03rd year

02nd Semester
Individual assignment

HRM 307
Organizational development and change

Name : Ms.
P.L.T.N.Rathnaweera
Reg. No. : MG/16/124
Lecturer Name : Ms. S.Weerakotuwa
Submission Date : 31.01.2020

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Content

 Introduction of the selected organization

 Detailed analysis of each component of the cultural web
Routine
Rituals
Stories
Symbolic
Control system
Power structure
Formal organizational structure
 Observation about the features of the cultural web of the Regional
Development Bank
 Interview guide
 References

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Introduction of the selected organization
The organization I chose was the Regional Development Bank (RDB). This banking system
was started with the objective of uplifting the living standards of the rural people of Sri
Lanka. It is also in the process of providing accessible and affordable loans to the rural
population. RDB established under the Development Banking Act No:41 of 2008 is a public
sector undertaking. RDB was established in 1985 as Regional Rural Development bank and
was the first to set up district branches. It was started in 2010 under the name of regional
Development Bank.

The vision of RDB is “to establish RDB as South Africa’s leading information management
organization, specializing in outsourcing and consulting”. The mission is “maximize clients
profit by reducing their downtime, risk and cost. The values of RDB are “Innovation, Team
Work, Integrity and Relationships”.

RDB’s original foundation was the “Barefoot banking concept”. It means helping people
who are mostly middle and lower income level. RDB is a leader in empowering the micro
and medium enterprises, large scale entrepreneurs, women, agriculture, animal husbandry and
business sectors. At the same time, it offers high returns on deposits and leads people to
savings. As a result of this, they have over 6 million and approximately 3500 employees. On
the other hand, there are about 276 branches spread across the country.

In addition to basic services such as deposits, loans and mortgages the bank also provides
support services such as Western Union and Lanka Money Transfer. Their products and
services include RDB Kekulu, RDB 4teen plus, RDB Liya Saviya, RDB Victory, RDB
investment account, RDB fixed deposits, RDB Dorin Dora, ATM and CDMs, RDB Jaya
Nidhana, RDB New Life and RDB Uththama.

RDB constantly focuses not only on its customers and profits, but also on its employees and
society. When we consider about employees’ aspect, the bank has been increasing the salaries
of its employees for three years in line with market price. There have also been some positive
changes in the existing pension benefits scheme for employees.

When we consider about their CSR activities, they provide sanitary facilities for government
schools, donate of dry rations for flood affected people in North and East, conduct grade 5

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scholarship examination seminars, open biggest grain warehouse to the society during this
year. It’s a great achievement for them to be able to touch the triple bottom line like this.

Detailed analysis of each component of the cultural web

Routine

Routine means all about how people in the organization behave. All employees of the RDB
should work from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm. But on average all employees report to the workplace
between 7.30 to 8.00 in the morning. One reason for this is that everyone in the branch
engages in religious activities before starting their work every day. Although most
denominations usually serve Buddhists and Catholics, religious activities are limited to
Buddhism. But in the branches where most of the Tamil employees work in like Hatton and
Nawalapitiya, they do it in the Tamil way. It involves employees at all levels, from the
branch manager to the trainees.

Another reason for such attendance is their daily meeting. This short meeting is held in two
ways and it is an informal meeting. First the branch manager gathers all the employees and
informs them about the loan amount expected to issue during the day and the deposit amount
expected to be opened. Then, discuss the summary of previous day’s activities and what need
to be updated on the activities up to that point with the deputy and assistant managers. Also
he or she conducts awareness for field officers and door-to-door agents in case of special
needs.

When we consider about their dress code, employees must wear formals for the first four
days of the week. Accordingly, male employees should wear a gentlemen kit, female
employees a saree and training females also include it. Employees should mention two forms
of attendance when coming to the branch daily. Permanent employees should put fingerprint
and sign the relevant book and the trainees should mark the attendance in the book.

