also a inspirational step for its enlargement and betterment. The integrity of the firm or the core values are communicated regularly through various sources like mailers to the employees and the team work or team spirit is always supported by the management. Performance reviews, HR meets and regular counseling’s, merit based recruitment and promotions, clear and objective implementation of policies and programs etc are some steps always under scrutinization of the management so that clearly stated goals and values can become an added advantage for the firm. [Pinnington et al]
Ethical code of conducts towards customers as stakeholders:
In the analysis of ethical code of conducts it can be said that the firm has high level of ethical values and employee retention strategies so that the workforce could be kept happy and motivated. The ethical conducts starts with ensuring the accountability of each and every staff member. The compliance training is given to all employees so that they are aware of their responsibilities towards the customers and service delivery is never at stake. The engagement of managers on proper training sessions for the new employees on induction training is an indication of the fact that all compliances and code of conducts must be known to the new recruitees so that accountability of the management is never endangered. The key challenges towards customer service accountability is recruitment of competent employees who could understand the philosophy of the management and work under the shelter of already established goals of high service standards and no complaints from customer end, another challenge is continuity of sustained standards and benefits offered which is also difficult to maintain as attaining is easy as compared to maintaining which becomes mandatory to maintain the standards of ethical conducts with no compliance towards the bank on major level and work towards the accomplishment of goal which is high standards of customer service delivery and world class service standards. The ethical misbalance between customer standards and employee perspective of motivation and satisfaction must not be there and the bank is competent enough through high management strategies so that they have sustained to maintain ethical balance between customer satisfaction and employee motivation which is very important for maintain the value of any firm in the global market. The strategic direction taken by the top management officials is to leverage the value of diversity to all stakeholders and the techniques of management being applied are all moving in directions towards attainment of the same. The policies from employees point of view are very comfortable and highly motivating as the firm gives them high perks, leaves with due respect to need of it, motivational programs and several other ideas so that employees motivation is always maintained.
The squashed tomato approach of Westpac bank:
It was said that the Westpac has given the stakeholders the freshness and positive energy in relation as that of a squashed tomato. A squashed tomato stands for freshness in it and Westpac says that they believe in maintaining relations with their stakeholders as that of a squashed tomato. The internal processes and the stake owners concerns are taken seriously and are considered as organizations biggest task to be done. The firm has the ethical obligation on it and that is to maintain a healthy approach towards all the concerns of a stake owner. Westpac has an international recognition for its sustainability strategy and interest preservation of its people. The bank is well known for maintaining and retaining all employees on high standards with utmost motivation and zeal and linking employee recognition with the organizational profitability makes all employees have sense of belongingness towards the firm. Apart from this, customer retention is an equal matter of concern which the firm takes care of. The management accounting of the firm is truly high and perfect as they have extra ordinary capture in the business of the stake owners who consider themselves as a part of the organization on high motivation levels. [Baxter et al]
Group dynamism in Westpac bank:
The dynamic of group and team effort can be very well seen in Westpac bank and can be researched by various banks if they want to have sound organizational integrity and diversity management on the same time. The top level management is very innovative who give ideas and new introduction of policies and procedures for the development of the employees at junior level and front desk coordination. Overall all line managers and staff managers are given high motivation and decision making capacity on their level of supervision permitted so that they could utilize their own innovations and ideas for smooth management of their individual branches and own performances. From the accounting and finance department to data collection and surveyors all are included in decision making in terms of sustainability strategy and innovations which enables each group and team to perform well and with full dedication. [Greenwood and Ceiri] This kind of group diversification and also the management of integrity on the same time by smooth functioning and each department involvement in decision making and strategy building can fetch desired outcomes for any firm especially as seen in case of Westpac bank in Australia. They have new leadership techniques, extended portfolio of sustainability and diversity management and they work towards betterment of relationships with the stake owners and similar stories like this helps the bank to sustain even in irrational market conditions as that of now or in time of 90s when recession and market growth was very nominal and poor. All the new structures and responsibilities were discovered by the bank and communicated to the employees so that their smooth management and allocation of teams should be done on reporting officers level and also that the guidance given to the teams on functioning should go from their own front line managers or immediate seniors so that better coordination could be done. A dedicated team continues to exist that in itself is an asset to the organization and in banking industry; motivated and edited employees can bring desired outcomes as attrition means higher maintenance and training costs. Banking sector is risk prone sector where high risk prevails in terms of monetary liability and cost cutting measures to be managed with utmost care and security, and in such circumstances, a loyal and motivated team of old and loyal employees can increase the chances of smooth management in the bank thereby giving it a competitive advantage over its competitors. [Zeidan, 2006] The competition in the global banking market is very high and stiff and in such conditions, if the bank is making regular innovations and maintenance of standards in terms of ethical values and beliefs, then smooth management, motivated employees , competent team and group dynamism all fetch good results for any firm.
Conclusion and recommendations:
Concluding it can be said that Westpac bank has a very sound ethical policy and framework but it must focus on more employability of the bank in terms of market capture globally and increased brand name in the developed and developing countries of the world. For all these, the firm can increase its capture over the strategic decision making of the firm so that the top management could be involved more and more in market capture and inclination to become most well known banks in the world rather than just being most diversity managed bank of the world. Although the bank’s commitment of employees and strategies are world class but it could focus more towards higher profitability and increased number of branches across the globe.
The sustainability strategy of the bank is very sound and effective and has fetched great results for the bank and maintain of such standards could bring more profit and brand image globally.
References:
- CatherineMac mohan and Barbara Pocock, 2011, doing things differently, viewed on 15 may, 2012, <http://www.eowa.gov.au/Information_Centres/Resource_Centre/EOWA_Publications/University_of_SA_Case_Study/UniSA_Case%20Studies%20report_April2011.pdf>
- Ashly H. Pinnington, Rob Macklin, Tom Campbell, human resource management, ethics and employment, viewed on 15 may, 2012, <http://people.brandeis.edu/~molinsky/documents/Human%20Resource%20Management%20Ethics%20and%20Employment.pdf>
- Jane Baxter, Wai Fong Chua, Patricia Strong, Westpac’s squashed tomato startegy, viewed on 15 may, 2012, <http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/Thought_leadership_docs/Westpac_Squashed_Tomato_March31.pdf>
- Michelle Greenwood and Helen DE Ceiri, stakeholder’s theory and ethics of HRM, viewed on 15 may, 2012, <http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mgt/research/working-papers/2005/wp47-05.pdf>
- Susan Zeidan, 2006, journal of business system, governance and ethics, vol-1, no-1, viewed on 15 may, 2012, <http://www.jbsge.vu.edu.au/issues/vol1no1/zeidan.pdf>
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