Structure and Culture of Barclays Bank

This report explores the structure and culture of Barclays Bank, a multinational bank in the UK. It discusses the organizational strategies and theories used by the bank to enhance performance.

INTRODUCING THE
MODERN WORKPLACE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF AN ORGANIZATION.........................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Making any workplace whether office, banks etc. is the major need of today’s emerging
markets. The company adapts various new methods of working which focuses on increasing the
flexibility, collaboration and availability to achieve maximum productivity rather than obtaining
the results. Barclays Bank, being a multinational company deals in investment banking and
financial services has its headquarter in London. Along with banking, it also provides its
business services into four cores such as personal banking, corporate banking, wealth
management and management (Hollow and Vik, 2016).
The report underneath will describe the structure of an organization particularly the Barclays
Bank and its culture. It will also evaluate some factors which contributes positively or negatively
to the performance of an organization. Various theories and models will be used to justify the
above mentioned description.
STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF AN ORGANIZATION
Banking system which was facing a rapid growth since many years is at a critical turning
point due to economic crisis. So, organizational structure and culture plays a significant role in
tackling all such problems. It examines each and every aspect of the same. Its evaluation also
helps the organization to get the desired outcomes by implementing the organizational strategies
effectively and developing the skills, knowledge and experience of the bank workers.
The performance and practices of the banks decides the economy of the country so they must be
monitored on a regular basis (Makonjio, Odera and Warentho, 2019). The structure and culture
of the banks play a major role as they have a great impact on its performance. Barclays bank
being a multinational bank in UK also has its specific structure which follows a particular
culture.
Barclay’s Structure
Barclays is a transatlantic wholesale and consumer bank having a global reach which
offers its products and services across corporate, personal and investment banking, managing
wealth and credit cards, having its strong presence in UK’s home markets. The bank follows an
enhanced structure which helps in empowering its business model. Its structure is different from
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the other organizational structures. In march 2016, it has announced its plan to perform
operations through two key divisions of business: Barclays International and Barclays UK.
Along with this, it also plans to implement its strategies efficiently which enabled the Barclays to
meet the requirements of the regulators of UK considering the ring-fencing. Till April 2018, the
Barclays UK and the Barclays International became able to operate in the entities of Barclays
Bank Plc legally. Both the entities deal in similar products but delivered to different segments.
Barclays UK provided the everyday products and services to retailers, customers and SME’s
located in UK while the Barclays International designed and delivered the products and services
to the large corporates, wholesale clients of bank internationally (Kang, Matusik and Barclay,
2017). It later succeeded in separating the UK division of Barclays formally into a new entity
and named it as Barclays Bank UK Plc which later became the ring-fenced bank of UK. Then,
from that time Barclays laid emphasis on improving its progress by focusing on its strengths and
provides its services globally. The products and services designed for large corporates and
international banking continued to be delivered by Barclays International within the Barclays
Bank Plc.
During the separation of the entities in 2017, the company also created a Group Service
Company named Barclays Service Limited, which was considered as the subsidiary of Barclays
Plc. This group also provides services of infrastructure to the units of business which helps in the
times of financial crisis by implementation of recovery and resolution plans (Latchanah and
Singh, 2016). It also contributes to the company by supporting in fraud management and security
related to cyber-crimes enhancing the growth of the business.
The innovative organizational structure of Barclays helps in bringing all the complementary
businesses together thereby enhancing the client proposition and target all the sectors efficiently.
Therefore, the developing of the group service company in Barclays is considered as the service
excellence’s centre which contributes by increasing its resilience.
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Figure 1: Structure of Barclays Plc.
Source: Structure and Leadership, 2020
Barclay’s Culture
The culture of an organization impacts its performance and motivation of employees
greatly. In this competitive market, all the businesses are under pressure to improve its
performance to meet the expectations of the employees, investors and customers. The Barclays
has its different culture which aims at improving its employees’ performance (Azrak, Saiti and
Ali, 2016). It sets a Code of Conduct which describes all the roles and responsibilities. Following
are the aspects which makes Barclays different from other banks and companies:
Purpose, Values and Behaviours
These factors help the bank to have a long-term success by setting standards under which
all the employees work for which they are rewarded and the ones who go against it are highly
monitored and accessed (Muturi, 2017). The purpose of Barclays is to help the people in the
correct way to achieve their ambitions. The values focussed by the bank are Respect (giving
importance to the one who contributes to the bank), Integrity (the bank act fairly and openly by
following all the ethics), Service (putting the clients at the centre of everything), Excellence
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(using full energy, resources and skills to give the best results) and Stewardship (being
passionate in leaving things better than before). The Barclays also follows the Behavioural
Approach of Management which ensures that the environment of the workplace is impacting
the employees’ behaviour positively. Therefore, the employees there act with integrity, due skill,
care, diligence etc. by being open minded and co-operative. They treat the customers fairly and
also observe market conduct with proper standards. This approach also tries to tackle the
different behaviours of the employees by making it positive. This helps the bank to enhance its
goodwill along with being familiarize with all the policies covering the framework.