When asked about employees’ information, they report to the everyday hoping to get the job
done and increase their pay. All employees are equally committed to the goals and objectives
of their branch. Door-to-door agents are the main workers in this system. Because their salary
is calculated per day and it depends on their performance. Therefore, they expand new
deposits in large quantities, which directly increases the deposit and loan volume of the
branch.

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On the other hand, customers expect high service from its’ employees. Specially, since RDB
is a rural bank, it is aimed at self-employed people. Many of them are less educated and as a
result they expect employee support even for small things. Due to this, even the trainees of
these bank should have a great understanding of the day to day activities of the bank.
Therefore, trainees are supervised daily by deputy and assistant managers.

Rituals

It shows some kind of a habit in organization behave. All employees except RDB's branch
managers are required to wear smart casual on Fridays. All permanent employees are
required to wear the RDB T-shirt. Training women should wear a skirt & blouse or frock.

Apart from that, a New Year celebration and a cricket tournament will be held for all bank
employees based on the New Year. The festival is held at the district level and is attended by
employees from all the branches in the district. Here also all employees must wear a RDB T-
shirt.

In addition, in conjunction with the New Year, trainees are given a New Year's allowance
with the participation of all branch employees. Also, a set of books is given to the school age
children of the employees every year during the New Year season. It is headed by the RDB
the welfare society of the head office. Also a bag of grocery items will be given to RDB
employees to coincide with the new year. Here the employees have the ability to get the
grocery or related trained money. On the other hand, as usual, the RDB network celebrates
Vesak and Poson and all employees dress in white.

The other point is, Branch members are given birthday treats for each employee's birthday. It
has now become a custom in the bank. And usually any employee gives a treat to the branch
employees when they get their first salary.

Also, top management in the RDB network organize a trip every year. It is attended by all
employees from the branch bank manager to the cleaning staff. This annual trip is planned
district-wise and aims to enhance employee support between branches.

The RDB Network also organizes foreign tours each year with the participation of Branch
Managers. Managers selected for one tour are not eligible for the next tour. In addition to
bank managers, employees who have performed well during the year are eligible for this.

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In addition, employees at many branches do checkout in at the branch every six months. It is
done by the employees for their own convenience. Usually RDB is a rural bank so most of
the work is done manually. Therefore, fixed deposits and documents related to loans are
stored in the branches. These documents are usually used by employees during transactions
and are re-placed in the appropriate place. However, as the documents may be misplaced, the
branch staff gathers and conduct checkout in every six months

Stories

It means the stories, experience and other things told by members of the organization. The
most important past story in the RDB network is the concept of “Shoeless banking”. That is
to say, this banking system is geared towards the rural concept. There is no proper way to
share that experience and stories as the bank has done in the past in RDB with the employees.
But that information is exchanged between employees through informal means.

A branches of RDB is usually open to customers only until 3 p.m. From then until about 5.30
p.m. the employees are engaged in their work in the branch. There, the manager, deputy
manager and assistant managers often share the history of the banking network as well as
various information they have learned from top management with lower level employees.
They also share with employees the experience they have gained while on duty in other
branches. It is the main way for lower level employees and trainees to know about banking
history. In addition, the promotion campaigns are usually conducted in parallel to the RBD
network every 6 months. What is happening here is mainly an increase in deposits in bank.
It involves officials from the District Office and the Provincial Office. The visiting officers
brief the branch staff on the past history of RDB, the previous top management and the
Bank's journey so far. This is done during the promotion campaign, which means that they
often use the time on the way from one house to another. They will also return to the branch
after the program and share the information during that time. The other method is a formal
method. Door to door agents are attached to the RDB network. An awareness program is
conducted for them every three months under the auspices of the District Office. Inevitably,
it explains to employees the role of door-to-door agents in RDB's journey so far, as well as
how they have worked in the past, the pioneers who introduced the concept to the bank and
the reasons for their pioneering.

