Analyzing Companies In The Financial Sector And Aligning Personal Values And Ethics

Applying elements of these theories to Achieve Career Aspirations

I am pursuing a business course mainly dealing with financial aspects including budgeting, auditing and financial planning. My career aspirations are one day heading a financial department and ultimately heading a financial institution. It is my hope and expectation that I will one day be the founder of highly successful multinational business in the future. The Business courses I am taking afford me the competence to run a business department, an organization, and also start and run a business from scratch. The Knowledge gained during my studies will stand me in good stead at the job market, and I hoping to leverage the theoretical knowledge to provide solutions to practical business situations.

After taking the Gallup’s Clifton Strength Finder survey, the five top themes that I closely associate with are Harmony, Individualization, Deliberative, Consistency, and Relator. These themes not only indicate my strengths, but they also mirror my passion in life. Studying the contents of each of the themes, I have come to realize that I possess many strengths which I took for granted.

Gallup Clifton strength Finder Johari Window theory have deals with themes concerning people’s strengths when relating to others whether during normal socialization with people or dealing with colleagues at the workplace (Rath 2017). In Clifton’s Strengths Finder, my top five themes relate well with how I operate and will support me in my endeavors to achieve my aspirations. When relating with others, I do not like conflicts and I do everything in power to find solutions to conflicts. Conflicts precipitate instability in relations and at the workplace. I find myself regularly engaging in seeking ways of promoting stability in my daily relations and at the workplace. I do not necessarily try to avoid conflicts, but rather, I endeavor to find solutions and areas of agreements and not dwelling on the areas of disagreements. All these traits fall squarely within the theme of harmony. In associating with people I tend to focus on each person’s strengths and talent to figure out where the person can fit and be most productive

Johari Window theories deal with issues of personal and interpersonal awareness within a group. Johari window theories consist in studying and application of knowledge on how an individual relates with other members of a team, or how a team associates with other teams in an organization (Stoakes & Stoakes 2014). For new teams, the members know very little about each individual meaning that the open area is relatively small compared to other quadrants such as blind area, hidden area and unknown areas. As a team gets established, each member knows a lot more about other members and they too learn a lot about him or her. At the same time, the people learn about the organization and their relationship with each other regarding their roles and responsibilities, feelings, emotions and other personal traits thus increasing the open area and reducing the blind area quadrant (West 2010).

Companies Analysis

Applying elements of these theories to Achieve Career Aspirations

Getting ahead in any endeavor involves interacting with people, and the extent of success depends on how well is able to associate with business colleagues and partners. If I have to make headway in my career, I have to leverage the strengths identified at using the Gallup Clifton Strength Finder while interacting with colleagues, especially when working in teams. The Johari model and related theories including emotional intelligence and Tuckman’s Forming, Storming Norming Performing team development model (Hall 2015), will facilitate my learning processes especially regarding knowing myself and others in the team, as well as learning how to effectively associate with them to accomplish various goals.

Clifton’s Gallup Strength finder helps a person identify the general themes underlying an individual’s strengths and talents. Out of the 34 identified themes in the Gallup, the top five relates most closely to a person’s strengths and talents and can be utilized as the basis for action to produce desired results.

Companies Analysis

1. i) Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC is a multinational financial services and investment bank with its headquarters in London. The company’s core businesses include corporate banking investment management, personal banking and wealth management. The company started its operations in 1690, and has over the years expanded to have footprints across the globe either through branches or subsidiaries. The bank has experienced its fair share of controversies ranging from supporting repressive regimes like apartheid to accusations of money laundering.

 The scandal that eroded the trust of the customers on the bank most was on the issue of manipulation of interbanking rates, LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) and EURIBOR (Euro Interbank Offered Rate). The bank was accused of manipulating the settings of those ratings to either make a profit or to give the impression that its financial situation was more stable than the reality (Chon & Noonan 2015). In the wake of the Libor scandal, the company moved fast to reform its corporate culture and return the bank into the ethical company it was before the unethical behavior that eroded the trust of the customers and other stakeholders. The reforms started at the top through the replacement of the CEO with an ethics conscious one in the name of Antony Jenkins. He instituted corporate culture reforms and revamped the code of ethics. Unfortunately, the reforms led to a fall in the profitability of the business and he was replaced by Staley, in the hope that the later can balance the bank’s corporate responsibility with its profit motive (Bray 2015). In 2013, the company introduced company values and purpose in a bid to provide a standardized set of behavior for all employees. (Arnold 2015).  The purpose statement indicates that the company is intent on ensuring that the employees achieve their highest potential in an ethical manner (Becoming the ‘Go-To’ bank 2013). The stated company values include:

• Integrity- acting in an open ethical manner
• Respect- valuing clients and their contributions to the company
• Stewardship- endeavoring to ensure there things are better compared to how they found them
• Excellence – Ensuring the best outcome through proper utilization of available resources
• Service- Customer centric (Becoming the ‘Go-To’ bank 2013).

1. ii) Reliance Bank

Alignment of personal and company’s values and ethics

Reliance Bank is the financial arm of the Salvation Army and it started its operations in 1890. The bank managed to effectively weather the 2008/2009 financial crises due its ethical banking practices including not engaging in selling of insurance payment protections and engaging in Libor scandal (“Home Loan With No-Fuss” 2018). It is one of the few banks in the UK that has never been penalized by the regulator or reported to the ombudsman by customers for unethical practices (Collinson & Jones 2013). 

