Analyzing Leadership, Culture, and Engagement at Goldman Sachs: Report

This report analyzes the leadership, values, and culture of Goldman Sachs, contrasting its operations in the UK and US. It examines the differences in leadership styles, with a focus on democratic and transformational approaches, and how these impact employee engagement and organizational performance. The report evaluates the qualities of effective leaders for Goldman Sachs, considering factors such as ethical conduct, communication skills, and strategic planning. It also assesses the pros and cons of employee engagement, highlighting its impact on motivation and productivity. Furthermore, the report discusses how senior leaders can shape organizational culture, using the case of Goldman Sachs to illustrate the effects of leadership on company success and potential shortcomings. The report concludes with an analysis of the leadership of Lloyd Blankfein and his impact on the firm's culture.

Strategic International
Business Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Presenting difference between leadership, values and culture that existed between Goldman
Sachs in UK and US...............................................................................................................1
2. Presenting what would have been the 'right type of leaders' for Goldman Sachs..............3
3. Presenting pros and cons of employee engagement...........................................................5
4. Presenting how senior leaders might reasonable able to shape up the organization culture7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management plays an important role in every business. The present report helps
to examine whether the problems with a company's internal culture was a direct result of a banks
leadership. The study is based upon a case scenario in which Goldman Sachs is a best company
in UK as per Sunday Times in 2007. It ranked 100 best companies because of great leadership
skills of a senior management team, strong ethical principles.
The report presents the differences between leadership, values and culture which are
existed between Goldman Sachs in UK and United states. For a quoted company, study also
presents what the right type of leaders for it and also presents the pros and cons of employee
engagement. Further report also shows that senior leaders might helps or be able to shape up then
culture of an organisation with it limitations.
1. Presenting difference between leadership, values and culture that existed between Goldman
Sachs in UK and US
Differences between leadership, values and cultures in United Kingdom:
Leadership style: In UK, the quoted company follow democratic leadership style which
helps to presents their entire work with good efficiency. As its headquarter is in US but now it
operates at global level, therefore, in UK a listed company helps to provide its best services to
their customers. Their main focus is to creates a diverse client base and also the communities in
which they are operate. Because of low leadership skills, earlier in 2010 the company faces some
financial crises also that creates negative impact upon thousand of institution because they
provide funds and help many small business to operate their own business. But in 2011,
Goldman Sachs again occupy their position and ranked second in Sunday Times.
Values: The values on which Goldman Sachs is focus on cultivating and sustaining a
diverse work environment and working, so that it helps to meet the unique needs of their
customers (Goldman Sachs values, 2018). In UK the company's values shows or proved that its
business standards and practices are of highest quality and that is the only reason it meet out all
the expectation of its client.
Culture: The culture of a company is also unique such that firm's culture has been the
corner stone of its performance from last so many years. The company also believe that
recommendations of the committee will further strengthen its culture in an increasingly complex
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environment. Therefore, it regularly renew its business principle and gives more focus on its
brand image in market (Albrecht and et.al., 2015). For its culture, company always recruit those
person who are eligible to do work and without discriminating as per culture, it have a variety of
worker who belongs to different caste and culture. This shows that the company have diverse
culture.
Justification: The company in UK follows democratic leadership style and main focus
is to creates a diverse client base and also the communities in which they are operate while on
the other side values is to creates good customer base and also provide high rate of quality
services to their customers. But the culture of the company is also unique and also regularly
renew its business principle and gives more focus on its brand image in market.
Differences between leadership, values and cultures in United States:
Leadership style: Goldman Sachs headquarter is in United Sates where it operates it
entire business at global level. In U.S. the leaders of a company follows democratic and
transformational leadership style in order to creates best decision for it (Anitha, 2014). Using
this, leaders of an organization tries to improve it overall system so that it will helps to attain
their all defined objectives. Further they also encourages their employees in order to improve
their production level. Its main goal is to maximizes individual potential, increases commercial
effectiveness, strengthen up its culture, also expand every person's professional opportunity and
assist them to contribute positively to their communities.
Values: The values of a company is to expand its business at world wide level. Its values
define that Goldman Sachs must meet its client service in the terms of integrity, fair dealing,
transparency, professional expertness, maintain confidentiality and must respect its all business
principles. The company core value is to sustain its brand image in market by maintaining its
quality of offered products. By establishing better relationship with their clients in order to meet
their all needs (Antonakis and Day, 2017).
