barclays report

Cross Culture Management

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LETTER OF ACKNOWLEDGE

It has been a pleasure to be Dr. Kashif Mehmood students. We would like to thank him for

giving us the chance to understand and apply the theories of cross culture management in our

project. His lectures have been very informative. We are extremely grateful to him and

appreciate his efforts for providing us full support, encouragement and valuable guidance.

Sincere regards,

Lizna Tejani

Noureen Amin

Zarmeen Karimi


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LETTER OF TRANSMITAL

15th December, 2011

Dr. Kashif Mehmood

Iqra University

Respected Sir,

We are submitting this report, duly on 15-12-2011 that we are asked for. The report is entitled

Barclays Bank Communication Process.

The purpose of the report is to present the information about the cross culture management in

multi-national companies applied during the business operations worldwide.

Sincerely,

______________ _______________ ______________

Noureen Amin Zarmeen Karimi Lizna Tejani


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TABLE OF CONTENT

SERIAL

NUMBER

DESCRIPTION

PAGE

NUMBER

1 INTRODUCTION 4

2 HEIRARCHY 5

3

REGULAROTORY AND POLICIES

6

4 REWARDS AND BENEFITS 7

5 CULTURE AND DIVERSITY 8-9

6 STRATEGIES FOLLOWED AT BARCLAYS 10

7 EXECUTION PRIORITIES 10

8 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 11-12

9 COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AT

BARCLAYS 13

10 PROBLEMS 14-15

11 SOLUTIONS 16-17

12 CONCLUSION 18-19

13 REFERENCES 20


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INTRODUCTION

Barclays is a huge multi-national bank. Now days it’s operating in over fifty countries,

providing service to protect money for customers and clients worldwide. Their services

include retail banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth

management internationally in Europe, America, Africa, Asia and they are operating in

Pakistan since three years.

“We continue to believe the integrated universal banking model is the best one for all our

stakeholders. Our main focus is on executing our strategy and delivering on our promises to

customers and clients in everything we do, in every part of the business.”

Bob Diamond,

Chief Executive, Barclays PLC

Diversification of income by geography

41%

15%

24%

16%

4%UK

Europe

Americas

Africa and the MiddleEast

Asia


5

HEIRARCHY OF BARCLAYS


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REGULATORY AND POLICIES:

English language is mandatory for all employees working in Barclays.

Employees should be formally dressed.

Employees should be punctual.

Employees should meet all deadlines given by their heads.

Head could be appointed from the host country or the home country branch.

Bonuses would be given on the basis of performance.

Internal information should not be leaked out by any employee for security reason.

Employees are allowed to take 15 days leave annually.

These policies are followed in all subsidiaries according to their countries and their

culture.

OTHER POLICIES:

Equality and Diversity:

Barclays promises to support employees, customers and client’s values and respect their

culture to maintain equality and diversity. There is no discrimination among genders, race,

religion etc. They give equal rights to every one. They maintain equality and diversity among

all employees, suppliers, community and business practices worldwide.

Human Rights:

Barclays practice human rights in their organization and encourage their employees by giving

equal opportunity. It also takes into account other universally accepted human right

principles.

They also promote human rights through their employment practices, and through their

supply chain.

Health Safety and Welfare:

Barclays provide healthy and better environment to their employees and provide them with

safety and welfare and ensure their bright future. If health and safety management would be

efficient it will have a positive effect on the services they are giving to the customers and


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clients. Effective operating environment will assist their employees to make their customer

satisfied and in return customer will generate more profits for all their employees,

stakeholders and the communities in which they are serving.

Supply Chain:

According to their operating model, they believe on doing partnerships with outsiders only for

the supply chain of products and services .they believe there is a huge indirect impact of these

partnership on environment and society.

Sometimes they outsource their requirements but they never outsource their duties and

responsibilities.

REWARDS AND BENEFITS:

Barclay’s employees have a wide range of incentives and benefits including private health

care, working flexibility and performance incentives, which are different on the basis of

regions in which they are working. Employees can also purchase shares and enjoy tax-free

share save and they are allowed to take 30 days holidays annually.

Following are some more benefits which are as given below:

Discounts

Share purchase

Remuneration

Flexibility

Health

Employee networks


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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY

Culture at Barclays:

Culture is the most important part in every organization because it’s the key to lead the

success. A true success can be identified not only where they stand but through the journey

which they have gone through. Success includes innovations and creativity which people have

made to attain their organization goals.

Collective/Individual Success:

Team work and individual work both are appreciated in Barclays. they follow winning

together strategy which leads them to success.

