Leadership and Management Analysis of Barclays PLC: A Case Study

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
Table of Contents
LO2: Application of Role of a Leader and Function of a Manager (P2, P3, M2)...........................3
LO4: Relationship between Leadership and Management in Contemporary Business
Environment (P6, M4)...................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
LO2: Application of Role of a Leader and Function of a Manager (P2, P3, M2)
Background of the Organisation
The financial company taken as an in this assignment is example is Barclays plc. Barclays is a
British multinational banking firm that deals with investment banking, personal banking,
corporate banking, wealth management and investment management. Barclays is one of the
biggest and prominent banking firms in UK with a total net income of 2.372 billion euros in
2018 (Formentini, and Taticchi, 2016). The annual revenue of the firm in 2018 was 21.136
billion euros. Barclays has seen such raise in their net income and revenue constantly over the
years (Shamim, Cang, Yu and Li, 2016).
Figure 1. Net revenue generated by Barclays PLC over the years
(Source: Formentini and Taticchi, 2016)
Barclays was the result of many private banks joining together to form a bigger bank. In 1736
James Barclay joint the Goldsmith banking company (established in 1690) and later on several
other banks joined the firm and Barclays and Co. was formed as a result. The world’s first cash
dispenser was employed by Barclays in 1967. Barclays’ growth was also the result of numerous
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
acquisition that the bank did with other banks. Barclays enjoys a primary listing on the London
Stock Exchange and subsequently is a part of the FTSE 100 Index (Formentini and Taticchi,
2016).
Explanation and Role of Operations in a department in Barclays PLC
The major operation of the bank is investment banking but apart from it they also provide
services in personal banking, corporate banking, wealth management and investment
management. The department is very strong in its operations and Barclays pays special attention
to their departments. Investment banking is highly advanced type of banking operation. Barclays
provides many investment services like consultancy where Barclays provides consultancy
services to large companies, institutions and even government on their investment and financial
strategies. The revenue generated by this department in 2016 was 10.53 billion euros (Shamim,
Cang, Yu and Li, 2016). The following are the role of operations in the department.
 Financial Services: Barclays also provides financing facilities like loans and advances to
large firms, institutions and government for investments. This helps the institutions to
invest in the market even when they don’t have enough funds.
 Risk Management: The facility of risk management is also provided by Barclays where
they make the risk management portfolios for investment. Risk management portfolios
help to manage the risk involved in the portfolio of the investors by various instruments.
 Clearing and settling transaction: The service of clearing and settlement process of the
investors are also done by Barclays. The bank has become a clearing bank in the UK
market which provides the facility to the investors.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
Background of Management Team
The management team is the back-bone of any organisation. The management team takes the
responsibility of the operations of the department. As opined by Smith, Lewis and Tushman
(2016) the successful work of the team leads to the success of the company as a whole. The
managing team of an organisation consist of a group of individuals that operate at the high levels
of the company and take the regular responsibilities for business functions.
The managing team of Barclays Investment Bank consist of around ten members at the top tier,
including the regional manager, operations manager, assistant manager, and so on. Barclays
always look forward to employee young and dynamic individuals as managers. The managers in
the department are highly qualified with a decent amount of experience. These individuals
embraces the quality of good managerial and leadership skills. These managers manages the day-
to-day operations of the department. The managers of this department have been working very
hard that has led to the department’s revenue generation of 10.53 billion euros in 2016. The
business ethics and discipline that the members of the managerial team possesses is also a key
factor in their efficient and consistent work (Ellis, 2018).
Two Strengths and Weaknesses of Manager/Leader Approaches
 Manager Strengths
 Organisation: Managers in Barclays help to organise a team that will do a particular job.
This increases the efficiency of work (Smith, Lewis and Tushman, 2016). This helps to
connect people together which leads to complete a task and have a great understanding.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
 Reliability: The managers in the organisation enhance the reliability of work as they take
the responsibility to complete a work on time and with full efficiency.
 Manger Weaknesses
 Resistance to Change: With time, managers in Barclays tend to become more rigid
to try new processes to do a work. They develop a stubborn attitude if the work does
not have a positive and efficient result as they think that their old ways of doing
things will always work.
 Nearsightedness: The rigid attitude of the managers prevent them to strive for a
better solutions and innovations for a failed project. They become too caught up in
the details that prevents them to work efficiently
 Leadership Strengths
 Barnstormer: A leader in Barclays continuously strive for different creative and
innovative solutions to various problems. Leaders tend to think out-of-the box that
helps the company to adjust with the changing time (Storey, 2016).
 Inspiration: In the words of Molchanov (2016) the passion and determination that
the effective leader of the organisation possesses generally tend to bring inspiration to
the employees of the company. This helps the whole organisation to work with
determination and motivation.
 Leadership Weaknesses
 Attachment: Leaders of Barclays, at times, become overly attached to their business
and which often leads to continuous loss when the business does not give positive
returns. The business become very dear to the entrepreneur because of which when
the business do not earn profit they do not change the business.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
 Underestimation: Leaders, sometimes, jump straight into their ideas which at times
do not give positive result. This can be a huge problem to the company if the leader
does not analyse his/her idea.
