Leading Change From the Middle : A Case Study on Office Managers Within Retail Banking

Abstract: Within the business market today competition is tough, not even the strongest are able to survive if their resources are not managed the right way and their knowledge is up todate. In order to stay competitive, all businesses are required to implement on going and transformational changes. One could just look at the banking industry and how it has changed significantly over the last couple of years. The external world changes and so must organisations. Due to the technological revolution it has been necessary for the banks to follow in order to please the customers’ needs and their new requirements. Previous research shows that majority of organisational changes are not considered successfull and fail to meet their objectives. To sustain competitive advantage and adapt to the changing environment, competent management is a valuable source. The middle managers role during organisational changes has been highly observed and results show that they play a vital role during the process. The purpose with this thesis is therefore to expand the truth about the actual implementation process. Focus is put on the middle managers within retail banking and how they operate in comparison to previous research. The research has been conducted through a case study on one of the Swedish larger banks and its journey of implementing change. Qualitative interviews were held with five middle managers and two employees to each respectivley. To provide the management field with additional understanding, the research was performed through in-depth interviews which were analysed and compared with each other. In this thesis, a model has been developed which illustrates the most important aspects a middle manager has to consider when implementing change. The model has been created based on information within previous research and aims to provide middle managers with guidance that leads to a successful implementation. It addresses three different areas that affect the success, which further can be broken down into more specific activities. All three areas are found to be linked to each other and are therefore considered equally important. Concluding, throughout this research, we have found that middle managers within retail banking does operate according to previous research when implementing change and that few differences can be seen. What has been found however, is that more knowledge within managing employees emotions is needed in order to implement change successfully Their position should have less administration work and mainly be about acting as a team coach to the office.