Symbolic

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Their main symbol is their bank logo. It is a hackneyed figure with the RDB name in all
three languages, Sinhala, Tamil and English. They say that the hackneyed logo reflects their
success. In addition, their deposits have their own unique logos. In it, the deposits of RDB
differ from other banks as well as from the different types of deposits in that bank. Those
logos are as follows. Their theme is "Empowering Local Entrepreneurs to Accelerate Social
and Economic Prosperity in Our Country". When we consider about their language, Sinhala
is used as the main language in the RDB system. There is a special reason for that. RDB is a
bank set up especially for the rural people. Most of the rural people in Sri Lanka are still at a
very low level in education. In such a situation it is difficult for many clients to read or write.
Even their annual meetings are conducted in Sinhala. Their color is greenish blue. Usually
all their bank branches are painted in this color, but they do not have the unique shape of their
buildings. But compared to other banks, this banking network has very limited space for
buildings. The RDB network has its own theme song. Usually the theme song is sung at a
special function at a branch or at a special occasion in their banking network. This song can
be seen singing especially at the annual general meetings

Control system

Measure performance of the employees

The banking network selects the best manager among the branches. It does by comparing the
growth rates of loans and deposits between branches. Here managers make it mandatory to
start child saving accounts for borrowers who have children at the time of loan issue in the
hope of becoming the best manager. Door-to-door agents’ performance is measured by the
number of routes they cover per day and the number of daily collection customers. The
performance of field officers’ is measured by the amount of small loans (Rs. 150,000 and Rs.
300,000) they issue in related to the bank.

Reward system

The RDB network as a whole is rewarded to the employees. They hold two type of annual
award ceremony such as, Golden award ceremony (RDB Swarna Sammana) and Excellence
awards (Performance Excellence). Related to these ceremony, the best branch manager gets
rewarded. What really happens here is that managers praise the productivity of all the
employees in a branch. In addition, performance is rewarded as best province overall
performance and best bank overall performance with its 2 nd runner up all island, 1st runner up

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all island and all island winner. Most importantly, branch managers and deputy managers use
their voices to reward employees.

Promotion and transfer scheme

Promotions in the banking network are mainly based on seniority. Branch managers and
Deputy managers are often promoted. Branch managers are promoted to Regional or
Province offices, while Deputy managers are eligible for the post of branch managers. In
addition, employees in other positions must face their own performance as well as exams
required for promotion. There are also employees who get high marks in exams based on the
loyalty of top management.

Under the transfer, the first recruitment comes as a difficult appointment. Generally, any
employee must have worked hard for 5 years, Employees can apply for transfer every 5
years. But due to marriages, kids’ problems and other personal problems can still apply for
transfer.

Labor relationship

Generally, branches have a strong labor relationship in the RDB network. In it, managers are
directly involved with deputy and assistant managers who oversee training employees. Also,
when the permanent employees receive festival allowances for the new year, the training
employees are paid in addition to their salary from the collection of permanent employees in
a branch. Branch employees also collect cash and other gifts at the time of retirement and
transfer of permanent employees. On the other hand, managers bring gifts to their branch
employees when they go on a foreign tour. Apart from that, if there is an issue with cash
counter, an officer at any level from the manager will get involved and take action to solve it.
And any employee has the ability to talk to top management at any time.

Punishing scheme

A lot of mistakes and omissions happen in the loan and counter sections of a branch. These
errors are due to incorrectly entering the loan rates and issuing loans, not having the correct
amount of money at the counter. In that case, the relevant officer is responsible for it and in
case of failure to resolve the issue, the loss will be deducted from his salary. Also, managers
have to be reprimanded for other mistakes that happen in a branch. Often field officers report
mistakes. They receive cash and gifts in advance. If such frauds are reported to the branch,

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the manager will warn first. In case of large scale frauds and repeated frauds, there is an
inquiry by calling the relevant employees at the province office.

Control the outcome

The output of RDB is mainly 2 parts. Loans and savings. These outputs must have parallel
growth in order for a branch to increase performance and productivity. The main thing they
use for this is to start child savings in as many loan issuances as possible. This is not a rule of
the banking system, so employees have to work hard to get customers to agree to this. Since
most employees work closely with training employees, managers provide a great deal of
insight into this before employing them.

