Confused Banking

Banking is a well defined job to do. It has testament for every segment it caters. 

There are many standing operating procedures which are available in the bank 

for the convenience of the employees to practice them uniformly. The policies

 are implemented well through them. These procedures guide the employees in

 different dynamic situations within the organization with respect to customers

 and the treatment of internal transactional activities. 

Like individuals who collectively make the society and devise its culture. The different branches of the bank collectively form the culture of the bank. It is very surprising that the standalone culture of a branch varies proportionately with the overall theme of the bank itself at times. It is similar as to the sects in a country which are proportionate yet are the part of the same society within a country. 

We can tolerate the individuality at the societal level but we cannot tolerate the individuality at a corporate level. When we talk about an organization it has to follow the standard rules and procedures uniformly to clarify its long term vision. Four tyres of the car are required to move it in the same direction in order to reach at a desired destination. 

But unfortunately the deviations and the individual opinions jeopardize the true spirit of a bank’s values. Some seniors in an organization create their own perceptions and implement them without bothering what the law says. They emphasize practices. The major dilemma with following the practices blindly is that they are not questioned at the end of the 

day. 

In case of any mishap, law is applied and religiously followed. And when the law is 

consulted and the parent policy is consulted which resulted into that practice it is observed that the policy itself didnot actually mean the concept which is being practiced keeping that policy as a precedent. 

The chaos however occurs at the lower end. Where the junior level robots are working. 

They are kept by certain organizations like pawns to be used in case of any issue. To transfer humiliation, to defuse the management’s wrath etc. These junior level robots bear the burden at the end of the day and suffer mentally. Not knowing what actually they are doing and what they are 

supposed to do. 

To be continued

BEYOND CAPITALISM (REVIEW)

Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods and services for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism
 include private property, capital accumulation, wage labour and competitive markets.

Welfare capitalism is capitalism that includes social welfare policies.Welfare capitalism 
is also the practice of businesses providing welfare services to their employees.

REVIEW:

If an environment has the symptoms of 

l Profit motive

l Markets

l Private enterprise

It means it has the disease of capitalism. 

The core value of capitalism includes:

l Individualism

l Materialism 

l Self interest

These value have replaced the traditional human values which were

l Traditional duty to God

l Royalty

l Community etc.

The values of capitalism have converted the welfare based relations among humans into the interest based relations. Every thing can be seen from the eye of a business man and the

 eye of the businessman sees profit only. 

The markets have intruded in all spheres of life. And this intrusion is the essence of 

capitalism. 

These changes are good because we are earning money, our economy is growing but these changes have some negative impact too. For example 

l Enormous inequality

l Ecological destruction

l Conflict 

l Economic instability and

l  Anomie ( social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values; also :  personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals)

The traditional society, communism and capitalism all these systems have failed because

 the first two crushed individual initiative and the capitalism accompanied individual’s
 initiative with greed which incurred negative results. 

ULTIMATE SOLUTION:

Thus there should be an ultimate solution which is the mediation between the communism and capitalism i.e. Not only government centric neither unleashing individual’s initiative linked mainly with the greed. 

The ultimate solution must have the few qualities in it. These are

l Inquisitiveness

l Wisdom

l Artistic Creativity

l Altruism

But the problem with the ultimate solution is that, for the success of the proposal the people should adopt this attitude. However majority is struggling with the petty issues. They might 

divert their attention to the significance of this solution after the occurrence of certain 

catastrophe.

Unless, this aspect is paid attention the issue shall remain present and those who are

 sensing the importance of it should bear it stoically.

(Please Note: The original article was published in Dawn Isb, on 19 Jan 2016 by Niaz Murtaza)

