International Bank of Malaysia

1. CASE SUMMARY

International Bank of Malaysia was worldwide recognized commercial banking organization, originated from the United States which charters their branches all around the world. This organization plants itself in Malaysia and it gives a fair amount of autonomy for the local people to take part in the operation. The main concern of the Headquarters is the administration of “International” transactions.

Mr. Ian Dankworth is the branch manager of the Kuala Lumpur office of the International Bank of Malaysia. He holds the responsibility to oversee the overall performance of International’s Malaysian affairs. Mr. Ian is the direct boss over Mr. Wong and Mr. Zainuddin, which puts him in a difficult position to make a fair and advantageous decision for the benefit of the bank. Ian also faces the challenges of imbalanced racial composition and he needs to find a solution to comply with the government policy of management level employee composition.

Mr. Wong Chin Poh is the credit manager who holds the authority to approve all incoming loan application within their limit. He runs the small but professional team that performs a critical function on loan approval. Ian labelled him as “immature” with a sense of making pranks which cause him lose the respect his staff have for him as an executive. He is competent in his work and has the potential to develop.

Mr. Zainuddin leads the Administration Department which deals with most of the incoming applications and then distributes the work to the respective departments. Mr. Zainuddin works closely with Mr. Wong, which given a different set of personalities caused an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation. In terms of his personality, Mr. Zainuddin is quite favoured by his staff for being a likeable person, easy-going and with a good sense of humour. But he lacks in the technical aspect and in his personal discipline to be on time. His staff finds him to be late for work, taking extended lunch hours and disappear without an explanation.

From the case study, it is obvious that these two department heads have a sort of tension going on, which is reflected by a small dispute over the bidding of carrom boards. From there, it is possible to draw a conclusion that these two men have some sort of prejudice and it is now up to Mr. Ian to decide on how to resolve this issue, with the addition of other issues on Mr. Ian’s shoulders.

2.0         PROBLEM STATEMENT

        This chapter aims to identify and list down the possible issues that are happening in this case study. International Bank of Malaysia is going through a challenging time, which the company is facing external pressure and internal conflict. To effectively solve the issues available, the organization needs to accurately identify the issues and solve them accordingly. In this chapter, several problems will be identified and one of it will be chosen to be the main problem, which will be the problem statement.

        2.1         Internal Conflict between Mr. Wong and Mr. Zainuddin

In the case study, both Mr. Wong and Mr. Zainuddin are struggling with each other in their working relationship. Their actions have caused tension in the workplace and they always seem to put in the effort to discredit the other. In terms of their position, both men are at equal standing and it is obvious that both parties have bad impressions of one another and are not willing to agree to a settlement. They resent one another, refuse to give way and stand firm in their decision and that caused lower synergies between departments.

In terms of character and attitude, both men have their own issues. As for Mr. Zainuddin, he is a likeable person within the department for being candid with the staff and can be assumed that he practices a smaller range of power distance. On the other hand, Mr. Zainuddin shows a lack of discipline in the areas of coming to work on time and being accountable to his whereabouts. He is seen to abuse his position to get away with disciplinary issues and it causes his staff to follow his bad example. However, if discipline was applied to the staff, then they would comment on why Mr. Zainuddin can get away with it and they are being given a warning. This causes then to feel that the management is bias towards Mr. Zainuddin. He also carries an unexpected temper over small issues, as it is visible from the event of losing the bid on the Carrom board.

As for Mr. Wong, he is not far from his nemesis. In the case study, he is pictured as an         intelligent and hard worker. But his personality is based on pride and the tendency to         show dominance. Besides that, there is a scent of immature acts as described in the case study and confirmed in the carrom board bidding event. This tension between both men is a major issue and must be solved in the most effective and non-offensive strategy to get these department heads to have a healthy working relationship.

2.2         Imbalanced Racial Composition

Through the case study, it is obvious that International Bank of Malaysia is facing a huge challenge to restructure its management level staff to conform to the government regulations of a balanced racial composition. During the previous inspection done by the Ministry of Labor, Ian received a notice that describes the need to follow the requirements. The organization was then forced to provide a short written agreement that they will take steps to meet the government requirements. Therefore, within the near future, Ian expects the Ministry of Labor to return with the intention to observe changes towards their desired composition. If the organization fails to meet these requests, the government can choose to revoke their charter in Malaysia.

        2.3         Problem Statement of this Case Study

For this case study, the main visible issue is the internal conflict between Mr. Wong and Mr. Zainuddin. This conflict causes lower performance and affects the workplace environment. This responsibility falls on Mr. Ian, as he makes the right decision and the most effective strategy to resolve this problem. Therefore, the next few chapters will contain more information of which strategy to effectively and efficiently approach this sensitive issue.

3.0        ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES

3.1        Do immediate transfer to the Personnel Department

Mr. Zainuddin is described as a nice person with a good sense of humor who often exercises it even at his own expense. Due to this character, he is likeable by the staffs. It shows that he has a good relationship with the staffs. Despite the good personality characteristics, he has issues in his job performance, since he is the Head of Department for Administration and Account Department, surely it required very technical skills in solving all the jobs, but then, Mr. Ian found that Mr. Zainuddin is idle and weak in technical level. This in other word means that he did not perform well in his job. Apart from that, he has issues regarding the office discipline as well. He always turns up late for work. He also often disappears from office for hours without any explanation or reason. Besides that, he also takes extended many hours despite repeated requests, threats and instructions from management to comply with standard office routine. All the unethical work issues rouse the dissatisfaction among the staff. This is because when the staffs are doing the same issues as Mr. Zainuddin, they will receive a warning letter from the senior management but Mr. Zainuddin simply can get away with the problem.