Focus on Customer and Clients:

They understand the needs and want of the customer and try to deliver accordingly.

Trust:

Trust is the most important part in banking sector and they have built customer relationship.

Pioneering:

The ability to innovate drive idea generation to get better operation quality.

Diversity at Barclays:

People who are talented are the basis of their success, no matter what their style, personality,

age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

Gender:

In Barclays they appreciate women representing in senior roles. While they realize that this is

a dispute in all financial sectors as a whole, they are firmed to do all they can to support

women in fulfilling their career potential at Barclays.


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Age:

Across the Group, age is part of Barclay’s global strategy on equality and diversity, defending

people from discrimination.

Sexual Orientation:

At Barclays people are treated fairly, irrespective of their sexuality. Including how they

execute equality policies and their act on recruitment.

Race and Culture:

Barclays creates an environment which appreciates and supports different cultures, beliefs

and backgrounds within the organization.

Personal Development at Barclays:

Barclays seeks new talent for getting innovative ideas to bring change and development

within the organization. They ensure that development of employees would not stop after the

completion of their learning activities.

A performance development cycle has been design to assist employees for getting a clear set

of objectives for the year and which is also important for taking the right decisions for the

company.


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STRATEGIES FOLLOWED BY BARCLAYS

They have selected best strategies to serve their customer and clients as well as they have

adjusted risk return for their stakeholders.

Customer and Client Focus:

Their first priority is to satisfy their customer’s needs and requirements for developing a long

term customer relationship.

Geographic Spread:

Their main objective is to meet the needs of their clients and build a diversified resources,

business areas and geographic exposure.

Product Breadth:

The most important thing in every business is to capture customer attention through extensive

distribution channels.

Risk Management:

While taking decisions their main focus is on risk management. Because As a universal bank

they are more focused on customer relationship and they take care of the risk involved in the

customers decisions.

EXECUTION PRIORITIES

Capital:

Working within their capital resources

Returns:

Generate returns in excess of their cost of equity


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Income Growth:

Continuous growth in targeted markets and geographies

Citizenship:

Representing their values to society globally and in every community they serve.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Barclays is one of the responsible banks which work for the welfare of the society and also

train their employees to participate in it.

Barclays Make A Difference Day:

They organize a global event named as “Make a difference day”. In which they asked their

employees to share their knowledge and time and get involved in voluntarily.

SMB Fatimah Jinnah Girls College:

They did the community investment in this project in 2009, workers in Karachi were asked to

build personal ties with the students on various activities.

Understanding on Environmental Sustainability is a theme of volunteers in Karachi, and they

did a plantation at SMB Fatima Jinnah Secondary Girls School to provide a more hygienic

and healthy environment to the students.

The Citizens Foundation:

Barclays formed a relationship with TCF. Their team treated students of 2nd, 3rd and 4th

grades to a field-trip at the zoo and also had a lunch at McDonald's and at the end they took a

quiz on animals. Likewise, colleagues in Islamabad painted the walls and classrooms of the

School.


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Blood Donation Drives:

Since 2008 our workers at Barclays Pakistan have actively been indulged in Blood Donation

Drives to help charitable organizations like SIUT, Fatimid and Shaukat Khanam Memorial

Hospital. Blood donors assisted in collecting nearly 250 units of blood.

“We don’t realize how important this activity is. Thanks to the awareness created amongst us

and the ease of donating within the office premises, I am glad that at a personal level I am

now contributing in this manner which I hadn’t done ever before.”Quratullain Khalid –

Ramadan Time to Give Campaign:

Initially in the holy month of Ramadan after the launch of Barclays in 2008, workers have

been regularly contributing in the country. In 2009, the workers at Barclays Pakistan provide

food boxes to over 300 low income families. Each box provided contained Atta (flour), Rice,

etc.

Asad Ali, HR Head gave his personal views for the initiative taken by Barclays workers said:

“The Holy month of Ramadan nurtures patience, generosity and an opportunity to cleanse the

soul. Through the distribution of Ramadan packages, our Barclays colleagues extended the

bounties of generosity to the less fortunate in the spirit of this blessed month”Asad Ali - HR

Head


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COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AT BARCLAYS

Effective communication is very important in every organization. It helps in improving

organization life and organization output. In Barclays Pakistan a UK expatriate has been

appointed by the parent company so that the communication between the host and home

country branch could be improved. He conveys the queries which employees are facing in

Pakistan to parent company. After analyzing the queries parent company respond accordingly.