Culture: The culture in U.S. Is mostly focus on teamwork such that individual creativity
is always encouraged and that is why the company follows teamwork in order to get best result.
Even at a time of recruitment process the company did not discriminate candidates as per their
caste, religion etc. Even it has a diverse working cultural environment under which all the work
are done with individual responsibility. To increases employee's working efficiency, Goldman
Sachs also start developing some training programs which helps to improve their working
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performance and also enhance their culture and strengthen up values of the client services as
well as personal accountability. As, it has been analysed that in US the company faces some
conflicts because of internal disturb working culture (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Therefore,
company's overall performance can be decreases in order to attain its all defined goals and
objectives. The company gives stress or pressurized working staff to become more creative in
their work so that company's productivity as well as profitability increases. Leader of a company
continuously find out new ways and better solutions to their client's problem. Therefore, they
also feels pride on having originator of many practices as well as techniques that only become it
a standard in a industry. In US, under the leadership of Blankfein, the company faces some
internal issues related to their culture that made company matchless in a world such as
conformity, chronic workaholism and extreme arrogance.
Justification: the company follow democratic and transformational leadership style
because of good decision making and further the company's values is to treat a business with fair
and transparent way and also maintain the confidentiality so that its all data are protected. While
on the other side, it culture creates positive impact upon employees because all employees are
involve to take better decisions for the welfare of the company.
2. Presenting what would have been the 'right type of leaders' for Goldman Sachs
Leaders are those person who shape up the company and helps to achieve all defined
goals. As per their point of view and through their guidance or inspirations, the entire working
culture will be changed. For Goldman Sachs, the right type of leader is that person who posses
all the qualities which are mentioned below: Quality:For becoming a right leader, they must posses the best quality and also focus on
improvement. Getting things right, make all the things perfect, be ethical and follow all
the rules and regulations which are prescribed by a company (Breevaart and et.al., 2014). Pleasing people: Under this, leaders must focused on their work and create relationship,
support others and motivate them in order to increases their working efficiencies. It is a
duty of a leader to guide their employees If they are not working according to company;s
needs. Moreover, a right leader must support their subordinates. Work task and goals:Being productive in nature is the quality which every leader must
posses. A right leader is always be productive and efficient and also have an image of
someone who is successful achiever.
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 Emotions: They must be unique and special. Further, they should be focused on their
internal experience and be expressive so that people will understand them and help in
their goals and achievements (Fairhurst and Connaughton, 2014). Have data and work related information:A right leader also have a knowledge of their
work such as they feel themselves comfortable to operate on some intellectual level. They
must be objective, analytical, private and do their work independently. Innovative and problem solver:Another quality which must be posses by a right leader
i.e. be innovative. They must explore their new ideas and planning for company's
welfare. On the other side, leaders are also optimistic, enthusiastic and also converts all
negative thoughts into positive. Moreover they also forecast solutions for their problem
which means that leader must be a good troubleshooter. Creating harmony: while making plan or taking decisions for the welfare of a company,
leaders must be accord because they are the natural mediator and it is necessary for them
that everyone should heard them and provide their own views so that it will help a leader
to take best decision (Johnson, Robertson and Cooper, 2018). Strong vision: This quality makes leader differ from another person such that they have a
clear , exciting idea and have a clear vision which changes a transactional manager of a
company into a transformational leaders. Having a strong vision power is helps a leader
to become a right type of leader for a company. Courage and communication:They must have a quality of courage which means that
they have a willing to take risk in the achievement of a all goals with no sureness of
success. While on the other side, they should also have strong communication skills
which further help them to motivate their employees.
 Strategic planning: A right type of leaders make good strategic plan for the welfare of a
company. As having a strong vision power which assist leader to take right decision for
the betterment of a company.
No, Lloyd Blankfein is not a right person for Goldman Sachs though he earn and help its
company to maximizes its profit but on the other side it lost company's entire culture. As the
organization faces some financial crisis from last year and Blankfein helped a company to take
out from those crisis and again in year 2011, the company ranked second in a world as per
Sunday Times. But on the other side, under the Blankfein's leadership the company lost its entire
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culture and faces many internal culture issues such as excessive insistence on conformity,
chronic workaholism and extreme arrogance in the working area and basically this lead to lost in
culture (Karanges and et.al., 2015). It is all done under the leadership of Blankfein which clearly
states that the have a good communication skills and motivator but due to lost of organizational
culture, the man did not consider a right type of a leaders for Goldman Sachs.
