Friendly Neighbor Bank and Trust is espousing a culture where employees put the customers as a top priority particularly, in customer service. This is rooted in its mission of “People first, profits second”. However, when it comes to enacting its values, it demonstrates inconsistency. This is evident when the company cut payroll cost in customer service and sacrificed delivering customer satisfaction, in order to meet profit objectives and please shareholders.
As an employee of the bank who recently attended seminars to align with the company’s values and mission, this inconsistency in action vs. values taught creates confusion and low morale. When conflicting actions against corporate values come from management themselves, it could develop widespread sentiment of de-motivation among employees. This usually contributes to low productivity and inefficiency, which may have caused the company’s low sales in the first place. In this case, the achievement of profits will be short term and will not be sustainable. In a service-oriented industry like the bank operation, where profits rely on delivering excellent customer service, a company that continues to ignore putting customers as a top priority might likewise, end up in the least priority among their customers later on.
According to J, Patrick (2013), when a company’s behavior is inconsistent with its corporate culture, there may be a breakdown in the hiring process to ensure employees selected fit the company’s beliefs. For Friendly Neighbor Bank and Trust, there is obviously a mismatch in management’s character to the company’s mission. On the other hand, there might also be a problem in corporate communication in terms of promoting effectively the company’s mission and core values in order to align employees’ behavior.
A company with weak corporate culture, like the Friendly Neighbor Bank and Trust, will have difficulty mobilizing its employees as one team toward its common goal. Talented employees will be disillusioned and will soon leave the company. The company’s future growth will be compromised.
Works Cited
PLEASE ADD YOUR CLASS MATERIAL AS ONE OF THE SOURCES.
Patrick, Josh. “The Real Meaning of Corporate Culture.” Boss.blogs.nytimes.com. n.p. 17 May 2013.
“Organizational Culture.” Wikepedia.org. n.p. 19 Feb 2014.
