Question

Employees at the People’s Bank do not trust management and there is a shared perception that information is not shared and communication within the organization is inadequate. On January 14th 2018, Roxanne Padmore was assigned the task of selecting and implementing an investment management software at the People’s Bank. The software was intended to eradicate the need for paper and enhance the execution of transaction between various departments. Some of the eventual users of the software included the compliance, audit, investment execution and wealth management departments. The team selected for implementing the software comprised primarily of personnel from the wealth management department. The software selected by Ms. Padmore and her project team is now being used by the organization. At the end of the implementation process employees complained that the software selected was not user friendly and the software previously used was more effective. Employees also indicated that although Ms. Padmore surveyed the organization on the preferred choice of software, the eventual choice was not the best and cost millions of dollars. The software chosen by Ms. Padmore and her team was the leading brand in many developed countries, used by many banks and the Journal of Investment Management Software stated “it was highly effective and lead to long run cost savings”. However, employees have indicated that the software was not user friendly and has many deficiencies. Furthermore, the use of the software prevents employees from fulfilling critical job functions. Moreover, John Smith an employee in the Compliance Department stated that “the software did not take into consideration the peculiarities of the Caribbean and assumed that one size fits all.” Ms. Padmore and the wealth management team that were responsible for implementation have all left the organization.

(d) Evaluate the importance of communicating in effectively managing change at the People’s Bank and recommend a communication policy that should be adopted.

Answer 1

Ans d)

It is quite clear from the case that there has been a serious communication gap in selection and implementation of the investment management software and addressing the change management issues at People's Bank. This gap has led to employees feeling that they are working on a non-user friendly software and that it was working as a deterrence and not a helpful too.

Company should have adopted a transparent communication policy which made clear the benefits of the change as well as the support the company was going to provide to enable seamless change through trainings and queries addressable.

The issues could have been addressed by following the following communication mechanism:

i. In the identification and selection stage all departments should have been involved and their needs and concerns should have been taken into consideration.

ii. Proper training of employees about the changes made as well as addressing their concerns should have been done.

iii) For specific employees having major problems additional training sessions should have been carried out and personal one on one communication should have happened to make them understand the importance of the software to the company as well as any concern they might have.