70
71
(2008) affirm that top managers create the climate for the enterprise, and that their values influence the direction of the enterprise. They stated that:
…in many successful companies, value-driven corporate leaders serve as role models, set the standards for performance, motivate employees, make the company special, and are a symbol to the external environment… (pg 174)
According to Donaldson & Lorsch (1983), a „firm‟s culture can be very stable over time, but they are never static. Crises sometimes force a group to re-evaluate some values or set of practices‟. Welrich, Cannice & Koontz (2008)‟s further emphasis that
…the effectiveness of an organization is also influenced by the organization culture, which affects the way the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling are carried out…(pg 223)
highlights the importance of culture to the organization. Within the context of industrial management, Kotter & Heskett (1992) conceives organizational cultures as those values and practices that the organization is renowned for.
For instance, empirical observations of bank employees in Nigeria reveal that the dress code of the bank employee is a part of customer service, that is, to present every staff in the most decent clothing as a dress culture of the particular banking institution. The work clothes of the typical male bank employee consist of a suit complete with shirt, trouser and a tie, while that of the female is usually made up of trouser or skirt suits. Nevertheless, the pervasive culture in the regions were the banks are located may influence this dress culture or codes. As dress codes or culture may not directly impact on organizational performance from this point of view, it may nevertheless inform the final decision about where the customer sends his or her deposits for safe keeping; forming an ethnocentric viewpoint. In a discussion with a senior female official working in a Unity Bank branch in central business district of Ibadan, it was revealed that banks note the peculiar characteristic of the human population around the environment in which a bank branch is planned before undertaking rudimentary intermediation. This informs the assignment of most staff who speak the language of the people in that environment to the new branch. This is likely to inform better performance for the marketing unit in prospecting for new
72
customers. The ability to speak the language improves communication with the potential customer and creates an advantage for the prospecting employee. This forecloses the argument that the marketing skills of employees or the attractiveness of the bank product may not necessarily produce the appeal factor for generating strong customer profile. The ethnic or religious factor is also useful in pooling cash from customers.
From the above, the development, if effective, could nevertheless lead to the alteration of culture in that specific environment in order to satisfy the customer;
leading to what Kotter & Heskett (1992) refer to as „divisional culture‟. The concept of divisional culture refers to culture that is shared by functional groups within a unit or geographical area outside the influence of the bigger culture or more pervading culture of the firm. It is observed that most bank employees in the northern parts of the country take to wearing local attires known as “babariga” or “agbada” to work. In some instances, the work clothes reflect the religion of the people. While I am not aversed to the change, I believe that the continuous acceptance of such dress codes as work suits makes it a dress culture for that geographical area. Specifically, the acceptance or passive response to certain issues of the work place such as the dress codes; for some of the managers develops into a corporate culture over time because of its adaptability and acceptability by a large group, going by Kotter and Heskett‟s conception.
The changing face of customer service was prominent during the 1980s when the so-called new generation banks created new cultures of quick service system (QSS) to all customers irrespective of account status. This was particularly energized by the introduction of new technologies and core professionals to the system. When banking institutions advocate the values of prompt customer service by ensuring that response time to customers in the banking hall is reduced to less than five minutes, it becomes a service culture as the practice is sustained over a period of time. The improvement in prompt services is exemplified as banking institutions create websites to receive feedback from customers on how well they are served and the kind of services they would prefer.
73
In this study, Table 4.2 shows that 66.4 percent of participants perceived no significant changes or differences in the type of work culture they experienced in their previous banking employment compared to the present one. The implication here is linked to the nature of prompt service offered by all banks as a basic work culture.
Table 4.2: Respondents perception of culture variance in their banks
Responses Frequency Percent
Yes 73 33.6
No 144 66.4
Total 217 100.0
Field survey, 2008
The allure of the customer‟s deposits and the need to acquire them in the recapitalization exercise are determinant factors that help the re-evaluation of pre-consolidation conventional positions of bank managements on service delivery in which banks wait for customers to come through their doors for banking services. The major role of human resources in pooling in the cash from the public may have also influenced the character of work issues such as work relations between several cadres of the work force. This was necessary for the maximum utilization of human resources in the process of improving each bank‟s capital base. The significance of culture as a branding issue is acknowledged by Alder (2005). The integrating capacity of management as explained in 4.3 is also linked to the way the bank management would structure its communication apparatuses in the integration process. Alder contended that once the banks met minimum capitalisation through merger or acquisition “the resulting entity will only progress as far as the critical brand issues like culture have been resolved”.