3. Presenting pros and cons of employee engagement
Employee engagement: It is refers to that extent in which employees of a company feel
positive and comfort about their jobs and they put their efforts in order to meet all defined goals
of a company (Pros and Cons of Employee engagement, 2018). In the case of Goldman Sachs, it
have strong employee engagement which on the other side creates adverse impact upon the
rating of personal well being that is long time working hours. Even in a management theory, it is
a first concept that is quite necessary for a company. It has been determined that if a company
has high engaged workers that is more likely to retain top performers and also helps to attract
new talent for a company. It also have positive and negative aspect which are mentioned below:
Pros:
 Motivates the individual: It is one the most important advantage of employee
engagement that helps to motivate their employees. Such that when employees are asked
to participate in some important meetings so that they also feel special and get
encouraged for providing best output.
 Creative work is delivered: if the employees are participate then there is a chances to
increases and deliver creative work. Therefore, the employees get a broader sense of
perspective which also assist to raise their creativity (Mone and London, 2018).
 Output is good: if they involve in some important meetings then their working
performance will automatically affected and as a result they provide best output.
 Sense of superiority: If employee of a company got a chance to involve in meetings then
they feel themselves superior and as a result a sense of inferiority vanishes and they gain
confidence in a working area.
 Decisions are effective: Having a strong employee engagement will help to take decision
in more effective way which helps in company's betterment.
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 No extra employee are needed: When the work of superiors are also given to others,
managers did not need to hire some other employees and as a result the individual gets a
chance to prove their potential because of getting good platform to perform.
 Employee get added value As if the employees gets involved in decision making then
they get an advantage to added value and they become more happy and motivated. As a
result, their entire working capacity increases (Opoku‐Dakwa, Chen and Rupp, 2018).
Cons:
 Top policies are revealed: sometimes, there are some policies which are not to be
discussed by their subordinates. There are some things which must be kept secretly and it
is not good to keep engaging employees in some major discussions.
 Finds difficulties to match IQ level: the meeting in which high professionals are sit and
discuss, in that case it is quite difficult for members to match their IQ level as per the
workers. And as a result conversation gets imbalanced and it raises the difficulty level up
to greater extent.
 Risk of Security: sharing valuable information with employees can term into greater risk
and there is a chances getting information leaked. Its also waste time and money which is
one of the most disadvantage for a company (Rupp and et.al., 2018).
 Liberalizing: If the employees and subordinates gets enough freedom and authority.
Therefore the freedom must be given as per the responsibilities and authority. If the
subordinates are given more freedom then there is a chances that they might not perform
well and keep thinking that they share equal space like others.
 Training: It is not necessary that employees are always be a part of meetings and it is
possible to make employees understand the concept on which the discussion is to be
done. Therefore, the subordinates need proper training in order to keep engaging them to
the important discussion (Saks and Gruman, 2014).
 Expensive procedure for a company: Though, providing training to their subordinates
can be expensive procedure for Goldman Sachs. Because it require proper involvement of
money as it needs preparations and other expenses. Therefore, it shakes the budget of a
company.
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4. Presenting how senior leaders might reasonable able to shape up the organization culture
Organisational culture refers to the expectations, philosophy, experiences and values of a
company. Theses provide guidance to employee's behaviour and future expectations. Apart from
this, culture is based on shared customs, belief, values and rules that are created over time & are
also considered valid. Further, it also involves organisation's vision , language, systems, habits,
etc.
It has been determined that, every leader in an organisation has an ability to make or
break their company (Shamir and Howell, 2018). This can be done through their decisions, and
actions which leaders set for organisational culture. Further, it has been seen in organisation that
specially senior leaders have not been asked to evaluate the cultural aspect of their firm, but
nowadays it is becoming more crucial than ever. Following are some ways, through which
seniors leaders in Goldman Sachs can shape the organisational culture: Model behaviours :- leaders in an organisation are expected by its team members to take
the lead, communicate effectively, specifically at the time of change. Therefore, leaders
need to make those same changes & show similar actions that his team is expecting, as if
a leader takes a lead, others also follow. A leader need to align with culture :- it has been discovered that, an organisational
culture is always right, however, the behaviours of a senior leader sets the tone for a
company. Therefore, to shape the culture of Goldman Sachs, leader's actions and values
requires to be visibly reinforce (Tourish, 2014). Help team members to build their skills :- this way of shaping organisational culture,
will help senior leader to improve professional skills of members in a team. For this,
there is a need to provide them with opportunities, tools and resources that enable them
to grow their confidence. This is necessary because this will help them to meet
organisation's expectations and fit into it's vision.