Citizenship
Banking plays a critical role in social and economic progress and development. This is
also referred to as Shared Value is which creates a link between the employees’ success and
progress of society (Otieno, 2017). The bank uses this opportunity to develop through innovation
and shared growth therefore enhancing its future. It aims at providing the customers and clients
with all the conditions which helps in making their future better. It facilitates the employees and
the customers both for today and tomorrow. This will help the bank to involve their colleagues in
various voluntary works in communities, the resources are also used for the welfare of the
society by managing the responsibilities and taking in account the impacts of all the decisions.
Delivering Excellent Service to Clients
Barclays always lay emphasis on providing the best to the customers by maintain a good
relationship with them. This helps the bank to improve its reputation by providing innovative
products which also helps to manage the financial affairs in a better way. This improves the
performance of the bank because of the trust it made in so many years to make the loyal
customers. It also helps in resolving the complaints if any and measure the satisfaction of the
clients.
Leadership
Leaders in the Barclays have all the leadership qualities. The decision-making of its
leaders helps the colleagues in anticipating, identifying and managing the risks and impacts of
their decisions and also aware them of the impacts on the society and the environment. They
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always focus on taking better and sustainable decisions. It checks the ways in which the bank
makes a profit whether by providing value or by fair decisions. It also ensures that their
transparent nature in communication is helping to deal with customers, clients and shareholders
or not. Leaders in Barclays also focus in creating and increasing the value of the group along
with measuring the benefits on the employees, clients, bank and the society.
Governance and Controls
The people at Barclays believe that following the high standards of ethical conduct is
mandatory to build trust and confidence in the clients (Wilson, 2018). They do not ever
compromise in the controls which govern their activities. The bank never involves in party
politics activities and become transparent while discussing any issues of bank with the
government. It also builds good relations with the suppliers along with the society to have
positive impacts to be identified and managed. They also respect their competitors which helps
in free and fair competition thereby increasing its innovation and improvements in the provision
of service. It helps them in focusing on their brand while creating their reputation in the society.
Way of Speaking up and Raising Concerns
The colleagues at Barclays are very transparent and open-minded. As soon as they feel
something wrong in the policy or performance, they challenge the actions, behaviours and the
decisions which they might find wrong (Wilton, 2016). They always listen to other colleagues
also so that they can challenge them by doing better increasing the overall performance of the
bank thereby enhancing its progress.
The employees at Barclays always raise concerns at the time of any illegal activity by discussing
it with the manager or contacting other teams. This helps the company to enhance its reputation
because some activities of employees might put the goodwill at stake. In these situations, the
individuals at the Barclays act with the highest standards of integrity and honesty. None of the
person is discriminated because of raising a concern.
Supporting the policies and guidance
The Barclays Plc. has various policies and guidance which helps the bank to set the
objectives, principals and other key requirements for all the firm’s activities. The policies need to
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be specific which can be accepted by major leaders otherwise gets dismissed. Supporting all the
policies is not the best decision but all the decisions must be finalized after considering the
majority by valuing their opinions. This will help to make the employees motivated thereby
increasing their enthusiasm to perform the tasks. This will absolutely increase their performance.
Colleagues
At Barclays, the employees treat with full respect by appreciating them for each
contribution they made and improving them at the weaker areas. They put the bank and
customer’s interest above themselves by collaborating with each other to produce the best
results. This helps them in demanding excellence in their tasks (Durepos, McKinlay and Taylor,
2017). It makes the environment motivated in which they trust each other. They all considers
themselves responsible for all the success and failures which enhances the team spirit thereby
increasing the productivity.
Therefore, the above mentioned points of the Barclays play a major role in deciding its culture
and its impacts on the bank’s performance. This can be explored more using following model
and theories.
