Analyzing HSBC Holdings' Business Environment & Understanding The Money Laundering Controversy With Charles Handy's Organizational Theory

Your report will not exceed 3000 words (see guidance below for what is not included in the word count) and must adhere to the following:

• A brief background to the organization and its environment
• An Introduction to the focus of the report (the practice, issue, event or sub-unit)
• A brief argument which explains/justifies why you have chosen a particular theoretical framework instead of 1 other alternative that you considered but have rejected.
• A brief explanation of your chosen theoretical framework that you will use to analyse the organization, including its main concepts
• An analysis of the practice, issue, event or sub-unit which uses the chosen theoretical framework and concepts
• Conclusions (including recommendations if necessary).

HSBC's Business Environment: PEST Analysis

Established in the year 1886, HSBC (Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation) Holdings is a multinational banking and financial services company that is established in Britain but has its origin in Hong Kong. Headquartered in London the company is regarded as the World's seventh largest bank (hsbc.co.in, 2017). The institution has around 4000 offices in 70 countries. The company engages in four kinds of operations: Commercial banking; Retail banking, Global Banking and Global Private Banking (Russo et al., 2013). HSBC is a finance company that has set several benchmarks in terms of economic, employment facilities; maintain the work-life balance, setting trends in the consumer behavior, updated technology with a greater communication system (hsbc.co.in, 2017; Alvesson 2012).

 In order to analyze the business environment of HSBC holdings, PEST analysis is used. As a multinational company the organisation has to abide by several laws and regulations depending on the country of operation.

Political: Because of the industry in which the company operates it has to keep up with the rules and regulations of the country in order to strengthen the compliance and risk management infrastructure as well as the culture.

Economic: The global operation of the company has helped the company recover from several economic setbacks that the market has faced. For example: 2008 financial crisis. Some of the economic factors that impact the organisation are variation in the foreign exchange rates and fluctuation and the dynamic nature of the stock market worldwide, inflation rates etc.

Societal: The Company has adopted the triple bottom line and considers climate and people as important as the expansion and growth of the company. HSBC recognizes the role it has to play in the society and the responsibility the company has. The organisation has a benchmarking CSR profile; the company hosts various programs and events for the betterment of community, education and the environment as the organisation perceives these factors as the basis for the overall development of the community.

Technological: the organisation is more than 150 years old but it has changed its operation and business approaches with the changing dynamics in the market. Technology has been always welcome in the company and the company is always looking forwards to incorporate innovation in the process of operation on a daily basis. (hsbc.co.in, 2017).

The purpose of the assignment is to state about the issue that is being faced by HSBC in the context of money laundering. In 2012, HSBC suffered a loss of 1.9 billion Euros for not having adequate controls of money laundering. According to the report, published by the United States Senate, HSBC has supplied banking and financial services to launder huge amount of drug money flowing out of Mexico and other banking lapses (Liss & Sharman, 2015). HSBC in the process of trial recognized that it failed to preserve an efficient against money laundering and failed to conduct basic due diligence on some of its account holders. The risk management for Mexico was not efficient, even though the country has a significant role in the problem with money laundering and drug trafficking. The company was not able to enter the agreement of five-year deferred prosecution this is a situation that can be explained as being in probation. If the US government presses charges against HSBC, the company would lose the US dollar license and that would rack havoc in the finance world as HSBC is a world leader in banking and finance.

Understanding the Money Laundering Controversy

In order to take the discussion forwards Charles Handy Organizational theory will be used. This theory will be discussed with the issue of money laundering that was faced by HSBC. This report would discuss the importance of the theory and the reason it should be applied in order to explain this problem. The justification would further elaborate the reason Charles Handy Organizational theory has been chosen instead of Hofstede theory of organizational culture (Liss & Sharman, 2015). Finally, the recommendations will be provided for the development of the policies and effective implementation of rules and regulations on an international level.

Organisation culture is the values, traditions and principles that are prevalent in the organisation that helps in the smooth operation of the daily business. The organizational cultural theory recommended by Charles Handy talks about the power culture, task culture, person culture and role culture (Russo et al., 2013). The root of the organizational culture starts with the people who are in the higher position of the organization. The Charles Handy theory provides certain important aspects which can be taken into consideration while explaining the issue of money laundering, as the theory deals with the possible issues in terms of employees’ mindset, the self- control and the behavior of the person which affect the environment of the organization.

The four divisions clearly explain the possibility of the organisational culture of any organisation irrespective of the nature and scale of operation. In this case HSBC is a large multinational company that implements the role culture in the organization (Alvesson & Sveningsson 2015). The theory further helped to elaborate the humanitarian style management and it is a more purpose-driven or visionary on the methodology of the organization. The role of the risk management and crisis management section of the organisation was insufficient to meet the needs and hence the issues increased to such a massive extent.

