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Managing Agile Organisations and People: Bank of Mauritius Assessment Answer

Assignment Brief Level 5 Managing Agile Organisations and People June 2020

General overview – word count

The recommended word count for this assignment is 4,000 words (-/+ 10% tolerance, i.e. your submission should not be less than 3,600 words and no more than 4,400 words). Please be aware that markers are instructed to stop marking when the maximum word count is reached. NOTE – your Table of Contents, all Appendices and the References list are all excluded from the overall word count.

Please refer to the Assignment Style Guide for further guidance on the accepted format of your assignment.

Context

Choose a local or international organisation with which you are familiar. All of your answers must be based on this organisation. You must be able to easily obtain the required background information to enable you to respond to the Tasks. In answering the Tasks, you should assume the role of an experienced consultant hired by the Board.

You must provide a one-page summary of background information on your chosen organisation (250 words). This must include:

  • Name of the organisation
  • Size of organisation
  • Main markets where it operates (geographical locations)
  • Examples of products and services
  • Key competitors
  • Main customer segments

In addition to the above, you can include any other information which might be useful for the marker to help them understand the context of your answers. Your organisation summary is not included in the overall word count.

NOTE - The organisation summary must be completed and must accompany the submission otherwise the assessment cannot be marked.

Assignment tasks

Task 1Evaluate the impact of vision, values and culture on your organisation’s
management practices.
Task 2Analyse how smart working and empowerment can be used to manage an agile organisation. You are required to support your answer with examples from your chosen organisation.
Task 3Examine how an understanding of the Resource Based View (Barney 1991) of the organisation could help your chosen organisation make effective strategic decisions.
Task 4Undertake a self-assessment of your capabilities to manage an agile organisation and propose areas for your own professional personal development to improve your capabilities.


Answer

Company background

The chosen organisation for this assignment is the Bank of Mauritius. The bank is the central monetary authority in the Republic of Mauritius. BOM has the largest market share in the financial sector of Mauritius. The bank was established in 1967, and it was formulated based on the model of the Bank of England.  The main area of operation for BOM is Mauritius. The services of BOM are similar to the other central banks in other countries. BOM provides services such as checking accounts as well as providing a certificate of deposits. BOM also has the service of providing loans to customers. Additionally, there are also the services of safe deposits along with investment-related services.

Credit cards and debit cards are issued by BOM as well. The key competitors of BOM are State Bank of Mauritius, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank and Bank International Indonesia. BOM is the largest bank of Mauritius. Therefore, there is not the presence of specific customer segmentation for the bank. All the citizens, businesses and financial entities in Mauritius are the potential customers of BOM. The currency of the country Mauritian rupee is issued by BOM. Also, the bank conducts the monetary policy of the country. The exchange rate of Mauritian Rupee is also controlled by BOM. Another important function of BOM is to promote the understanding of the citizens of Mauritius of the financial system. The maintenance of the Mauritius Credit Information Bureau is also the responsibility of this bank. 

Task 1

The most important bank in Mauritius is the BOM as they are the central bank of the country. The vision of BOM is to drive Mauritius towards a less cash-dependent economy. The vision of the company aims at describing the purposes of the organisation. The strategy of the organisation is also impacted by the vision of the organisation (Maon et al. 2017). The vision of BOM also helps in deciding the strategies of the organisation. The vision aims at fostering the development of a striving as well as safe digital economy. The vision of an organisation also expresses the strategic direction of the future for the organisation. Therefore, the vision also helps managers to make the most appropriate strategic decision (McWilliams et al. 2016). The vision of BOM helps significantly in the management practices of the bank. Therefore, the management team of the bank has undertaken several steps to maintain the vision of the company. 

The payment system of the bank has been attempted to be modernised. The payment channels of the company have been attempted to be similar to that of the advanced countries. The bank has launched the system of National Payment Switch in 2019 (BOM, 2019). The platform has been formulated with the help of the brand MauCAS. The platform enables the customers to experience an interoperable payment option for banking, mobile payments and e-commerce. The management of the bank has also introduced the IPS or the Instant Payment System for instant payment (BOM, 2019). The bank has also introduced an IT transformation program for digitising the operations on all the levels. At the ADC Global Blockchain Summit, the governor of the bank delivered a speech based on the regulations of Cross-border relations. 