Hofstede Model of Organizational Culture
It states that the regional and national factors impact the culture of the organizations like
banks and thereby influence the employees’ behaviour in the workplace. According to this
model, the factors are majorly classified into 5 as follows influencing the culture of the
workplace:
 Power Distance
In some organizations, the power is distributed according to the position of the employees
while in some according to their performance (Weber and Feltmate, 2016). Barclays follow the
2nd method and gives importance to all the employees regardless of their position. Although it
gives more responsibilities to the superiors but give equal respect to all. The team leaders are
chosen in such a way that they can extract the best out of all members and members must also
respect them accordingly.
 Masculinity v/s Feminity
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The Barclays does not discriminate males and females. They treat both equally. They
give the responsibilities accordingly such as do not give work of late night sittings to
females. Males and females have the equal rights in all the decision making processes.
 Individualism
The Barclays does not show individualism instead it believes in team work
(Connell, 2017). They believe that output comes much better when the members
exchange their opinions and views and take a correct decision after discussing.
 Uncertainty Avoidance Index
The employees at Barclays Plc. knows how to tackle the difficult situations by
being ready for the worst to happen. The bank also tries to resolve the situations and
prepare employees for the same.
 Long Term Orientation
The employees at Barclays are emotionally connected with the work and
workplace. So they do not have short term objectives instead they have objectives of long
terms (Ngugi, 2017). They are not concerned with the position and image but the
achievement of goals working in a comfortable environment.
Therefore, the culture makes the Barclays a better place for the employees to work in thereby
improving the employees’ performance and enhancing the progress of the group.
CONCLUSION
The report concluded the organization Barclays Group plc. by examining its culture and
structure. The factors which impact the performance of the employees are highlighted. The
impact of organizational culture was also illustrated by the Hofstede Model. The report also
evaluated the behaviour approach which was followed by the Barclays group in its culture
policy.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Azrak, T., Saiti, B. and Ali, E.R.A.E., 2016. AN ANALYSIS OF REPUTATIONAL RISKS IN
ISLAMIC BANKS IN MALAYSIA WITH A PROPOSED CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK. Al-Shajarah: Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought
and Civilization (ISTAC). 21(3).
Connell, M., 2017. The challenge of assessing and shaping bank conduct, ethics and culture:
Insights from the social sciences. Journal of Risk Management in Financial
Institutions. 10(1). pp.89-98.
Durepos, G., McKinlay, A. and Taylor, S., 2017. Narrating histories of women at work:
Archives, stories, and the promise of feminism. Business History. 59(8). pp.1261-1279.
Hollow, M. and Vik, P., 2016. Another step up the ladder or another foot in the grave? Re-
evaluating the role of formal and informal training in the career development process
within Barclays Bank, 1945–1980. Management & Organizational History. 11(4).
pp.345-363.
Kang, J.H., Matusik, J.G. and Barclay, L.A., 2017. Affective and normative motives to work
overtime in Asian organizations: Four cultural orientations from confucian
ethics. Journal of Business Ethics. 140(1). pp.115-130.
Latchanah, C. and Singh, S., 2016. An investigation of the challenges faced by women when
progressing into leadership positions: a case of the IT division at Barclays Africa
Technology (trading as ABSA). Journal of Management & Administration, 2016(1),
pp.36-71.
Makonjio, F., Odera, P. and Warentho, T.O., 2019. Effect of e-learning programmes on staff
performance in commercial banks in Kakamega county. International Academic Journal
of Human Resource and Business Administration. 3(7). pp.140-161.
Muturi, R., 2017. Effects of motivation packages employee performance: a case study of
Barclays bank of Kenya Queensway branch, Nairobi (Doctoral dissertation).
Ngugi, J., 2017. Role of Working Conditions on Organization Citizenship Behaviour in the
Banking Industry: A Survey of Barclays Bank in North Rift Region. IOSR Journal of
Business and Management. 19(06). pp.32-37.
Otieno, V.O., 2017. THE THE EFFECT OF WORK REDESIGN STRATEGY ON THE
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN NAKURU CENTRAL
BUSINESS DISTRICT, KENYA. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND
PROCESSES (ISSN 2616-3209). 1(1). pp.7-pagees.
Weber, O. and Feltmate, B., 2016. Sustainable banking: Managing the social and environmental
impact of financial institutions. University of Toronto Press.
Wilson, F.M., 2018. Organizational behaviour and work: a critical introduction. Oxford
university press.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
Online
Structure and Leadership, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through :< https://home.barclays/who-
we-are/structure-and-leadership/>
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