bank of america analysis

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the biggest banks in the world. It provides its customers a broad variety of financial services, including money transfer, payment for products and services bought, bank deposits and currency exchange. The Bank of America’s primary objective is to provide its customers with the best financial services both domestically and internationally. This is done by a variety of creative techniques, such as the use of online and mobile banking (Plunkett, 2008). Bank of America has been able to represent a vast population of Americans and other foreign people through such methods. The bank’s target is to be the best in the world. To achieve this objective, Bank of America is expanding its operation to many countries in the world. It has also been acquiring other corporations, such as Meryl Lynch, to broaden its asset base (Depamphilis 2010, p. 165). Currently, the Bank of America has $152 billion in capital, $2.1 trillion cash deposits, $171 billion cash on hand, and $1.2 trillion in total deposits (The Wall Street Journal, n.d.). The values made it the leading bank in the United States considering capital and value.

PESTEL Analysis

Political Factors

The Bank of America faces such political influence such as war and terrorism. For example, it does not operate in war tone countries like Syria and Iran (Jackowicz, Kowalewski, & Kozłowski, 2013). The violence that comes with war and terrorism activities would destroy it infrastructures such as ATM stations and offices Political factors of any given nation have a significant effect on corporation performance. The Bank of America also does not operate in these countries because there is a low level of business transactions that limits demand for financial services (Boehmer et al. 2005, p. 2004).

Economic Factors

Economic conditions such as inflation, GDP growth, unemployment, and trade balances may directly affect the Bank of America foreign and domestic investment (Liang & Reichert 2006, p. 25). The bank is significantly affected due to the exposure to the wider market. For example, high inflation in would increase cost at Bank of America offer services. However, the high unemployment rate can motivate the bank to invest due to the availability of cheap labor. Besides, high GDP growth for example in China would attract the bank to invest owing to the increased demand for financial services (Liang & Reichert, 2006).

Social Factors

The Bank of America is affected by many social factors, such as population composition, workforce, the structure of the population, and consumption habits (Goyal and Joshi 2011, p. 52). For example, increase in population leads to rising demand for financial services. Thus Bank of America utilizes the increasing demand to expand its operations. Similarly, countries with a high number of educated citizens will provide Bank of America with skilled personnel required for various tasks as in the United (Goyal and Joshi, 2011, p.54).

Technological Factors

The Bank of America will also experience the influence of technological factor. The majority of the world population is using mobile devices and online platform to carry out transactions. Bank of Africa would have to adopt these technologies to grow and succeed in the global market (Plunkett, 2008). The cost and accessibility of mobile devices may significantly influence how people use mobile banking. The high cost of mobile devices would limit the use of mobile banking, and this may reduce the number of services the bank can offer.

Legal Factors

Bank of America is affected by legal factors, such as tax policies and foreign investment laws. These factors limit the bank’s operations and expansion. The Bank of America may not establish its branch in a given country if the taxes are too high or when there is a restriction on some profits that can be plowed back (Janowicz et al. 2013, p.765). However, certain legislation, such as tax relief, can promote the foreign bank investment.

Task 2

Structure and Functions of Bank of America

The Bank of America is managed by the Board of Directors who has controlling power and is responsible for decision making. The Board is headed by the Chairman of the Board, and the decision then trickles down to President. The structure hierarchical and start with the CEO, then managing director and to the rest of the employees. The organization has various key departments of divisions which are working in collaboration to realize the goals of the organization. The departments include the Research and Development department, marketing department and Human Resource Department and Finance Department.

The Human Resource Department identifies, recruit and train employees for various task. It also ensures that the bank has an adequate staff. The training process helps workers to grow and progress and thus limit the need for continuous recruitment of new personnel to fill job vacancies. Thus, human resource ensures that organization continues to operate efficiently. It has ensured that the bank performed well. (Zaik et al. 1996, p. 83).

The Research and Development Department carries out research on changes in the market which can give a company a competitive front. Through these research, the bank identifies areas to improve to be more competitive. The research also provides the changes in customers demand and needs in the market so that the bank can act as appropriate (Zaik et al. 1996, p. 85).

The Marketing department is making the bank be known in the domestic and global market. It disseminates information to potential customers on new service, product or innovation. Thus, it enlightens the clients on the bank operations.

The other department is Finance ensures an optimal usage of funds without wastage. It also makes sure that the corporation investment provides an adequate return, and those proceeds invested in viable projects.

The functions carried out by the various banks complement each other to accomplish the organizational goal. The finance department provides needed funds for marketing and recruitment of new employees. The human resource department, on the other hand, ensures that each section of the bank has right and qualified staffs (Lin and Pao, 2004). Research and development provide information to the human resource for recruitment and also to the marketing department as to the changing needs of customers. Thus all these sections operate collaboratively to achieve the bank goal of provision of better financial services.

