SWOT Analysis and HR Solutions for Improving Banking Management

Identifying Management Problems in a Banking Institution

Managers constantly face problems and opportunities, ranging from simple and routine decisions to problems requiring months of analysis.  Sometimes managers ignore problems because many human resource management problems are so much more complex than routine tasks. For this reason, managers may lack the insight, courage, or will to act. Understanding your personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats helps to ensure you will take appropriate action as a leader. A SWOT analysis will provide information regarding internal strengths and weaknesses (S – W) as well as external opportunities and threats (O – T). Strengths would be those assets that set you apart from others. Weaknesses should be viewed as areas where you have opportunity for growth. Threats are really those elements that would prevent an organization from reaching its goals. Opportunities help an organization to overcome both weaknesses and threats.

Johnson replied that she really did not know what the machine was called or what it did. She explained that she had only been working there for two months. She did, however know precisely how to operate the machine. According to her supervisor, she was an excellent employee. At one of the branch offices, the supervisor in charge spoke to Nelson confidentially, telling him that "something was wrong ", but she didn't know what. For one thing, she explained, employee turnover was too high, and no sooner had one employee been put on the job that another one resigned. With customers to see and loans to be made, she continued, she had little time to work with the new employees as they came and went. All branch supervisors hired their own employees without communication with the home office or other branches. When an opening developed, the supervisor tried to find a suitable employee to replace the worker who had quit. After touring the 22 branches and finding similar problems in many of them, Nelson wondered what the home office should do or what action he should take. The banking firm was generally regarded as well-run institution that had grown from 27 to 191 employees during the past eight years. The more he taught about the matter, the more puzzled Nelson became. He couldn't quite put his finger on the problem, and he didn't know whether to report his findings to the president. 1.What do you think is causing some of the problems in the bank's home office and branches? 2.Do you think setting up an HR unit in the main office would help? 3.What specific functions should an HR unit carry out? What HR functions would then be carried out by supervisors and other line managers? What role should the Internet play in the new HR organization?