To actualise the digital transformation in the bank, the management has attempted to acquire a talented workforce. There have also been training programs for the employees to be more aware of digitisation. Around 44% of the employees have been able to participate in the training program (BOM, 2019).  The IT transformation project introduced in the bank has aimed at reducing the number of duplicate entries and hassle-free processing. The idea of having a digital platform has also influenced the bank to set up a new network for hosting the NPS network. Along with the IPS system, the network also controls the Card based switch. On the other hand, the organisational values of a company also play a major role in the management decision of the company. The foundation of an organisation can be realised with the help of organisational values. As per Alahyari et al. (2017), organisational values decide the basic ethics of work based on working practices. This, in turn, also impacts the decision of the management.

The management decisions of BOM are also aligned with the values of the organisation. The organisational value of BOM largely focuses on the financial stability of Mauritius. Along with this, BOM also focuses on being committed to the acquirement, development and maintenance of an efficient workforce. Being committed to the employees is one of the best practices of management for an organisation (Beasley et al. 2019). The commitment of the management of BOM can be witnessed with the safety regulations in the company. In BOM, the safety and Health committee attempts to meet after alternative months (BOM, 2019). The staffs of BOM are also trained in coping with fire accidents. The employees are also aware of the evacuation processes. The commitment to the employees has been evident for the accident statistics of the company. The rate of accidents in BOM was significantly low as in 2018 to 2019; only 4 trivial accidents took place in BOM (BOM, 2019). The company regularly performs fire drill exercises every year to ensure that the safety of the employees is managed. The organisational value of BOM also aims at maintaining the trust of the customers.

To have better customer engagement, BOM implements innovation in the operations of the bank. Technological innovation in the bank has changed the way of managing the finances of the business processes. Innovation has helped in increasing the efficiency of operations, along with reducing the cost. The company has incorporated Fintech and blockchain technologies to foster development. The activities in improving innovation have focused on increasing customer engagement. The launch of MauCAS in 2019 was also an attempt to become more innovative and competitive (BOM, 2019). The new security technology with polymer designs has also increased security of the financial services by BOM. To assess the risks of security, the company has incorporated Fintech.

The culture of an organisation depends on the behaviour of the people. The way of performing a job is determined by the organisational culture. As per Elsmore (2017), organisational culture helps in ensuring that the purpose of the employees is following the purpose of the organisation. Culture also dictates decision making in the organisation. The culture of BOM is largely performance-based. Therefore, the bank has introduced the procedure of reviewing performance with PMS or Performance Management System (BOM, 2019). Upgrade of the system is the main focus for BOM. The employees of the bank are considered as the most significant asset (Heilmann et al. 2020). Therefore, ensuring the safety of the employees is the main reason behind the safety and health program by BOM. Besides, the culture of the organisation also decides the way of managing risks by the management of the company. The structure of bank-wide governance has been enhanced in BOM by a risk management plan. The ERM or Enterprise, Risk Management framework, has been implemented to assess the impending financial, operational and strategic risks for BOM. The risk tolerance statement of the organisation has also been decided by this framework. Besides, the division of financial stability has attempted to change the processes of the organisation by conducting a micro-financing risk assessment. The incorporation of the early warning indications has also been considered for BOM. The AML/CFT measure has been introduced for protecting the system of financial operations from abuse.

Task 2 

Banks are considered to be agile organisations as they can respond to the changes in the market quickly. The operations of BOM are also focused on the needs of the customers in a situation of change. Therefore, customised offerings are more applicable rather than standardised offerings. The agile way of working needs the employees to work with high flexibility and low constraints. The best performance of the employees is expected, even in adverse situations. As per Vujica Herzog et al. (2018), empowerment and way of smart working can be helpful for the management of an organisation. Empowerment in an organisation can be achieved with the help of encouraging managers to have a diverse cross-functional team at work. Agile organisations need people with varied skills to be present in the organisation at the same time (Kuusinen et al. 2017). For example, in BOM, there is a presence of employees with cognitive skills along with personality diversity. The employees of BOM can showcase their skills, abilities and knowledge.

 Besides, they also possess the personality of responding to new situations, having emotional stability. Therefore, for working with agility, BOM kept the repo rate coherent with the situation of stability in the economy of Mauritius. The value of the domestic assets of Mauritius was also maintained due to the differential in the interest rate caused by the activities in the economy. The removal of organisational layers also empowers an organisation to maintain the agility (Crick and Chew, 2017). To ensure agility, empowering the leadership and offering personal authority is also important. The employees in BOM are supported and motivated for reaching the complete potential (BOM, 2020). In BOM, appropriate tools such as SupTech, Fintech, CFT and AML are provided for the promotion of individual responsibility. The communication among the employees is also significant, which also ensures that the personal authority of the employees is maintained.