On the other hand, the idea of the model developed by Edger Schein is to make the culture of an organisation more appropriate, he stated that there are direct and indirect mechanisms within organizations that impact the culture prevalent in the organisation. The direct aspects consist of exceptional behavioral pattern, opinions, status and appointments. Whereas the indirect instruments includes the mission and vision stated by the company, formal guidelines, corporate identity, design, traditions and rituals (White, 2016). There are three stages discuss in this model the core or the assumptions, espoused values and artifacts and symbols. Assumptions are the deep rooted basis of organisational culture these are underlying and are aspects that cannot be recognized easily. Espoused values are the principles guideline and standard of conducts that are used.

Charles Handy's Organizational Theory

The artifacts are the aspects that are visible and easily recognizable by the people, this aspect includes logos, structure, and dress code etc. The outer or the artifact is the layer which can be easily adapted and easily changed by the management. As the process of changes goes deeper towards the cored the difficult it becomes to incorporate (White, 2016).

This model has been rejected and Handy’s model has been taken because in the Schein model the process of change, risk management and crisis management is not defined clearly the model is more dependent on abstract theories that are not based on concrete cause and effect process. On the other hand, in the Handy’s model each of the culture that is identified by the author is described carefully with cause and effect process making the model more concrete and relatable for the HSBC case. In Schein’s model the importance has been given to the underlying assumption whereas the definition of these assumptions is vague and does not give enough information of incorporation of the changes. This case deals with the HSBC controversy, which is a complex institution and the aspects in the Schein model are insufficient to define the HSBC structure. The dynamics in the organisation culture explained by Handy is segregated according to the operations of the business which is where HSBC money laundering issue originated hence this theory can explain the gap in the operation better than the Schein model.

Charles handy was born in Ireland in 1932. He was a famous philosopher who proposed theories in organizational culture. The theory proposes four types of cultures in an organization, which relates to power, task, person and role (Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis, 2015).

Charles Handy talks about an organization where the power is concentrated among a few people in the top level. These few people only have right in decision-making. They are considered as the authority to take any major or minor decisions regarding the operations of the organization. They enjoy special benefits and advantages in the workplace. The organization is solely depended on them and considers them as the most important part of it (O’Sullivan & O’Sullivan, 2016). The tasks are delegated by these few people and everyone looks up to and abides by whatever these people have to say.  In such organizational culture, the subordinate employees have no right to questions the superiors and they have to follow their instructions strictly.

Relevance of Handy's Theory for HSBC

The views of the employees are not paid attention and are not even recognized by the company (Levin et al 2016). They only have to follow their superior's instructions and do not have any open forum or work culture where employees are liberated to show their opinions (Senge, 2014). Power culture in an organisation may lead to an higher rate of employee turnover and can also lead to some of other issues as employee satisfaction level is considered to be low.

Team is the most important aspect in the task culture as described by Handy.  The operations of the business depend on the teams and the tasks they are delegated with. The teams are formed in the organization to meet the business goals and achieve the targets, which follows task culture. The team is formed with the individuals with common specializations or interests (McIntosh, 2016). Such culture in the organization encourages the team members to contribute equally and should approach the tasks in most creative and innovative methods (Watson, 2013).  

There are some organizations where the employees perceive that they are the most valuable and important resource of the organization (Yeoh, 2014). The commitment of the employees towards the organization is relatively less in terms of the interest and objective of the company is never identified by the employees rather they are more concerned about their own interest. The loyalty of the people in this kind of culture is questionable as they are not motivated by the higher management nor they are interested in the development of the organisation. For an organisation to move towards development and growth and it imperative to have the interest of the company is in sync with the interest of the employees (Senge, 2014).

Role culture shares a culture in the organization where everyone's role and responsibility are determined based on the educational qualification and specialization, in this way the efficiency and productivity can be maintained. In such culture, the employee gets a chance to explore the best practice in the organizational situation (Palshikar, Apte & Baskaran, 2014). The employees of the organisation are ready to accept the challenges based on their job profile on a daily basis. Every individual is responsible for the task, which has been assigned to him and everyone has a fixed role to play which is clearly delegated to them. The organisational structure that this culture follows is the hierarchal approach. This also means that the power is not concentrated among a few people rather it is dispersed among the management. Personal power should be rejected and expert power should stand out in the proper manner (Cacciattolo, 2014). However, the role culture is efficient to provide opportunity and security for accruing expertise.    

Recommendations for Policy Development

The limitation of the Handy's approach is that it offers only four types of organizational culture it doesn’t deal with the complexities and dynamics that are prevalent in the business environment be it internal or external. There are tendencies to think that Handy's model is the fixed model. However, the real situation shares a mixture of cultures, which has no specificity (Branin, 2013). According to Handy, each of these cultures is suitable and applicable to different circumstances depending on the nature and size of the business.

