Metro Bank

Metro Bank

Marsha Brown was the new manager of a suburban office of Metro Bank. The branch office was

experiencing low morale and lower productivity than expected. One of the difficulties was that the

office served as an informal training center for young managers.

New hires who needed experience as loan officers or assistant branch managers were assigned here for

training. When they reached a certain level of competence, they were promoted out of the branch

office. This practice was demoralizing to the less mobile tellers and other assistants, who felt exploited

and saw no personal reward in “training their boss.” After some checking with her boss and other

people at corporate headquarters, Marsha concluded that it would be impossible to change this

program. Her branch was one of those considered to be essential for executive development in Metro

Bank.

During her first few months on the job, Marsha got to know her employees quite well. She reviewed

performance records and met with each employee in the branch to talk about the person’s career

aspirations. She learned that many of her employees were quite capable and could do much more than

they were presently doing. However, they had never seen themselves as “going anywhere” in the

organization. Marsha searched for a unique vision for the branch office that would integrate the needs

of her employees with the objectives of the executive development program, and in the process better

serve the bank’s customers. She formulated the following strategic objective: “To be the branch that

best develops managerial talent while still offering quality customer service.”

From this decision flowed a series of actions. First, Marsha declared that development opportunities for

growth would be open to all, and she initiated a career development program for her employees. For

those who wanted career advancement, she negotiated with the central training department for spaces

in some of its programs. She...