Power structure

The most powerful person in the RDB network is the Chairman. He usually makes all the
decisions related to the banking system. He decides on branch expansion, new loans and
savings schemes, and changes in top management. Decisions regarding the branches are
taken by the District Office. Transfers, assignment of trainees, supervision and direction of
branches are carried out under this office. The top official in the branch is the bank manager,
who deals with the employees in the organization, and all other corporate decisions are made
by the manager. This also has adverse consequences. This is because employees use their
allegiance and misuse power for their own ends. There are also many instances in the RDB
network where this power is being abused by wealthy people and for political gain.

Positional power is used to distribute power in the RDB network. Everyone from top
management to branch manager uses their position power to guide the employees of the
company. There are also tasks assigned to each employee based on their power. Each
employee completes the tasks of a branch in accomplishing those tasks, and all the branches
work together to achieve the goals and objectives of the entire network.

For example, any branch is assigned a loan amount and a savings amount to be completed in
a month. Branch managers are obliged to achieve that. It shows the top management using
the power they have over their position.

In addition, RDB has Door to Door agents. They are not permanent employees. But neither
are temporary trainees. These employees can stay in the company as per their requirement.
Their salary is usually determined by their performance. In addition to their basic monthly
salary of rs.15000, income is determined by their performance. Because they are door-to-

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door debt collectors, they are not as valuable as other employees. This is because even if
they are not there, the bank will somehow get the money it needs from the borrowers. But
because of the greater advantage of having these employees in the organization, managers use
different tactics to retain these agents. For this, the top administration often uses the reward
power. For example, the RDB T-shirt, which is usually only available to permanent
employees, is only offered to high-performance door-to-door agents. An additional
allowance of Rs.5000 / - per month will be given to employees who have achieved their
target and beyond. In it, corporate management expects employees to be efficient and retain
their jobs.

This is the basic power structure of the Regional Development Bank.

Formal organizational structure

The formal organizational structure of the RDB network is the tall structure, which has a
large number of hierarchical levels. The exchange of information, the devolution of power,
the transfer of power and the distribution of resources, the official way of reporting all take
place within that structure. It is as follows.

Chairman

General Manager

Board of Directors

Corporate Management Team

Regional General Manager

Assistance General Manager

Branch Manager

Deputy Manager
Field Officers
Assistance Manager

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 Door to Door Agents

Trainee Trainee Trainee

For a branch, the reporting process ranges from trainee to bank manager. From there,
decisions are made by the top management. Branch information is usually reported weekly to
top executives and is done through managers. Related to above structure, Addition to that,
when we consider about the motivation of the employees, Managers motivate their
employees in relation to branches. But do not empower. That is, no employee has the right
and freedom to make decisions about their work or to execute those decisions. The manager
is involved in all of that. All employees need to do is execute orders from above in the same
way.

Observation about the features of the cultural web of the Regional

Development Bank

Research on RDBs reveals that RDB is a banking network that satisfies both its customers
and employees. As a result, RDB has been able to stay at the top of the entire banking
network. Through their cultural web, I highlighted a lot of strong points that I think may
have contributed to this. In the meantime, I also identified some weak points.

When we consider about the routines of the RDB, they seemed to carry out the tasks in a
well-planned manner in the day-to-day operations of the branches. I see the main reason for
that is the short meetings that managers take at the branches before they start their daily
work. Because it discusses the summary of their operational activities in the previous day as
well as what to do on the relevant day. It gives employees an understanding of what needs to
be done individually as well as in groups. It guides you to minimize mistakes and work with
maximum efficiency.

Under the rituals on Friday they wore smart casual, trainees were only allowed to wear a skirt
and blouse or frock. When asked the reason, the bank did not have a sufficient reason for it.
But under no circumstances are they allowed to wear trousers. I see it as a place that needs to
be updated. This is because at present society does not hold the view that it is not appropriate
for women to wear trousers.

