Conducting Research at Wells Fargo
Potential Issues
Wells Fargo is an American financial institution which has been embroiled in a series of downturn trends in the past two years, with the most prominent challenge being the fake account scandal. This followed the malpractices which were committed by the employees who opened fake accounts without the consent of the customers, hence leading a scam and a bad reputational court case. The company was fined $185 million over the case after it accepted the liability of the scandal. The problem arose due to unethical sales practices which encouraged unhealthy competition amongst the employees for benefits (Glazer, 2016). The competitiveness is a result of the organizational culture which diversifies a range of products to be sold by employees, hence resulting into malpractices to the unsuspecting customers, who are scammed through the online banking platforms. This scandal has affected the reputation, technological applicability, and the role of management in monitoring the sales practice and organizational culture in general.
Wells Fargo needs a well established research on how to re-establish itself and create an organizational culture which will win back its reputation and build trust with jaded customers. The research should address the organizational culture, especially the sales practices in the company, which have led to scandals and loss of reputation. Also, it should address the ways in which the company can rebuild its trustworthiness with millions of customers who are possibly shocked by the revelation of the scandal. In this regard, the research will seek information on rebuilding the lost glory and coming back to competitiveness. Another issue which should be addressed by the study should be the malpractices posed by online banking and technology in general (Cohn et al., 2014). The management has to seek information on how to better monitor the online and sales policies which the employees have abused and worked against the wells Fargo.
Indicators of Ineffectiveness at Wells Fargo
There is continued investor unrest and call for a change of regime at the financial institutions, coupled with decreasing lending rates by the company. Crisis management at the company has been messy with the company instead turning its attention to the employees, leading to dismissal of tens of thousands of them, in an effort to rebuild the confidence in investors. The company’s board is often defensive and promising the stakeholders of a quick fixation to the broken relationships and scandals. The Wall Street Journal has faulted the extent of crisis management at the company, as the banks looks headed for oblivion and possible closure (Glazer, 2016). The continued court cases and negative media coverage also indicate the extent with which the organization is embroiled in crisis, following the scandal of online opening of accounts without the consent of the investors. There are thus several writings on the wall to indicate that wells Fargo needs research to inform on the next move based on the current state of the organization and the lost reputation in the …