BOM has a hierarchical organisational structure which helps in systematically improving the performance authority. In BOM, self-organisation is also an important way of empowering the employees. Hussain et al.  (2019) stated that the basis of reward needs to be aligned with the specialised workforce. The way of compensating employees can be significantly important in an agile organisation. Traditionally the appreciation was only based on the achievements of an employee. However, for an agile organisation, a rewarding system needs to reward the team members having a positive impact on team performance (Herhausen et al.  2018). For example, in BOM, performance rewarding is a significantly important act. To have agile operations, the company needs to reward the employees based on the performance. Even the participants in the internship programs are also rewarded. The agility of an organisation can be promoted substantially if the digital operations in the company are effective.

An agile team can work efficiently if they have innovative digital options. These systems can help in sharing information along with collaboration. Digital tools also help in incorporating smart working in the organisation. For example, in BOM, the company has emphasised on digitisation significantly. As per the global trend of online transactions and e-commerce, the company has also introduced significantly new digital options. BOM has introduced MauCAS, a digital payment system enabling users to use digital payment at any time of the day. BOM has also introduced the SWIFT customer security program to be similar to international programs. In the MauCAS system as well, there are two kinds of digital options. The IPS helps in accessing the bank accounts directly for allowing the retail payments despite the channel of payment. Besides, the CPS or the Card Payment System helps in processing and settling all the kinds of card payments in Mauritius. Therefore, smart working with the help of effective digitisation can also help in the operations of an agile organisation.

In the operations of an agile organisation, all the teams in the company need to work following the goal of achieving the objectives of the company. All the teams need to have their own specific goals to be able to meet the overall organisational goal (Greco and Kraimer, 2020). Empowering every team to have their own goals can help in reducing errors and discrepancies at work. Regular team meetings can promote smart working, which further can help in maintaining the agility of the organisation. In BOM, there is also the existence of small active teams such as reviewing team, risk management team, digital team and peer review teams. All of these teams have their own set of goals based on the operations. For example, BOM also has a separate team for deposit insurances. The team focuses on the establishment of the scheme of Mauritius Deposit Insurance.

To maintain the agility of an organisation, the vision and values of the organisation need to be clear to all the employees of the organisation. As per the views of O'Rourke (2019), communication regarding the mission and vision of a company can play a major role in agile organisations. Empowering employees to achieve their subsequent goals for achieving the actual goal of the company is significantly important. In BOM, there is also an environment of shared communication of values and vision. The governor and the board of directors in BOM attempts to communicate with every employee to ensure that the values are shared to every employee in BOM. Smart working is the way of working in an organisation that uses new technology. Therefore, it helps in establishing agile working as a norm for the organisation (Barroca et al. 2018). For example, in BOM, technology has entirely changed its functions.

The bank has introduced new security technologies for ensuring secured transactions. The new security technology embedded in Rs. 2000 notes by polymer security. These banknotes have become more durable and cleaner than earlier notes (BOM, 2019). The IT transformation project of BOM has also been introduced for advanced treasury solution and better inventory management of the currencies. These technologies have helped BOM to maintain the agility of the bank. Therefore, it can be stated that empowerment and smart working has been helpful for BOM to work as an agile organisation.

Task 3

Resources are considered to be the most important assets of an organisation—resources of business help in gaining a competitive advantage based on the performance. The performance of two similar organisations can be different based on the resources possessed by both the organisation. As per Jensen et al. (2016) the resource-based view, the effective application of the resources of an organisation can help in achieving competitive advantage in the respective market. In the analysis of the resource-based view, it is imperative to analyse resources based on the aspect of the tangibility of the resources. Therefore, for BOM, tangible and intangible resources of the business are needed to be listed. As BOM is a financial institution in Mauritius, the tangible resources of the organisation are the physical items. They are such as inventory, cash, machinery, building and land. These are considered to be the tangible resources as they can be liquefied at any time to achieve a set value of these resources (Kitonga, 2017). For financial institutions, these tangible assets can play a major role in deciding the financial standing of the organisation.

A balance sheet of the company suggests the financial position by entering the liquefied values of these resources. On the other hand, intangible resources are not physical in nature. The brand recognition, goodwill and the intellectual property of BOM are considered as the intangible resources. The intellectual properties of an organisation comprise the human resources and the technological resources an organisation possesses. Besides, intangible resources in financial institutions are considered as the current assets to be represented in the financial statement. In BOM, human resources are one of the most significantly important resources in the operations of the organisation (BOM, 2020). The resource-based view relies on both intangible and tangible resources of an organisation. As per the nature of the resources, it can be stated that all of these resources are immobile and heterogeneous.