 Reinforce a culture of accountability :- one of the most key ways for senior leaders to
affect organisational culture is accountability. It has been determined that, when leaders
hold workers answerable, it assists them to understand that they are accountable in all
things they perform (Zameer and et.al., 2018). In Goldman Sachs, making accountability
as a part of their culture begins with, having full description of a job with clear
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introduced measures. Furthermore, while shaping a culture transparency is important
between leaders & team members.
There are three areas under which senior leader of Goldman Sachs intersection with
organizational culture such as:
 It is not sure that organizational culture is always right and approaches of leaders are true.
But leader's value, action and development of team need to be strengthen the culture of a
company. Therefore, leaders shape up the culture in their own words and actions every
day. Even these actions further gain momentum through structures as well as policies to
shape, how employees operates (Albrecht and et.al., 2015).
 Leaders may tend to move outside of some traditional process of a company and invest in
different values to achieve best result. As they are aware of their places with a existing
culture can be more effectively drive change.
 There is a need to connect with their employees by heart and by mind (Bolman and Deal,
2017). It has been proved that emotions are the key driving force behind every human
behaviour and it is only helps to shape up and sustain organizational culture and they
need to connect with emotional side of their subordinates by creating a sense of purpose
and motivations.
Limitation of senior leader:
 Opportunity: This is a very top concern for the senior leaders. Because they sometimes
did not find opportunities to expand their leadership skills in order to attain all defined
goals of a company.
 Mentoring: it is second limitation under which lack of mentoring for available at work as
per many researchers.
 Limitation of time: it is another limitation which is faced by senior leaders. Because
they have quite tough schedule which unable them to work with more creativity.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that strategic planning plays an
important role in every business and even to shape up organizational culture, senior leaders play
their effective role. The report concluded that Goldman Sachs leadership, values and cultures in
UK are quite differ from US. The company faces some issue that affect its internal cultural
environment and under the Blankfein leadership, the company get up from financial crises but
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lost its culture which creates negative impact upon company's brand image. Therefore, it further
concluded that a right type of leader must posses to qualities of leaders so that it helps to
maintain its image in market and maximizes its profit. Further , the study concluded that
employee engagement is good but it also have some disadvantage which can destroy relationship
among peers and management and though Goldman Sachs have strong employee engagement
which may cause some harmful impact upon a company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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performance. International journal of productivity and performance
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Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership.
John Wiley & Sons.
Breevaart, K. and et.al., 2014. Daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily
employee engagement. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology.
87(1). pp.138-157.
Fairhurst, G. T. and Connaughton, S. L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership.10(1). pp.7-35.
Johnson, S., Robertson, I. and Cooper, C. L., 2018. Well-Being and Employee Engagement.
In WELL-BEING (pp. 31-42). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Karanges, E. and et.al., 2015. The influence of internal communication on employee
engagement: A pilot study. Public Relations Review.41(1). pp.129-131.
Mone, E. M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.
Opoku‐Dakwa, A., Chen, C. C. and Rupp, D. E., 2018. CSR initiative characteristics and
employee engagement: An impact‐based perspective. Journal of Organizational
Behavior.
Rupp, D. E. and et.al., 2018. Corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: The
moderating role of CSR‐specific relative autonomy and individualism. Journal of
Organizational Behavior.
Saks, A. M. and Gruman, J. A., 2014. What do we really know about employee
engagement?. Human Resource Development Quarterly.25(2). pp.155-182.
Shamir, B. and Howell, J. M., 2018. Organizational and contextual influences on the emergence
and effectiveness of charismatic leadership. In Leadership Now: Reflections on the
Legacy of Boas Shamir (pp. 255-281). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Tourish, D., 2014. Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the
role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership.10(1). pp.79-98.
Zameer, H. and et.al., 2018. Corporate image and customer satisfaction by virtue of employee
engagement. Human Systems Management.37(2). pp.233-248.
Online
Goldman Sachs values. 2018. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.goldmansachs.com/who-we-are/people-and-culture/>.
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through:<https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/04/09/pros-cons-employee-
engagement/>.
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