The other thing is that religious activities can be implemented in the employees of the
institution in connection with the major religious festivals such as Vesak, Poson and

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Christmas. For example, the staff can work together to make Vesak lanterns, make Christmas
trees and other arrangements. It creates religious harmony among the employees of the
institution as well as unites the employees culturally.

The main shortcoming, I saw under Story was that no employee was properly aware of the
bank's start or success as well as the bank's path so far. Especially in this bank there is no
proper program to make the employees aware about it. As a solution to this, RDB has the
ability to educate employees about this in the orientation program when recruiting new
employees. It gives employees a basic understanding of the banking network and will
increase the confidence of new employees.

Symbols have many features that are unique to RDB. In doing so, they have well established
their stability in the market. But when it comes to their theme song, most employees are not
aware of that. This is because it is not used at corporate events other than at the annual
general meeting. As a solution, RDB can also use the orientation program to notify it to the
employees.

Under the control system, it is recognized that no matter how well the employees in the
branch perform, the branch manager will be rewarded. There is a risk that the bank network
will lose talented employees. The solution is to launch a system that measures the individual
performance of all branches of bank. Accordingly, at the end of a month or a year, the
performance of each employee can be looked at and the best performance can be rewarded.

Speaking of Rewards, the way branches work from door to door agents is different. It often
depends on the image of the managers. In that difference, even the most talented employees
can show lower performance. Therefore, when managing agents, a series of steps common to
all should be organized, not on the managers' own preference.

The labor relationship seems to be stronger within the branches as well as within the RDB
network. They have a human bond that goes beyond position. That is the special feature I
see in their culture.

Under the punishing scheme, it is also a process that should be evaluated. If an employee
commits any type of error or problem, he or she can first discuss with management in the
bank. Also, before going for a sentence, the top officials use their "voice" and try to correct
them. Because of their systematic process, many employees make up for their shortcomings
and mistakes and do their job well within the organization.

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When it comes to the power structure of the RDB, it is not possible to be satisfied with the
way it is spread and the way in which the officers function in it. Transfers, demotions, etc.
for political reasons are common in the RDB network. No one in the banking network is
prepared to oppose this on the basis of the political situation prevailing in the country.

Related to the formal organizational structure, many hierarchical levels can be seen in it. It
shows that the decision-making process, the devolution of power, the exchange of
information, and other things take place through it. Working in a multi-level structure takes a
lot of time to make decisions and implement, and the number of people involved in any
activity are increases. According to RDB employees, this levels are lot in name only. That
is, at that level, nothing specific to it happens. Therefore, the RDB network has the ability to
remove unnecessary levels in order to prevent this delay and unwanted interference. In this
way, the employees will be able to carry out their duties in a smoother manner.

Interview guide 

Routines and rituals

 What time do employees usually come to the bank premises?

 What do employees expect from the RDB network?
 How do you get an idea of daily activities?
 How employees work with each other in the branch?
 Are there any things that are unique to your organization that you currently follow?
 Are there things employees do together in addition to the functions of the
organization?

Stories

 How did the RDB get started? Are there any special stories that caused it?
 Do employees know about those stories?

Symbolic

 How to distinguish RDB from other financial organizations in the market?

 What are the things that are reserved for the RDB itself?

Control system

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  How to measure employee and branch performance in the banking network?
 How to evaluate that performance?
 What are the human resource implications that take place in the banking network?
 How do RDB manage its deposits and loans?

Power structure

 How to oversee the activities of the branches?

 What is the role of the manager as the branch head?

Formal organizational structure

 How decisions are made in relation to the banking network in general?

 Do you see success in that method?

References

Mr.Chameera Suriyampola

Bank Assistant

Regional Development Bank

Pollonnaruwa branch

070 524 4738

Ms.Stephanie Ann

Former Bank Trainee

Regional Development Bank

Ragama branch

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