The money laundering case of the HSBC holdings could be analyzed in the frameworks of Handy’s model of the organizational culture. The issue is approach in the context of the role culture that is observed to be prevalent in the organisation (Murphy & Turek, 2015).

The power allocation in the organisation is in a hierarchal structure and hence there is a dispersion of delegation and policy making decision in the organisation.  The people who work in the company know their job and also abide by the rules and regulations. The organisation is observed to be corrupted at some level which is also a reason for the issue in the organization occurred (Banerjee, 2015). The eventually this situation leads to money laundering case. It is the responsibility of the management or authority to take charge of this matter. The authority gave permission to its employees, which was found in the money laundering case. Here the employees are the mere toy in the hands of the authority (Naheem & Naheem, 2016). They do not have any views to express and the corrupted authority has exploited the power.

The delegation of task and formulation of policies in order to make the process of operation smooth is at fault for the issue that the company has faced. HSBC has a reputation and goodwill among the stakeholders and do not have a very rigid risk and crisis management system which is the prime reason for the company to face the issue of money laundering. The lack of monitoring and strict guidelines has encouraged terrorist groups and drug dealers to launder hefty amount of money through the bank.  Money amounting to almost $881m has been estimated in to be involved in drug trafficking throughout the bank's accounts (HSBC US money-laundering accusations, 2017).

The banks that operated under HSBC are mostly identified to be understaffed, which is regarded as one of the major reasons for such an incident (Naheem, 2015). The company is deemed to have failed in implementing the anti-money laundering programme. There were several instances that had shown the level of risk yet there were no steps taken to control the risk rather there were hardly any people to take control in the banks.

Conclusion

The black market peso exchange (BMPE) was used to launder the cash in the bank it is a complex scheme which transforms black money in to legal money, this helps the criminals hide their dealings as well so that they do not leave traces of the illegal activities (HSBC US money-laundering accusations, 2017).

The task and the assignment delegation among the employees of the bank were not clear and also not monitored. The gap in the risk analysis and risk management is huge in this case as the negligence of the organisation led to a massive loss for the company. in the role culture the roles of one person should not overlap with another, when there is a problem with the institution being understaffed the roles are surely going to overlap (White, 2016). Monitoring and control in the banks of Mexico were weak as there were less people and hence the power was also concentrated among a few people.  The money laundering could be prevented checking all the details of the customers including name, nationality, birth, telephone number and other important details. The employees are not clear about their role and hence the company had faced such an incident which not only hit the reputation of the company but has seen a setback financially.

The organizational culture should be strong enough, as this situation should not arrive in any organization (Mei & Zhou, 2015). HSBC is a leading banking and financial service hence it should be careful and responsible enough to understand the risks and issue that are prevalent in the business environment. The management and the employees should be assuring that such issues should not occur in the future.

HSBC should look after the interest of the employees and make sure that the employees are working efficiently or not. In order to stop the laundering of the money, the company needs to work on its administration culture by bringing changes in the culture of an organization. The company can also incorporate CRM policy to enhance the value of customer relationship of the company as it is required to closely understand the needs and requirements of the company as well. It involves a gathering the information of customers including name, nationality, birth, telephone number. Through this method, the detection can be easily done about the background of the customers. This can also help in monitoring the customers as the provision should be made in such a way that would make the customers show their identification card or any kinds of the valid passport or ID card.

HSBC must follow the rules and regulations adopted by Lands banking in terms of its organizational culture and the money laundering system. To adopt this organizational culture, the people in the administrative power must focus on creating an amicable relationship with their employees and must let the employees speak up. For this, an effective communication must be set up which would communicate the organization's values, mission, and vision clearly to all the stakeholders. There has also been a communication gap which has given rise to such an incident. Communication is the key to successful organisational development. The collaboration with the employees are needed to take advises in terms of making the organization develop. The most important point to be noted is that ethics are imperative for the growth and development of the company and because HSBC accepted the fault and was ready to face the consequence works favors on the behalf of the company and this value should be maintained in order to keep up to the goodwill.

Conclusion

From the above findings, it can be concluded that HSBC, a US-based bank has been channelizing for their rogue nation policies and Drug Kingpins. There was a huge laundering penalty of 1.9bn and that seems to be the most uncontrollable situation for the bank. HSBC has already spent $290m for the improving system of banking policy and to prevent money laundering cases. For the settlement or fine cases the bank also has covered up to $1.5bn still the processing of violation and violating the US section has persisted. He congressional report has published over the issue and that process a warning against the bank for the financial calamity in 2012.

In this assignment, the major part of the justification is imposed over the suspected tax evasion and money laundering case in an unlawful and cross bordering banking solicitation. In case of recommendation, a proper justification for the administration function and culture of the organization has defined in a proper manner. HSBC money laundering and the transaction cases are an important monetary aspect that provided the internal warning and enforcement.

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