Board Meeting:

Board meetings at Barclays held once in a month only for the authorized people which

includes branch managers, expatriate, CEO of the company etc. In which they discuss queries

and the situations which they have gone through in a particular month. Then parent company

suggests some solutions for certain situations which totally depend on the expatriate decision

because he knows the condition of the country he is working in. after taking the final

decisions head circulate the decision to all the branch managers and then branch managers

conveys the decisions to employees which they have to follow.

Video Conferencing:

Barclays is multi-national company so the parent company is in UK and to communicate with

other subsidiaries they use the medium of video conferencing. Board meeting held through

video conferencing which is the best way now a days because through this way we can

communicate face to face, proper eye contact, non verbal communication etc.which will help

them to understand their reactions.


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PROBLEMS

Barclays as subsidiaries in Pakistan could be facing many problems which are as follows:

Terrorism Risk:

As we are aware of the worst situations Pakistan is facing now a days. People of Pakistan are

threatened by kidnapping, bomb blast, robbery, snatching etc. obviously it can also be

harmful for banking sector because in these kind of situations government usually announces

holidays because of which businesses suffer from losses. And robbery is also an uncertain

situation in which usually banks become victim.

Culture Differences:

Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for

behavior that we find out as we grow up. These basics of culture have been passed to us

through our parents, teachers and people around us.

As we have discussed above that Barclays have appointed UK expatriate as executive in

Barclays head office Pakistan. As he has came from different culture so he would be facing

difficulties in adjusting in new environment. Language barrier is the major problem for an

expatriate because language is the only source of communication.

Economic Risk:

Now a day’s economy of Pakistan is going down and facing recession problem because of

that Pakistani currency (rupees) is devaluing so it’s really hard for all multinational business

to attain their target profits as it always inconsistent and fluctuating. Barclays would also be

bearing risk because of economical issues in Pakistan.


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Political Risk:

Pakistan’s government is facing many challenges to its authority; it includes lawlessness,

confiscation, questionable pavements, expropriation, bribery etc.

Every foreign company has to pay certain amount for making a subsidiary in host country

same is for Barclays, as in Pakistan there is a chance of inconsistency in law so the

government could charge or may demand more fine for subsidiary and the foreigner are not

used to and unaware of these actions.

State Bank Policies:

Changing of state bank policies could create a big problem for Barclays. For example this

year state bank of Pakistan abruptly banned 500 rupees note and one of the bank in Pakistan

was unable to exchange notes on time from state bank of Pakistan. Due to this they suffer

great losses.

In past years state bank of Pakistan had announced official holiday on Sunday only, due to

this reason Barclays mentioned Sunday holiday in their policies of Pakistan subsidiary.

Recently state bank of Pakistan has also announced holiday twice in a week (Saturday and

Sunday) which brought difficulty for Barclays to meet their target which they have set before.

Religious Differences:

The state religion in Pakistan is Islam which is totally different from other religions. in uk

they practice their religion and their ceremonies and religious events are totally different from

Islamic values and ceremonies but since they have started business in Pakistan so they have to

take care about our religion and our culture. In Islamic countries government announce

official holidays on various religious occasions like Eid, Ramadan, Ashura etc. due to these

occasions those multi-national companies working with Islamic country suffer losses.

Communication Problems:

Every multi-national company which is operating subsidiary in other country should look

after their language for the convenience of customers which will help their company to grow.

Barclays is UK based so their language is British English which is very difficult to understand

by people of Pakistan because their national language is urdu so they cant understand their

language and they cant get information of new product which Barclays is launching and so

the problem is with UK also that they cant understand urdu language.


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SOLUTION

Terrorism Risk:

These problems can be tackled by high alert to the security system as recently Barclays is

using a specific system by which they can directly contact to phoenix for robbery situation.

Another problem which Barclays is facing holidays incase of uncertain situations and for this,

the solution could be overtime by employees to meet their target.

Culture Differences:

This problem has been solved by using English language as mandatory for all employees for

reducing language barrier between home and host country subsidiary. Another solution have

been made is that they organize events quarterly so that they can all get to know each other

and also mingle up with expatriate boss. By doing this he would not be degrading employees

and they would be having a strong bonding which will create a meteoritic society.

Economic Risk:

Pakistani currency (rupees) is devaluing so it’s really hard for all multinational business to

attain their target profits as it always inconsistent and fluctuating. This problem could be

solving by budgeting and forecasting according to the economic situation of Pakistan.

Political Risk:

Pakistan’s government is facing many challenges to its authority; it includes lawlessness,

confiscation, questionable pavements, expropriation, bribery etc. this problem could be solve

by building the public relations, create links and references.


