Change management in financial institutions : a case study of introducing a policy on corporate social responsibility in Landsbankinn

• Main Author: Julia Vol 1985-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Meistaraprófsritgerðir; Umhverfis- og auðlindafræði; Samfélagsábyrgð; Bankastarfsemi; Stefnumótun; Breytingastjórnun; Eigindlegar rannsóknir; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/13439

In 2010 Landsbankinn, the biggest bank in Iceland decided to develop a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy to be implemented between the years 2011-2015. Prior to this decision the bank faced crisis by being involved in the financial meltdown of 2008. One of the reasons behind the CSR initiative was the desire to avoid walking the same path that led to the crash. In beginning of 2011 a CSR specialist was hired by the bank and launched the process of implementation. Around the same period I started working on the research, focusing around CSR and change management process, taking Landsbankinn as my case study. My research questions were: what are the key processes involved in the implementation of CSR in an organization and what are the factors behind change management? My study followed the process in Landsbankinn during its first year, during the crucial steps of the defining and the designing of the change. During my study I researched the theoretical concepts of CSR and change management, along with collecting data about the process within the bank through interviews and materials received from the bank. Some material was available on the bank’s website, other was unpublished. I performed descriptive analysis of the current situation of change management in the bank, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the process. Later I constructed a change management model from models in the literature which served as a theoretical framework to evaluate the implementation process in Landsbankinn. This model allowed me to identify the gaps between a theoretical framework of change management and the reality in practices within the bank. I then considered actions that should help fill those gaps and how they can assist in overcoming the weaknesses the change management process was encountering. Performing this study helped me to learn about the connection between theoretical concepts of CSR and a practical implementation process within an organization. The key processes which were involved in implementation ...