Roles and Duties in the Management
Following are the roles of management in Barclays:
 Figurehead: This is one of the key roles of the management where the leaders just be
a front-man for the rest of the group. It is an interpersonal role, which helps the
people to turn up to the management when they need help (Gopee and Galloway,
2017). The management team of Barclays shows a high level of confidence that help
to build a sense of security among the workers.
 Leader: The management of Barclays plays a huge role by leading the team to the
specific goal. The management continuously motivate the employees to work and
achieve the goal. They also organise the structure of the team members to get the
knowledge about the specific skills of each individual. The management of the
company also grants rewards for a doing a job with perfection.
 Liaison: The managers in Barclays are often successful to be an interface with a
variety of external and internal people of the organisation. This shows that the
management team acts like liaison. The management is trying to continuously
develop the skill to communicate with a range of people in a way that the project
remains on track.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
Figure 2. The interpersonal roles possessed by management in Barclays
(Source: Gopee and Galloway, 2017)
Occasion for the Application of the Management Theories and Models
The occasion of Brexit has led to a high volatility in the UK market because of which there were
many organisations and institutions have been refraining themselves to invest in the share market
(Cullen-Lester and Yammarino, 2016). This has affected the Barclays Investment Bank
department. The management have been trying hard to control the situation to minimize the
number of organisations and institutions that have stopped taking the help of the department as
they have refrained into themselves from investing in the volatile market. The management have
specialised in the risk management area and have continuously adopting to new and effective
risk management systems to reduce the risks of the investors. The management team showed a
tremendous attitude in tackling the situation which resulted in the rise of the revenue in 2018.
The management team has tried to apply some managerial theories like Scientific Theory of
Frederick W. Taylor where they introduced many scientific solutions to the problem by
introducing new structure of risk management, Administrative Theory by Henri Ford where the
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management had improved their administration structure for the efficiency and the Human
Relations Theory by Elton Mayo by developing and improving the human relations department
of the company.
Leadership Styles applied by the Manager on this Occasion
The above mentioned occasion has brought new challenges to Barclays, but the leadership and
management qualities that the managers exhibited have resulted the company to prevail and also
to continue their consistent revenue generation. There were two styles of leadership which was
exhibited by the managers in the situation.
 Transformational: The occasion had demotivated the employees and the employees got
distracted from their goals. The managers, as a result, continuously had a conversation
with employees and kept on motivating the employees to achieve the organisational
goals. This showed a quality of transformational leader.
Figure 3. Transformational Leadership Style
(Source: Bolden, 2016)
 Situational: During the occasion, the managers of the company adjusted to the situation.
This helped them to fit the development level which influenced the employees of
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Barclays. This has helped the employees to get influenced and work accordingly. These
attributes of Situational Leadership was adopted by the managers.
Figure 4. Situational Leadership Style
(Source: Stiles and Uhl, 2016)
LO4: Relationship between Leadership and Management in Contemporary Business
Environment (P6, M4)
Types of Transformation Process in the Company
Barclays, being a banking firm, provides information and materials to the customers. From the
research works of Obolensky (2017), a transformation process is the group of activities that is
responsible for transforming inputs into outputs after adding value to it. The bank takes
information from the clients and assigns them an account with the help of which the customers
can perform numerous tasks, like withdrawing, depositing and transferring money, investing in
the market, and so on. Cheques and currency are the type of materialistic output that the bank
provides.
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BARCLAYS PLC.
The information and ideas about the type of investment is taken as input from the investors and
the given relatable consultancy on the investment type is the out the investment banking
department of Barclays gives. Making the risk management portfolio and clearing and settling
funds is also the services that is taken as the output.
Impact of two Adjustments for Capacity Management
Barclays have made two adjustments for capacity management name the business, names
business capacity management and service capacity management.
The adaptation of business capacity management has helped Barclays in the improvement of the
infrastructure, as they have opened many branches in remote areas of UK and also there have
been many renovation programmes (Andreasson, Eriksson and Dellve, 2016). There has also
been many changes in the business processes in the company which has been quite beneficial for
the company. The Human Resource management in Barclays has also seen many improvements
due to the effective business capacity management.
The IT sector of Barclays have seen significant improvements in the recent years (Pihlainen,
Kivinen and Lammintakanen, 2016). This has helped the organisation in the management of their
large database. The security of the IT sector of Barclays have also been strengthen. These are the
results of an effective service capacity management.
Two Operational Recommendations to Management
According to Alonderiene and Majauskaite, (2016), Barclays PLC has seen a prominent growth
over the years due to their effective strategies that they have implemented time and again with
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accordance to the change in the market scenario. Even though the company is doing well there
are a couple of recommendations that Barclays can take into consideration for a more sustainable
approach towards their business processes.
 Increasing the usage of cloud and subscription software models: Barclays have been
quite successful in managing their IT department in the past but as time changes the
technologies are updating with time. The company should increase the implementation of
cloud and subscription based systems by replacing the outdated OMS and ERP systems
which will give them a sustainable approach towards managing their ever growing
database.
 Development of the current manager: Some of the current managers lack in some of
the essential managerial qualities. These managers have shown their potential and
Barclays should try to develop their skills which will help the management system to run
more effectively.
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