From the Goldsmith & Carter textbook, select the Bank of America (Chapter 2) case study for this assignment.
Write a five to seven (5-7) page paper in which you:
- Outline the talent management program that led to success for the company.
- Identify strengths of the program and how they led to goal accomplishment.
- Describe opportunities for improvement in the talent management planning process.
- Create at least two (2) more effective approaches to meet the talent management challenges in the future.
- Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
- Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA format.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
17 CHAPTER 2 BANK OF AMERICA BRIAN FISHEL AND JAY CONGER A comprehensive, multi - phased executive on - boarding program that leverages multiple sources of feedback, coaching, and leadership and cultural competencies. Introduction Company Background The Leadership Dilemma The Need for On - Boarding Interventions at the Executive Leadership Level Leadership Development Activities for Executive Leaders The Design Assumptions Underlying the Bank of America ’ s Executive On - Boarding Process The Bank of America ’ s Executive On - Boarding Program: Phases and Interventions Lessons for Designing On - Boarding for Executive Leaders ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ c02.indd 17c02.indd 17 10/30/09 5:03:10 PM10/30/09 5:03:10 PM C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 . P f e i f f e r . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w . EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 4/30/2020 6:11 PM via STRAYER UNIVERSITY AN: 305508 ; Carter, Louis, Goldsmith, Marshall.; Best Practices in Talent Management : How the World's Leading Corporations Manage, Develop, and Retain Top Talent Account: strayer.main.eds-live 18 Best Practices in Talent Management INTRODUCTION The Bank of America is the fi rst true national retail banking brand in the United States. Over the last two decades, the bank has grown dramatically, primarily through acquisi- tions. It began as the small regional North Carolina National Bank and has become one of the largest companies in the world. As a fi nancial institution, it serves individual consumers, small - and middle - market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management, and other fi nancial and risk - management products and services. Following the acquisition of Merrill Lynch on January 1, 2009, Bank of America is among the world ’ s leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes serving corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals around the world. The company serves clients in more than 150 countries. In this chapter, we will describe the Bank of America ’ s executive on - boarding programs. Through a multi - phased approach supported by comprehensive feedback and coaching mechanisms, the bank ’ s programs have proven highly effective at both pre - empting leadership failures and for accelerating the knowledge and relationships necessary to step into an executive role. Our insights are drawn from an in - depth case analysis of these on - boarding programs at the Bank of America. Company Background The Bank of America example is one of the most comprehensive approaches to execu- tive on - boarding in the fi eld today. It also has a proven track record of seven years with successful results. For example, the Bank of America hired 196 externally hired execu- tives between 2001 and May 2008 and had experienced twenty - four terminations — a new hire turnover rate of approximately 12 percent. This compares to estimates as high as 40 percent turnover in large corporations (Watkins, 2003). The Bank of America has tested its approaches out on a very large sample of on - boarded executives — over fi ve hundred internal and external over the last seven years. Over the last decade, the Bank of America has been actively involved in acquisitions as well as organic growth. As a result, the organization must annually on - board a signifi cant number of executives — both externally and internally sourced. This demand has created many opportunities to learn about the effi cacy of various executive on - boarding interventions. In addition, the Bank of America ’ s on - boarding program is expressly designed to help new executives learn to be facile at navigating the bank ’ s large matrixed organi- zation as well as building and leveraging networks of relationships for career success and for implementing company initiatives. These same demands are common in most large corporations today. We feel that this particular case holds lessons that readers in a wide range of organizations will therefore fi nd useful. The Leadership Dilemma The fi rst - time executive leader faces three dilemmas as he or she steps into a new role. In a brief period of time, the leader must gain mastery over a complex and demanding role. c02.indd 18c02.indd 18 10/30/09 5:03:11 PM10/30/09 5:03:11 PM EBSCOhost - printed on 4/30/2020 6:11 PM via STRAYER UNIVERSITY. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use Bank of America 19 The learning demands are often the most pronounced in a manager ’ s career. Second, expectations are high. It is assumed that the incoming executive already has the season- ing to lead in the new situation. After all, most executives have already spent years in managerial roles beforehand. As a result, there is little developmental feedback for those at the top of organizations. These two challenges produce the third dilemma. The proba- bility of the incoming executive ’ s derailment is high. Complex new role demands com- bined with a lack of developmental support can produce a “ perfect storm ” in terms of failure on the job. As can easily be imagined, the price of leadership failures in the executive ranks is very costly for any organization. Beyond the direct costs of on - the - job development, severance, and recruitment, there are more signifi cant costs to the organization, such as stalled organizational initiatives, loss of business knowledge, damage to customer and staff relationships, dampened employee morale, and lost opportunities. In addi- tion, there are the costs of recruiting a replacement as well as the replacement ’ s time in gaining mastery of the job and setting his or her own agenda. Given these high costs, there is a tremendous need for developmental interventions that place an emphasis on pre - empting failures in senior leadership roles. While some organizations have developed formal on - boarding interventions, the typical approach tends to be quite limited in scope and does little to effectively on - board an executive leader. Most are simple orientation programs offering an oppor- tunity to network with the CEO and the executive team. They may also provide some form of overview of the corporation, its fi nancials, and its activities. A handful of orga- nizations such as General Electric and Toyota do have more sophisticated on - boarding programs at the executive and general manager level (Fulmer & Conger, 2003), but such programs are very rare in the corporate world. Instead interventions to pre - empt leadership derailments tend to be dependent on performance appraisals and talent management practices. The underlying premise is that failures at the executive level can best be avoided through continuous formal performance feedback to a man- ager and through the careful selection of jobs and bosses over the life span of a manag- er ’ s career (McCall, 1988). While we share this view, we also believe that developmental interventions focused solely on the transition to the executive role are a necessity. Companies such as General Electric and PepsiCo have long designed their leadership education programs around career transitions, especially at executive levels (Conger & Benjamin, 1999). In other words, a comprehensive on - boarding program at the executive level has an essential place in any organization ’ s portfolio of leadership development initiatives. The Need for On - Boarding Interventions at the Executive Leadership Level The transition from line management to an executive role is a signifi cant jump in terms of scale and complexity of the job. Executives operate at the boundary between their organization and the external environment, whereas most managers are more c02.indd 19c02.indd 19 10/30/09 5:03:12 PM10/30/09 5:03:12 PM EBSCOhost - printed on 4/30/2020 6:11 PM via STRAYER UNIVERSITY. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 20 Best Practices in Talent Management organizationally and functionally oriented. Executives must also formulate company - wide strategies and play a critical role in their implementation — roles which they played to a far lesser degree prior to their executive appointments. Their decisions around staffi ng, rewards, measurement systems, and culture create a context that shapes the strategic choices made by managers and specialists throughout the organization. The executive role comes with enormous visibility and accountability. It is extremely demanding with little time for learning on the job. At the same time, devel- opmental feedback and coaching for executives tend to be minimal. There are the occasional opportunities for formal coaching and executive education programs. But beyond these interventions, there is usually little else. In conclusion, for many manag- ers, the promotion to an executive leadership role will be the steepest jump in their career history, and paradoxically the one with the least amount of transition support. The limited developmental support is a result of several factors.