Please consider the following two questions 1) How do you account for what has happened in this case? 2) What advice do you have for the management of this firm?

The Alan Barker Case: Alan joins Bank Q Alan Barker was a bright young university graduate with a degree in commerce. He had finished high school in western Canada and then attended university in central Canada. Barker had an interest in finance and had majored in the area and had also completed a minor in accounting. He had played basketball in high school and was offered a spot on the university's basketball team. He had also been involved in the student council at university and belonged to a couple of on-campus societies during his four-year university career. Alan Barker was described by friends and those who knew him as bright, pleasant, agreeable, and somewhat ambitious. He had been fortunate in that he had received scholarships for his university studies and with the help of his family he was able find a decent place to live, and to spend most of his time on his studies, so he had not worked in an organization in a career sense. However, he had volunteered with several community organizations such as food banks and those that promoted sports among youth. Alan had set his sights on a job in the financial-services sector, perhaps in commercial lending. Prior to graduation he had attended a variety of job fairs and career exhibitions and had submitted his resume to 10 financial institutions. He had received five invitations for interviews with various banks and other financial agencies. He participated in various tests and interviews with all five organizations and was invited back for further interviews with three major Canadian banks. He conducted more in-depth research on these banks by reviewing their websites and mission statements and other available documents, he spoke with some friends from university who were in the financial-services sector, and he read reports and articles on the banks through various newspaper and online sources. Alan completed the additional interviews with the three banks and eventually was offered a job with all three. Eventually he accepted an offer from Bank Q - it offered a variety of opportunities that he felt would be beneficial. Bank Q offered an above-average salary, a very good pension plan, medical and dental benefits as well as a chance for Alan to work in a busy downtown location that suited Alan very well. In addition, Alan understood that he would initially be trained at this branch, where he would be assigned increasingly responsible work that would help him better understand the bank's operations, and a promotion would happen after about three months. The bank had policies that indicated those who were going into commercial banking had to develop an understanding of banking in general, and Bank Q in particular, by starting their careers at the branch level. Alan came to work on his first day full of joy and optimism. He was introduced to various bank personnel and was assigned to work under a supervisor of accounts, Jolinda. Jolinda had no university degree, but had started at the bank after high school and after five years of working in various areas and performing very well she had been promoted to her current position. However, things started to go down hill for Alan from that first day. First, Alan was sent to various training programs - he found these programs dull and boring, focused on the bank's history and growth, and added little to his knowledge and skill sets regarding finance and commercial lending. Further, during much of the training time he was required to read many procedure manuals and other documents that seemed to him to be relevant, but there was no discussion of the materials or opportunity to learn more about the manuals by asking questions. Secondly, much of the work that Alan performed was routine and repetitive. He made frequent phone calls and wrote letters to various bank clients regarding many different matters, but he was basically passing along information or enquiring about loan payments by delinquent borrowers. Indeed, Jolinda had returned several of Alan's letters, that she had to approve before they were sent out. Some of Jolinda's edits focused on basic writing errors that Alan had made. In other instances, Jolinda had indicated that the letter had to written in the manner that represented "Bank Q's way of doing things." Bank Q, similar to other banks, was in a highly government-regulated environment, and senior managers expected all Bank Q employees to follow the policies, procedures, and rules that were developed by and implemented by the senior management team. Thirdly, after three months Alan received a pay raise, but there was no promotion in sight. Alan was frustrated by these events, but he kept going assuming that things would improve. As Alan entered his fifth month with Bank Q he became increasingly frustrated, angry, and dissatisfied. Jolinda had just returned a letter that Alan had drafted to send to a customer. Although there were no misspellings or grammar errors, Jolinda had heavily edited Alan's letter and had suggested that he had to learn to write letters the Bank Q way. At this point Alan became quite angry and he submitted his resignation and left the bank. This case was adapted from the case, "Alan Barker" provenance unknown, by Jeffrey D. Young, Department of Business and Tourism, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, B3M 2J6. The case is intended to be used as a basis of class discussion, nit as a basis of effective or ineffective management