The National Bank Of Canada

Description of Organization:

The National Bank of Canada is the sixth largest commercial bank in Canada, and

the largest bank in Quebec. The bank is headquartered in Montreal, has branches in most

Canadian provinces, and has nearly two million personal clients. It was formed in 1979

when the two banks Provincial Bank and Bank Canadian National merged together. In 2011

Bloomberg Markets ranked National Bank as the strongest bank in North America., and placed

third in Bloomberg's list of the "The World’s Strongest Banks” (NBC website).

Description of problem:

When a client switches banks, the process can take a long time, and involves lots of

paperwork. NBC came to the decision to take all the paperwork away from the account

The bank wasn’t prepared for the amount of work being send to

the operations center, and a huge backlog ensued with the clients’ paperwork. This resulted

in low service for clients and affected employee morale seriously, and the managers had to

mitigate customer problems and questions. There was also resistance to change from the

account managers because they were expecting the problems that occurred, and did not

want clients to be waiting longer because of this change. The managers were losing power

by not having control of the timeline client’s paperwork got done.

Analysis of Problem

The implementation of centralization in the National Bank of Canada is the

origin of their organizational behaviour problem. Although implementing a new system

of centralization was great in theory, many other problems followed. Centralization

was poorly implemented because the side effects of the new system was not accurately

anticipated and fully addressed by the organization.

The new system worked against the purpose of taking paperwork away from the

account managers to leave them more time to acquire and retain clients. With the new

system, every centre in Western Canada was giving their paperwork to an operations

Clients were waiting due to

the change. Also, the managers were losing power by not having control of the clients’

timeline for when their paperwork were completed. Consequently, the slow service for

clients seriously affected employee morale. The account managers’ morale went down

as they felt, as though, they could not provide the service that their clients deserved and

expected. Therefore, our report will discuss ways to successfully implement the change

for centralization and keep the employees motivated during this time to improve morale

in the National Bank of Canada.

Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan is a detailed approach for implementing change. This

concept is relevant to understanding the National Bank of Canada’s organizational

problem and will diagnose where they went wrong. At the same time, this concept will

help guide the organization to successfully implement the change for centralization.

Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan:

1) Establish a sense of urgency

2) Form a guiding coalition

3) Create a new, clear vision

4) Communicate the vision

5) Empower people to act on the vision

6) Plan for, create, and reward short-term