  Reliance Bank engages in low-risk trading practices minimizing its exposure financial risks that have driven investment banks into bankruptcy. Also, its ethical business model ensures that it has adequate financial safety cushions such as proper internal capital ratios ensuring that it weathers shocks to the financial system. Reliance Bank caps the bonus payout for the directors at 10% of basic pay which goes a long way in discouraging the reckless behaviors current in directors of big banks who are focused on earning huge virtually immoral bonuses.

Alignment of personal and company’s values and ethics

Due to my personality and the top five themes I have identified, I am more likely to gravitate towards reliance bank than Barclays bank. However, I would still seek opportunities at the Barclays bank with a view to helping support the corporate culture change that has been instituted in the company by the new leadership.

Barclays bank has had it fair share of ups and downs in terms of its ethics and values and the current reforms in the purpose and values of the company aligns well with my Gallup Clifton Strength Finder themes. The purpose statement of the bank dealing with ensuring that the employees ethically attain their highest potential aligns well with the theme of individualization, relator and consistency. The values espoused by current management including integrity, respect, stewardship, excellence, and service auger well with all my top five themes of Harmony, Individualization, Deliberative, Consistency and Relator.     

Reliance bank on the other hand has been a bank engaging in ethical business practices since its inception, and its values and ethics align well with my themes and strengths. The company’s value for the employees and clients’ welfare relate well with both the executing and relationship building themes that I have identified. Also, the company ensures that 70 percent of its profits is distributed to the churches to support the evangelism work including providing aid to the needy in the society, values which relate well with my relationship building themes such as Harmony and Relator.

Networking and Commercial Awareness

Commercial awareness is having an insight on the business including how it makes money, the competitors and the opportunities available to the business to remain competitive. Networking events enable the graduating student to get in touch with leaders in the industry to learn firsthand useful and insider information on the workings of a business and its environment (Cummings 2009). Social network theory deals with the importance of networking in a person’s social life and in business (Reese 2016). Without a social network, the person will have theoretical information from reading various sources, but will lack practical knowledge about the specifics of the company or the wider industry (Daly 2010).         

Reflection on the Networking Events

In attending the GSM London networking event, I was interested in learning more about the challenges of student employability, but more importantly, I was interested in learning about the specifics of the industry from leaders working in it. Before attending a networking event, one needs to have specific skills to gain the most out of it. To get an insight on the skills one needs to gain a lot during networking events, one needs to look at the strengths and talents that he or she possesses (Misner & Hilliard 2017). On my part, I engaged very well with the participants and especially the industry leaders invited using the themes identified in using Gallup Clifton Strength Finder especially the relator and individualism. My main strengths include my ability to see people as individuals with unique qualities and information that I can learn. By focusing on the person I am able connect with him or her at a deeper level and thus benefits from the knowledge and experiences the individual possesses.

References

‘Becoming the ‘Go-To’ bank’ 2013, Barclays, viewed 16 November 2018, <https://www.home .barclays /content/dam/barclayspublic/docs/Microsites/Transform/barclays-strategic-review-executive-summary.pdf>

“Home Loan With No-Fuss” 2018, Reliance Bank, Viewed at https://www.reliancebank.com.au/

Arnold, M 2015, ‘Barclays fires Jenkins after clash with head of investment bank on its future, Financial Times, viewed 16 November 2018, https://global-factiva-com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au /redir/default.aspx?P=sa&NS=18&AID=9MAC001300&an=FTFT000020150709eb790002h&cat=a&ep=ASI

Bray, C 2015, ‘Antony Jenkins ousted as Barclays Chief Executive’, The New York Times, viewed 16 November 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/business/dealbook/antony-jenkins-to-step-down-as-barclays-chief-executive.html

Chon, G, & Noonan, L 2015, ‘Six banks fined $5.6bn over rigging of foreign exchange markets’, Financial Times, viewed 13 January 2015, <https://global-factiva-com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au /redir/default.aspx?P=sa&NS=18&AID=9MAC001300&an=FTCOM00020150520eb5k004s9&cat=a&ep=ASI>

Collinson, P., & Jones, R, 2013, The ethical bank that offers salvation? [Online], Available at https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/26/ethical-bank-reliance-coop-salvation-army

Cummings, J. (2009). Turbocharged networking for $100K+ jobs: 5 steps to job-search success. Cupertino, CA, HappyAbout.info. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=318305.

Daly, A. J. (2010). Social network theory and educational change. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard Education Press.

Hall, T. B. (2015). Examining the Relationship Between Group Cohesion and Group Performance in Tuckman’s (1965) Group Life Cycle Model on an Individual-Level Basis. Dissertation Abstracts International. 77-02.

Misner, I. R., & Hilliard, B., 2017, Networking like a pro: turning contacts into connections.
Irvine, California: Entrepreneur Press, https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5182810.

Rath, T. (2017). StrengthsFinder 2.0. New York, NY Gallup Press

Reese, S 2016, Advances in social networking research, Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1292512.

Stoakes, C., & Stoakes, C., 2014, Commercial awareness 2015/16, Wendover: Christopher Stoakes.

West, W, 2010, Applying the Johari window to qualitative therapy research interviews.  journal of critical psychology counselling and psychotherapy. 10, 221-227.