These resources are heterogeneous as these resources are particularly owned by this organisation. Other organisations in a similar industry do not have the same resources (Ying et al. 2019). However, resources can be similar for different companies; they cannot be identical. On the other hand, these resources are also immobile as they are not easily available to be obtained by the competitors. The cost of developing the resources of BOM is high. Therefore, the resources can be considered immobile. The resources of BOM are considered as the central monetary institution of Mauritius. Therefore, as per Abeysekera (2019), it can be added that their resources such as human resources, payment technologies, and brand recognition and cash reserves are different from all the other commercial banks of the country. Therefore, as per the resource-based view, the resources of BOM are immobile as well as heterogeneous. Moreover, it is imperative to consider the VRIO framework in this case.

Valuable

The retail asset of BOM is significantly high, and the organisation has a wide branch network. The bank has 43 branches and 35 ATM facilities in different parts of Mauritius (BOM, 2020). The organisation also has effective technology such as digitised IPS and CPS. Innovation is a large part of operations. The wholesale banking facility is also significantly impactful. Therefore, these resources are valuable.

-yes

Rare

The use of technology is carried out innovatively by BOM. For example, the polymer banknotes java created a revolution in the banking sector of the country. Besides, the safety measures undertaken by the bank are distinct. The company conducts fire drill exercises also. Besides, the performance review system for the employees of the bank is distinct from other banks which ensure that the resources are rare.

-Yes

 VRIO Analysis for Bank of Mauritius

Figure 1: VRIO Analysis for Bank of Mauritius

(Source: Influenced by Vargas-Hernández et al. 2019)

Imitable 

The wide network of branches is not imitable by any other banks in Mauritius. Besides, the technology used in the operations of MauCAS is distinct. The best talents of the country also work in this bank. Therefore, as per (Kabue and Kilika, 2016), it can be added that the resources are not imitable.

-No

Organisation

BOM is continuously engaging new employees to carry out various duties. The IT teams are also engaged in innovation to increase the functionality of the company. The recruitment of the employees is carried out based on the capability of them to utilise the resources.

-Yes 

The VRIO analysis of BOM suggests that the infrastructure and capabilities of the organisation are favourable, which can help in gaining competitive advantage. In 2019, the monetary policy suggested by BOM had helped the economy to achieve growth. The domestic economy of Mauritius has been able to grow. The real GDP increased by 3.8% in 2018 (BOM, 2019). The consumption expenditure of the company has been able to increase by 3.4% in 2018 (BOM, 2019).  Therefore, it can be stated that the suggested monetary policies by BOM have been helpful for the economy of Mauritius. Besides, it is also important to consider that with the reach of the bank as a central bank, BOM is expected to achieve a competitive advantage in the country rather than other banks. The resource-based view also suggests that in the strategic decision making of the company, these resources have played a major role. Being the central bank, BOM has more recognition than any other bank. The wide customer base and networks in the country has helped BOM to have the capability of more effective decision making. Furthermore, the high investment in technological advancement for providing better systems to the customer has also contributed to the comparative edge. The technologies used in BOM such as cloud computing, Fintech, Artificial intelligence, SupTech have been introduced by this bank before any other banks (BOM, 2019). The decision of using these technologies is the result of the adequate capabilities and resources of the company. Besides, employees play a significant role in the decision making of a company. In BOM, there is an amalgamation of a high number of skilled employees from different fields. The human resources of BOM also participate in strategic decision making about the appropriate monetary policy of the company. Therefore, as per the resource-based view, BOM has been helped by the resources for efficient decision making.

Task 4

To carry out the self-assessment to analyse my ability to manage an agile organisation, a personal SWOT analysis needs to be carried out. The personal SWOT analysis can help in giving insights depending on the strength and weaknesses of a person. 

