Lloyds Banking Group Integration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Lloyds Banking Group Integration - Essay Example Organisational Structures Special Issues for Banks Martin and Fellenz (2010, p.592) define organisation structure as â€Å"the formal arrangement of task, communication and authority relationships that influence and control how people co-ordinate and conduct their work†. It is assumed that organisations can choose their structures and change them through what Brunsson and Olsen (1993, p.211) refer to as â€Å"administrative reforms†, which they define as â€Å"expert attempts at changing organisational forms† (ibid). They claim the belief that formal organisations can be changed originates in â€Å"a rational, instrumental tradition† which assumes a hierarchical approach to leadership and power with an unequal distribution of work and working conditions, among other things (ibid, p.212). They question how much choice, in reality, organisational leaders have when they decide to change the organisational structure. For Lloyds Group, this is a particularly pe rtinent issue as consideration is being given to breaking up the larger banks to avoid the â€Å"too big to fail† belief following the global economic crisis of 2007-2008 (Treanor, 2011). The USA had, until 1999, regulations in place imposed by the Glass-Steagall Act 1934, which required different banking functions to be kept separate. Following the crisis, several commentators suggested the UK might consider such an approach (Goddard et al, 2009, p.374), although some believe it is unlikely to be implemented (Hindle, 2009, p.422). For Lloyds, such a break-up would be change imposed by the environment rather than a choice for senior management, something that Brunsson and Olsen see as a key issue for those who look to change organisational structures. They believe any organisational change is affected to a greater or lesser extent by the context within which that change takes place and organisational structure can simply be the result of a series of unconnected events that we re not originated by the organisation (1993, p.219). As the banking industry is currently subject to heavy scrutiny by both government and the public, any changes Lloyds Group decide to make will be affected by that scrutiny and the prevailing culture of risk avoidance. In addition to the possibility of an imposed break-up, Lloyds must also consider the current regulatory requirements that insist on divisions, whether real or virtual, between different functions within the Group (â€Å"Chinese walls†) to avoid issues such as insider trading and dealing with privileged information, something the USA have recently reconsidered within the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Hay and Goebel 2010). This analysis must therefore be considered in the light of the specific requirements of the banking industry currently in place and the likelihood that further changes will be required in the immediate short term. Possible Organisational Structures The structure of an organisation should be determined by the strategy the organisation pursues and the business undertaken to deliver products and services to customers (Mullins 2010). Lloyds Group needs to determine what business it is in and how it intends doing that business, before it can decide how to integrate the different parts of the Group. On the assumption that the purpose of the integration