Personal Essays

Personal Application Essay #1

Diagnosing the Politics of a Situation

Instructions: Think of some issue within your organization that you would like to see changed or improved but that you sense could be at least somewhat political. Then diagnose the political landscape surrounding that issue by asking the following questions. 1. What is the question at issue, i.e., what objective would you like to achieve? Provide a detailed description (context, people, goals, etc.). Citibank is an old bank. Citi TW has been established for near 50 years. Recently, the senior layer attrition ratio became relative low. Even, many mid level managers have long service years (15+ yr). Therefore Citi TW, as a whole, works very efficient and effective, given there are so many experiences expert in each corner. The issue I am addressing is my boss. He came from local bank, which has different culture with America style bank. He is a man with strong ego, suspicious, demanding and hard to communicate with. Recently, an operation outsource project is a typical example. One of Citi region’s systems is going to EOL (end-ofl-life). Region asked TW to use a new & expensive system to replace the legacy. eBiz TW (my BU) is responsible for the service. Citi TW decided to adapt local outsource instead of region’s new system with the reason of cost saving (all the system will charge back to TW). Region doesn’t agree and try to force TW to pay more money. Citi TW tech wouldn’t like to raise voice or help (take side). TW operation thinks eBiz is troublemaker, making a straight task complicated. Phone center doesn’t care about solution, but adding many requirements on new service. I (eBiz) is responsible to move this service back to TW. We have two options for local service. Most of Citi TW dept is tending to leverage an existing vendor (serving on other task to Citi TW). But, my boss implied the another vendor (new) is better which made everyone in this project knew what he really want. Rumor...