Personal SWOT Analysis

Strength 
  • Great passion for learning and curiosity
  • Substantial self-belief
  • Emphasising on priorities 
  • Respectful to team members 
Weakness
  • Poor communication skill
  • Vulnerability to changes 
  • Poor technological knowledge
  • Lack of willingness to take risks

Opportunity 
  • Promotion in future
  • More importance of agile institutions
  • Increased international operations in business
Threat
  • Downsizing in the company
  • Inadequate work-life balance
  • Lack of growth opportunities in future
  • The unfavourable financial crisis in the global market

Table 1: Personal SWOT analysis

The personal SWOT Analysis shows I have a significant number of strengths as well as weaknesses. The strength of having a passion for learning and curiosity can be significantly helpful for managing an agile organisation. Agile organisations are subjected to frequent changes in a short period. Therefore, this skill will be helpful for me in future. I also possess a significant amount of self-belief. In the constantly changing environment of these organisations, having self-belief is significant. The self-belief will help in leading the team in the agile organisation. This skill will also help me in having a balance of personal life and professional life. The skill of having a strong feeling of self-belief will also ensure I also trust my instincts while making decisions about the business. My skill of focusing on priorities before making a decision can also help me substantially. In managing an agile organisation, multiple activities take place at the same time. Therefore, prioritising the tasks based on the importance can be significantly helpful for me in the long run. As per my opinion, being respectful to others is an important trait for a leader. To maintain the agility of an organisation, cross-functional teams need to be created. Therefore, people from different functions can have different opinions about a decision. As a manager, I should be able to respect the opinions of all the employees. Therefore, my skill can be helpful in this case.

On the other hand, I also have a few weaknesses that can create hindrance in becoming a leader of an agile organisation. I have poor communication skills, and I cannot communicate in English specifically.  Poor communication skills will reduce my ability to express my opinion. Moreover, a lack of expertise to communicate in English can be significantly detrimental. Inability to communicate in English can also result in miscommunication which can be difficult in managing an agile organisation. Therefore, I need to improve my communication skills in general, along with having the ability to communicate in English. I am also vulnerable to changes in the workplace; however, in agile organisations, continuous change is inevitable. Therefore, I will be unable to manage the pressure of changes in the organisation. Besides, adjusting to the changes needs to be learned for agile businesses. The vulnerability can cause a lack of effective management. I also lack the technologic knowledge required for a business. Poor technological knowledge can lead to poor decision making, which can be problematic for managing these organisations. Agile organisations cannot be managed effectively without continuous technological advancement. Digitisation and other tools of technological advancement are needed to be present in these organisations. Therefore, technological skills need to be improved. I also prefer to avoid risk in any situation, which is my weakness. Therefore, this weakness can lead to ineffective management in future.  

The personal SWOT shows that there are a few areas in which I need to improve to become an effective manager of an agile organisation. At first, it is substantially important for me to improve my communication skill. The improvement of the communication skill can be helpful in an agile organisation as most agile organisations need to communicate with other organisations. Therefore, I have to improve the communication skills for business interaction in the agile organisation. Besides, I also need to improve my way of communicating in English. If I have to manage an agile organisation, the operations and communications will be conducted mostly in English as it is a universal language.

Moreover, more interaction in the English language will help in communicating with people from different countries more effectively. My vulnerability towards changes can also be detrimental. I need to improve this area as this vulnerability can impact my ability to conflict resolution. Knowledge about technology is also an area of improvement as effective knowledge about technology can be helpful in strategic decision making for an agile organisation. Continuous technological advancement is significantly required for agile businesses. Therefore, I have to improve my technological knowledge required for the business.

Agile organisations need to take risks frequently and should be able to experiment. I lack having the willingness to take risks. This attitude needs to be changed as risks are an important part of a business. An agile organisation has to face a significant number of risks to maintain the agility as compared to other organisations.

My personal development plan

Objectives
The reason behind choosing the objectives
Activities in the course 
Timeline
Communication skill certification course
Lack of effective communication skill
  • Learning to communicate
  • Practising to communicate
  • Practical experience of communication

6 months
Spoken English course
Poor English speaking
  • Learning to communicate in English
  • Learning the modern way of communication in English 

6 months
Conflict resolution course 
  • High vulnerability to changes
  • Reluctance to adjust to changes 


  • Learning about changes in business
  • Ways of adjusting to the change
  • Learning about conflicts contributed by changes in the business
  • Ways of resolving the conflicts

9 months 
Course for improving technological knowledge
  • Lack of technological knowledge
  • Poor knowledge about digital operations
  • Lack of knowledge on upcoming technological tools 

  • Learning about basic technologies
  • Learning about advanced technologies
  • Technological tools
  • Knowing about digital operations


12 months
Risk management course
  • Risk aversion
  • Poor risk management skill
  • Lack of knowledge about effective risk management 

  • Basic risk management skills
  • Learning about risk management tools
  • Advanced risk management skills

12 months 

Table 2: Personal development plan

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