Culture of Bank of America

Bank of America has cultures of maintaining good relation with customers. This culture is a core value to the bank, and every employee must embrace it. To achieve the bank maintain good communication with it clients (Segev, Porra, and Roldan, 1998). It responds to their inquiries by providing timely feedback. Bank of America provides contact such as email and numbers in which their client scan reach them at any given time. The bank also has customer care that responds to urgent inquiries. Through such better communication and customer relations, the bank has managed to build customer trust and loyalty. Besides, it has increased its client base and some services it offers on a daily basis.

Task 3

Role of HRM/L&D in achieving organizational goals

Bank of America aims to provide better customer services. It seeks to lead in the globe in the provision of financial services. To achieve these objectives, the human plays a significant role. The HRM department ensures that the bank has an adequate number of employees by carrying out periodic recruitment. It liars with other units of the bank to make sure that sufficient staffs are available for various tasks. The HRM also help to reduce the number of staff when required especially during economic downturn. The L& D department provides training and development need to the existing employees and the new recruits. The L&D unit orients new hires to the corporate policy and working conditions by making sure that they are adequately equipped to handle the various task in the bank (Leigh et al. 1992, p. 1205). Through training, it also ensures that the Bank has the adequate qualified personnel to fill in various positions in case of a vacancy (Kaila, 2005). The HRM and L&D department ensures that Bank of America adequate qualified staff and this help to ensures that customers need are well taken care of at all times.

HRM/L&D support to line managers and staffs

The work of the managers are to provide direction to the junior employees, and they are to take responsibilities on ensuring that the employees follow the correct way while performing their various tasks. Human resource management department supports the managers through identifying gaps that employment gaps and conducting periodic recruitment (Kaila, 2005). Through such recruitment, it makes sure that there are enough workers for any given tasks. It coordinates with the L&D department to identify, recruit and train an individual for particular roles within the bank. This provides managers with diversified workforce (Kaila, 2005). The L& D department trains employees on various task to allow them to work function well under their line managers. Through such training, L& D department provides workers with an opportunity to develop and become fit for various promotional options available within the bank. Such adequate staffing ensures all of the organization activities take place as planned. Therefore, an organization can only perform well in when there is a well-functioning human resource personnel. Besides, coordination among various departments ensures efficient operation and high performance within an institution.

References

Boehmer, E., Nash, R.C. and Netter, J.M., 2005. Bank privatization in developing and developed countries: Cross-sectional evidence on the impact of economic and political factors. Journal of Banking & Finance, 29(8), pp.1981-2013.

Depamphilis, D. M. (2010). Mergers, acquisitions, and other restructuring activities: an integrated approach to process, tools, cases, and solutions. Burlington, MA, Elsevier/Academic Press.

Goyal, K.A., and Joshi, V., (2011). A study of social and ethical issues in the banking industry. International Journal of Economics and Research, 2(5), pp.49-57.

Janowicz, K., Kowalewski, O., and Kozłowski, Ł., 2013. The influence of political factors on commercial banks in Central European countries. Journal of Financial Stability, 9(4), pp.759-777.

Kaila, H. L. (2005). Human resource management. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications.

Leigh, J.P., Richardson, N., Beck, R., Kerr, C., Harrington, H., Parcell, C.L. and Fries, J.F. (1992). Randomized controlled study of a retiree health promotion program: the Bank of America study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 152(6):1201-1206.

Liang, H. Y., & Reichert, A. (2006). The relationship between economic growth and banking sector development. Banks and Bank Systems, 2(1), 19-35.

Lin, J.H. and Pao, S.H. (2004). Portfolio approach and firm approach? Remarks on the futures of strategic bank management. Journal of Futures Studies, Tamkang University, 9(2):43-54.

Plunkett, W. (2008). Plunkett’s Banking, Mortgages & Credit Industry Almanac 2009 The only complete guide to the business of Banking, Lending, Mortgages and Credit Cards. Plunkett Research Ltd.

Segev, A., Porra, J. and Roldan, M. (1998). Internet security and the case of Bank of America. Communications of the ACM, 41(10):81-87.

The Wall Street Journal. (n.d.). BAC stock price & News - Bank of America Corp. - Wall Street journal. Retrieved from http://quotes.wsj.com/BAC

Zaik, E., Walter, J., Retting, G. and James, C. (1996). RAROC at Bank of America: from theory to practice. Journal of applied corporate finance, 9(2):83-93