Influence of cross-cultural dynamics on performance of Barclays bank in Kenya

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges is how to manage human resources in global level. Human resource management needs to understand cross-cultural issue in holistic manner in order to maximize the potential of each employee. This study was set out to examine factors influencing cross-cultural dynamics at Barclays bank and to establish the influence of cross-cultural dynamics on performance of Barclays bank. The study was conducted through a case study design; this kind of design was considered suitable for this research because it involved a complete observation of Barclays bank. Primary data was used to collect using an interview guide. Data collected was analyzed using content analysis. The raw data was collected from the Heads of Departments in Marketing, Human Resource, Finance, Administration and Operations. The study concluded that the factors that influenced cross-cultural dynamics at Barclays bank were sharing of knowledge and ideas, unity of purpose, flexibility, top management support, cooperation and communication between the employees. Cross-cultural dynamics allowed employees to explore and learn new skills and ideas which were considered key in enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness in their contribution towards the organisation. This gave employees patience and resilience in handling issues and solving problems. The top management was motivated to effectively support the employees to contribute towards the realization of set goals and targets. The study further concluded that through crosscultural dynamics, the employees learnt new ideas and skills which were maximized to achieve banking innovations. The study further concluded that cross-cultural dynamics gave employees some level of efficiency which improved their concentration and efforts in their work and this improved their productivity and performance. Having a different pool of talents from diverse backgrounds enabled the employees to have a shared vision, this increased their focus and commitment towards achieving set goals and objectives. The study recommends that Barclays bank of Kenya should hire employees from different parts of the word to improve inter-cultural team building this will promote intercultural competencies which will create a favourable environment for the employees to work towards improved bank performance. Further, the study recommends that Barclays bank should formulate a policy that provides equal chances for all the employees across the world by recruiting and hiring employees on the basis of their qualification and competence for the job. This will provide an opportunity for Barclays bank to attract a large pool of talents and select the best. The major limitation of the study was time and cost constraints the study limited itself to a case study of Barclays Bank of Kenya. This implies that the findings obtained in this study are unique to this bank and hence cannot be applied directly to another commercial bank or to make generalization of all the commercial banks in Kenya. The study suggests that a similar study should be carried out targeting commercial banks in Kenya to establish whether there are common factors that influence commercial banks to cross-cultural dynamics then findings can be compared and a reliable conclusion can be drawn based on concrete facts.