Managing Diversity at Cityside Financial Services Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Managing Diversity at Cityside Financial Services

Introduction:

Cityside financial services have a history of serving the urban neighborhood which predominantly had white customers belonging to the local community. The target market switched to sub-urban localities this mid-sized bank seized opportunity to diversify in terms of targeting other target market including the pre existing white market. It was important after the bank was purchased by racially diverse group to provide its services to racially different groups of customers as the predominant white market has been relocated and present challenge for bank management remain rooted to the locality whereas serving its customers. This led to form two sales units that were focusing on differential set of customer segments.

Market Analysis

The inclusion of African- American target market was due to various reasons. Firstly, they constituted majority of the population of the neighborhood and due to mid-sized bank Cityside could not afford to miss the opportunity of serving to a potentially lucrative target market backed with strong financial conditions. Secondly, the two pronged strategy led the management to seize the local consumers by deposit and housing schemes through its retail operations whereas, targeting high money market accounts through its external deposits. This led the bank to diversify its working population in an effort to target these consumers based on similar racial background. This created a sense of community and satisfaction which led to the inclusion of African-American in retail deposits by majority as they handled the local neighborhood consumers whereas; the majority of white management was present in external deposits looking after white clientele present in different geographical locations with higher money deposits.

Competitive Advantage

The competitive advantage that Cityside bank had over other bank was its long history of serving to the local consumers as well as its presence in the market as a mid-sized bank, which led to create a sense of cohesiveness amongst the target market. Their work force is well suited to meet the demands of their customers by being a face of their own community which builds up the trust in banking financial services. These remain the true competitive advantage which cannot be replicated by any of other player in the market.

Problem Statement and Challenges

The challenge that Ron Wilkins has to face in the racially diverse group of management that composes of two strategic units was to maintain the essence of diversity, which was the main attraction point for bank services. The diverse work force however, posed challenges to the management in terms of the perception the two groups hold against each other, as well as disturbed clientele satisfaction arising from operation of two distinct strategic units which were operating on mutual grounds. The problem for Ron Wilkins to rectify was to formalize a strategy that would dissolve the racial differences along with providing services to the customer base without disrupting the operations and management of the bank. The core problems that posed challenges are;

· Cannibalization

The overlapping of services amongst the two units has created sense of rivalry amongst these two units. This is due to the fact that the customer segmentation needs a clarification and re-assessment which would enable the units to remain focus on their respective market segments. However, as the geographical market limitation remains unsuccessful in defining the target market; this has led to cannibalization where both units chase each other’s account and hence impose rivalry.

· Intra Organization Competition

The misaligned goals and lack of clarity in reaching objectives as well as stereotypical connotation have resulted in intensifying the competition prevailing in the organization. This competition had resulted in surfacing personal conflicts based on racial background, misrepresentation of employee’s ability due to its race and color and sense of dominance amongst the external deposit group due to their all white staff as well as higher value of deposits. These had intensified the competition amongst both the units.

Lack of Collaboration

Due to the above mentioned reasons, the lack of collaboration is inevitable as both the units perceive a sense of competition, which denies the common ground of the services being presented to their customers.

These remain the key challenges encompassing the human resources of bank, which needs to be addressed by the management in order to remain profitable and reduce the dissonance prevailing in the organizational environment.

Strategy Formulation

It is important for Wilkins to identify all possible strategy that may suit the ongoing situation within the organization and asses these based on the operational and functional aspect. In formulating the strategy various other mechanisms needs to be acknowledged beforehand; this will aid in presenting the most desirable strategy to the management. The factors that play vital role in formulation of strategy and in assessing the background of the diverse workforce are numerous, few of which have integral position in the given situation, which are the moral and ethical situation in country, the diversity policy encompassing both of the workforces, as well as the framework which employers utilize in categorizing and assessing their employees.

Diversity Policy

Diversity management is very important for every organization similarly in case of Cityside financial services it is especially important to manage diversity to remain glued to the existing base of consumers as well as growing the clientele base. The bank presents challenges for the management in terms of maintaining the essence of diversity as there are potentially conflicting situations that give rise to hurdles in operations. However, it is important for management to realize that this diverse workforce has been a motivating factor for the customer base to remain loyal to the bank in recent times (Ivancevich, 2007). Diversity management is defined as ‘the voluntary organizational actions that are designed to create inclusion of employees from various backgrounds within the organization’s formal and informal structures’ (SAGE Publications). This sums up the actions taken by the Wilkins management in pursuit of maintaining a diverse workforce.

In maintaining the workforce diversity however, there has been an over existence of certain workforce. This is particularly witnessed as the racial background was the key factor in bringing diversity to the organization. The white and black discrimination evolved various conflicting situations as the key characteristics remained the racial background in inducting employees to the units. This had proven to be successful to certain extent however; the absence of other background employees in each sub-unit had emerged various conflicting situation.

In managing diversity there is a mix of factor that is associated with the diverse workforce present in any organization. The diversity management entails operations and formulation of working conditions that promote effective collaboration and promotion of each individual’s output (Roosevelt). The working environment in Cityside bank has been strained as the management failed to potentially reduce the difference perceived by the employees for their counterparts. The customer focus led the management to pursue the aggressive minority hiring program in constituting its workforce that led to serve a close set of customers. However due to low diffusion of the employees of different racial background in other unit; the situation led to cultivate a sense of stereotype.

Moral and Ethical Situation

The diversity calls for moral and ethical standards set across the organization in order to maintain a uniform position for all the employees (KENSICKI, 2009). The case analysis reveals that post white neighborhood the influx of all blacks in retails deposit unit led to bring a classification based on gender which aggravated the stance of racial discrimination. This gets against the moral and ethical grounds therefore the classification to serve the specific set of consumers is a flawed managerial process to begin with.

Internal Conflicts

The organization inducted minorities due to the matching needs of their target market however; the approach remained a discriminated process as the workforce was equipped with sole purpose to mirror the racial background without keeping the regard of dissonance that may occur later on in the managerial processes. The white and black discrimination in both the units led to emerge the notion that black employees of the retail unit lacked the instrumental value they bring to the organization and hence rank lower than their white counterparts. This resulted in losing the core object of hiring minorities based on diversity and hence calls for immediate action.

Influence on External Environment

Due to the lack of goal visibility and objectives, the discrimination prevailing in the organizational culture also accounts for the dissonance that it created in the external................

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.