How Does Bank Of America Use Group Intervention

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE:-
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is a financial services company, the largest bank holding company in the United States, by assets, and the second largest bank by market capitalization. Bank of America serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a relationship with 99% of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83% of the Fortune Global 500. The company is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and a component of both the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

As of 2010, Bank of America is the 5th largest company in the United States by total revenue,[11] as well as the second largest non-oil company in the U.S. (after Wal-Mart). In 2010, Forbes listed Bank of America as
the 3rd "best" large company in the world.[12]

The bank's 2008 acquisition of Merrill Lynch made Bank of America the world's largest wealth manager and a major player in the investment banking industry.[13]

The company holds 12.2% of all U.S. deposits, as of August 2009,[14] and is one of the Big Four Banks of the United States, along with Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo — its main competitors.

Another intervention or method in Organizational Development that can be used to improve the cultural dimension of the company is the use of Group Interventions.
This type of intervention is aimed at increasing the effectiveness of work groups, and includes focus groups (2006). Group interventions provide an efficient complement to more prevalent individual and consultative approaches (1993). Through group interventions such as focus groups, group discussions and other group activities, the organization would be able to practice facilitating communication that is more effective, cooperation, and coordination among the members of a specific group, and reduction of conflicts. Group interventions are interrelated to another type of method in Organizational Development, which include Intergroup Interventions. If group interventions focus on the communication and conflict management within a specific group, Intergroup interventions focus on facilitating effective communication and conflict management among different groups. The last method or intervention that can be used is the Organizational Interventions, which uses system-wide interventions, using predominantly survey feedback and structural intervention
mechanisms
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:-
At the heart of business today lies a dilemma: Our economy is increasingly dependent on services, yet our innovation processes remain oriented toward products. Indeed, we have well-tested, scientific methods for developing and refining manufactured goods, but many of them don't seem applicable to the world of services. In this article, Harvard Business School professor Stefan Thomke points out the challenges of applying the discipline of formal R&D processes to services: Because a service often exists only in the moment of its delivery to a customer, it is difficult to isolate in a traditional laboratory. And since many services are tailored to individual buyers at the point of purchase, they can't be tested through large samples. As a result, experiments with new services are most useful when they are conducted live--with real customers engaged in real transactions. But live tests magnify the cost of failure; an experiment that doesn't work may harm customer relationships and even the brand. Given such challenges, it's no surprise that most service companies have not established rigorous, ongoing R&D processes, Thomke says. Here the author provides an in-depth look at a five-step process that Bank of America has used to create new service concepts for retail banking. The company has turned a set of its branches into, in effect, a laboratory where a corporate research team conducts service experiments with actual customers during regular business hours, compares results with those of control branches, and pinpoints attractive innovations for broader rollout. The author describes the program's workings, its successes, and the obstacles the bank faced. The effort reveals what a true R&D operation might look like inside a service business, he concludes.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT TOOLS OF BANK OF AMERICA :-

Bank of America unveiled a new online supply chain module available for its Trade Pro platform.
Launched in March, Trade Pro is the trade processing application within the bank's CashPro Online treasury services product. The new module, calledTrade Pro Supply Chain Finance, offers buyers and suppliers around the world a collaborative tool to manage risk while freeing up working capital, streamlining business processes and reducing the costs associated with supply chain management, said the bank.
Key features of the product include an improved user interface, enabling immediate access to supply chain finance data designed to help companies in decision making and auditing. The module is also available in nine languages.
IMPORTER-BUYER:-
Compete more effectively on a global scale with the Trade Pro® platform which offers tailored trade finance solutions for your business. No matter the size of the need, no matter the size of the company, Bank of America can help.
-Purchase Order-to-Pay
Reduce paperwork, increase transparency and link all your supply chain providers electronically.

-Supply Chain Finance
Strengthen supplier relationships and more effectively manage working capital.

EXPORTER-SUPPLIER
Global trade. At your fingertips. Manage your export business worldwide, finance exports, and manage receivables through the Trade Pro® platform, or take advantage of customized solutions for your business.
-Document Presentation & Payment
A more efficient process from documentation to collection. Increase visibility and mitigate foreign buyer risk. -Letter of Credit Confirmations
We back you up. When a letter of credit is confirmed, we add our credit standing to that of the issuing bank.

FINANCIALMANAGEMENT
A global network to broaden your reach. Maintain relationships, and give your clients access to our experience and technology helping you better serve their needs and manage their cross-border transactions.
-Private Label Letter of Credit Issuance
Get back-office support while you manage the client relationship – and remain the primary service provider. Increase visibility and mitigate foreign buyer risk. -Letter of Credit Soft Restriction Program
Expedite the letters of credit process and instruct negotiating banks to present documents for payment to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch branch.

humar resources management of bank of America:-
Human resource is considered as the most important resource of any organization.
That is the reason why there are different strategies and plans that are being implemented by different companies in order to make sure productivity. The management of people is considered as one of the most vital and challenging areas of business management and most of the organization believe that it is taken very seriously (Gennard & Judge 2005, p. 41).

Employee relations consists of all the important areas of human resource management or HRM that involve the general relationship with the employees, in the course of collective agreement where in the trade unions are recognized, and/or through generally applied policies for the involvement and communications of the employee (Armstrong 2000, p. 242).

Different employee relations strategies defines the entire intensions of the organization regarding what needs to be done and what are the needs to be changed in the ways in which the organization will enable to manages their relationship and communications with the employees as well as their respective trade unions. Unlike the HR strategy, the employee relations strategies focus from the business strategy and also aim to
support

Human Resource Management exists just for this purpose –to bridge the gap between staff and upper management. In doing so, compromises have been attained which preclude the need for unions or outside arbitration, and thus provide the services that employees feel is their right to have compensation:- Compensation:
At , the compensation package provided to the employees can be divided into two categories. One comprises of the sales personnel who are compensated on their ability to meet their targets. Second is compensating the executives who are responsible for the overall functions of the Bank.

Compensating the Sales Force:
How the Bank presents itself to its corporate as well as individual customers is dependant upon the ability of its sales force. These are the individuals who take and active approach is getting the message out about the Bank’s products and services. How effectively the sales team markets the Bank and in run, how successful it is, is directly related to the sales compensation program.

The key to a successful sales compensation program is achieved in three steps:
1. Clearly defining sales goals that are realistic but challenging
2. Tracking and measuring performance against goals
3. Rewarding achievement with competitive and motivational compensation
Sales compensation packages typically comprise one or more of the following components:
1. Base Salary
2. Periodic incentives tied to short-term goals
3. Annual Incentives tied to longer-term sales activities
4. Commission-based incentives
5. Perquisites to facilitate sales efforts

Executive Compensation:
The way the Bank pays its top management plays an important role in motivating the critical performance needed to run it effectively. Base salary is not the only component of the typical executive’s compensation package. Executive compensation packages typically comprise the following components:
1. Base Salary
2. Annual Incentives
3. Long-Term Capital Accumulation
4. Deferred Compensation Arrangements
5. Supplement Benefits and Perquisites
6. Special Severance and Retirement Arrangements
7. Employment and Change of Control Agreements