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State Bank Policies:

This year state bank of Pakistan abruptly banned 500 rupees note and one of the bank in

Pakistan was unable to exchange notes on time from state bank of Pakistan. solution of this

problem could be building strong relation and contact with state bank of Pakistan so that they

can get immediate information about the changes occurred in state bank of Pakistan.

In past years state bank of Pakistan had announced official holiday on Sunday only, Recently

state bank of Pakistan has also announced holiday twice in a week (Saturday and

Sunday).Solution for this problem has been made by Barclays that now they are working on

alternate Saturdays so that they can accomplish their target.

Religious Differences:

Since they have started business in Pakistan so they have to take care about our religion and

our culture. In Islamic countries government announce official holidays on various religious

occasions like Eid, Ramadan, Ashura etc. due to these occasions those multi-national

companies working with Islamic country suffer losses. As we have discussed above that they

are working on Saturdays and doing overtime for getting rid of the losses.

Communication Problem:

Barclays is UK based so their language is British English which is very difficult to understand

by people of Pakistan because their national language is Urdu. They can’t get information of

new product which Barclays is launching. Solution for this problem has been made by

Barclays that they have opened call center in Karachi in which they have appointed those

people who knows both language (British English and Urdu) so that they can easily

communicate with Pakistani people and get to know the customers needs and requirements.


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CONCLUSION

Barclays is one of the successful leading banks worldwide. Now days it’s operating in over

fifty countries, providing service to protect money for customers and clients worldwide. Their

services include retail banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth

management internationally in Europe, America, Africa, Asia and they are operating in

Pakistan since three years.

There are many rules and regulation followed by Barclays which are as given below:

English language is mandatory for all employees working in Barclays

Employees are allowed to take 15 days leave annually

Internal information should not be leaked out by any employee for security reason.

Their policy reflects the legal requirements valid in the UK as resulting from the

United Nations and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

conventions on bribery and corruption.

Equality and Diversity

Human Rights

Health Safety and Welfare

The Barclays Group Sanctions Policy is designed to ensure that the Group complies

with applicable sanctions laws in every jurisdiction in which it operates.

Culture is the most important part in every organization because it’s the key to lead the

success. A true success can be identified not only where they stand but through the journey

which they have gone through. Culture and diversity followed at Barclays include:

Team work and individual work both are appreciated in Barclays. they follow

winning together strategy which leads them to success.

They understand the needs and want of the customer and try to deliver accordingly

Trust is the most important part in banking sector and they have built customer

relationship.

The ability to innovate drive idea generation to get better operation quality.

People who are talented are the basis of their success, no matter what their style,

personality, age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.


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Barclays is one of the responsible bank which work for the welfare of the society and also

train their employees to participate in it. Barclays have done many voluntary work and

charities at many places which are as given below:

SMB FATIMAH JINNAH GIRLS COLLEGE

THE CITIZENS FOUNDATION

BLOOD DONATION DRIVES

RAMADADN TIME TO GIVE CAMPAIGN

In Barclays Pakistan a UK expatriate has been appointed by the parent company so that the

communication between the host and home country branch could be improved. All medium

they are using for communication but particularly for host and home country communication

they use video conferencing as a medium in Board meeting.

Barclays as subsidiaries in Pakistan could be facing many problems which are as follows:

Terrorism risk

Culture differences

Economical risk

Political risk

State bank policies

Religious difference

Solutions for these problems are as follows:

Barclays is using a specific system by which they can directly contact to phoenix for

robbery situation

Barclays is facing holidays incase of uncertain situations and for this, the solution

could be overtime

Another solution have been made is that they organize events quarterly so that they

can all get to know each other and also mingle up with expatriate boss

Budgeting and forecasting according to the economic situation of Pakistan

Building strong relation and contact with state bank of Pakistan so that they can get

immediate information about the changes occurred in state bank of Pakistan.

They are working on alternate Saturdays so that they can accomplish their target.

They have opened call center in Karachi in which they have appointed those people

who knows both language (British English and Urdu).


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REFERENCES

http://www.barclays.pk/contact/careers/

http://www.barclays.pk/community_investments/

http://group.barclays.com/About-us/Executing-our-strategy

http://www.barclays.co.uk/PersonalBanking/P1242557947640

http://www.barclays.pk/contact/careers/

http://www.barclays.pk/community_investments/

http://group.barclays.com/About-us/Executing-our-strategy

http://www.barclays.co.uk/PersonalBanking/P1242557947640


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barclays report

Documents

opened call center

wealth management internationally

blood donation drives

cross culture management

announced official holiday

organize events quarterly

home country branch

recently state bank