The Silence of SOP

My mind is stuck in a situation. Neither able to think further nor is getting out of the trance. Like a life, as it is nothing without a purpose. A bank is nothing without its SOP.
SOP is a short abbreviation of standard operating procedure. It tells about the different procedures which a banker might need to follow when he practices banking. It is a guiding testament for the bankers.
A banker's art of banking is tested in the light of bank's SOP. How well the procedures are followed lead to the increased credibility and soundness of the bank.
After all the significance which I am able to describe about the importance of SOP when I apply the concept with the practicality, I come up with no words to express my feelings. Sometimes the situation causes you to lose your words, you become unable to jot down your feelings and look confused and scattered.
One of the many situations can shed light on the significance of the concept which a junior level officer in a bank who bears the burden of all the chaos, ultimately and definitely face in the organization.
To understand the concept, take an example of a situation where a customer requests the bank to apply cheque book without signing the cheque book request. As he is a valued client the manager giving him maximum favor forwards the request. It needs to be kept in mind that the signatory of the account is out of the country and his manager/accountant is requesting the cheque book on his behalf as it is a corporate account.
When the customer is reminded to send the original request signed by him the accountant/manager on behalf of the customer sends the cheque book request signed by the mandate of the account and the same mandate also authorizes a third person to collect the cheque book on behalf of the customer.
Now here comes the test of patience for the officer who deals with the situation. The SOP is silent on the issue. It is unable to guide that whether the request by the mandate is acceptable and whether the mandate can authorize a third person to collect the cheque book.
The junior officer seeks guidance from the middle manager. The middle manager calls many other and comes up with the mixed replies, confused, but sure of his ex-employer SOP. The case is then referred to the senior manager, who gives his go ahead for the delivery of cheque book on the authority of the mandate and acceptance of the cheque book request signed by the mandate. Although not confirmed about the current SOP,but of the previous employer's SOP, yet he confirms it from his own senior and the customer after being kept waiting for a long time is being told that what shall be accepted and what shall not?
Moral leaves a big question mark. The biggest question is imposed on the bank itself. It sheds light on the importance not only on the presence of SOP, but an updated one. Then onwards the implementation shall give reliability and confidence to the workers and shall help stop leg pulling among employees by misguiding each other and letting them become a convict of ignorance because of the silence of SOP.

SPIRITUAL MALADY

If at any level you have some proximity to spirituality, there is a probability that you might get excluded and isolated from normal course of life. You shall be declared oversensitive and super emotional. Your survival might become a question mark in the society you are trying to socialize with.  It is not a thing which needs an evidence to prove itself but the situations you might encounter and most preferably the strategy you will adopt for the treatment of such situations shall cause you to get yourself treated like an odds one out.

It has been proven from many studies written by many explorers in this area that those people who pursue on these lines are the unfortunate ones in the eyes of the world and this is somewhat true for the readers analyzing the case study of such person apparently by comparing the historical reactions of that person in such circumstances where it’s application is made. These people are considered disgraced, absurd and goofs.  This is the superficial analysis of the apparent situation and reaction. And this is somewhat correct because what a human eye sees is reality for many people.

But there is another side of the picture which purports that to be successful in the current market there is a popular concept called diplomacy. It runs parallel to the followers and believers of spiritualism. Spirituality demands personal transformation from a person to the religious beliefs, it demands tolerance and many other peace and patience related concepts which the religion teaches us. On the other hand you cannot run your house on the ground of spirituality only. You have to come out of your comfort zone and do the needful to maintain your living. Here come’s the conflict.

 The outer side demands diplomatic standards and strategy’s to be executed for becoming successful where as spiritual standards negate double policy and hypocrisy. It forbids the popular concept of politics in whatever shape and form it comes in the way of an individual’s career path. It demands truth and straightforwardness towards the situations one has to confront with. The difference between these two extreme opposite concepts cause the spiritual malady in an individual’s life. The personal dissonance caused by the conflict hurts that person on both ends and most of the beginners find themselves in a chaos.  This dissonance is a spiritual disease at one end and lack of interpersonal skills at the other end.

However, the reality is that both sides are indispensable for human because you have to live in humans so you  need to have  adequate diplomatic flexibility with you to interact with them effectively and you must need food for your soul and for that you need to inculcate and maintain some spiritual values in you. The solution to this is a question mark and a midway needs to be discovered and implemented to at least find a breathing space for oneself in the environment otherwise the saying that ignorance is blessing can only be praised and stated in this regard and one should maintain one’s stamina strong enough to deal with it.

INSECURITIES

Insecurities occur in a person’s life when there is something which is lacking, for example, I may be feeling insecure because of some deficiency in certain area which I am exposed to and the other people are not aware of that. It may also be closely correlated with the term fear, for example my fears about my life or regarding someone else may make me feel insecure.

The question lies here is  that yes, we know that this phenomena is a reality and is generally found in every human being. Some people are better expressive and are able to exhibit them if these are materialistic. But mostly people suffer from them but they are not aware that either they are going right or wrong and also that what one can do if certain insecurities are prevalent in him or her or what he /she can do if they lie within the bracket of someone else’s insecurity  bracket.

First thing that needs realization in this regard is the acceptance of the fact. That yes, this phenomena is normal as the other positive phenomena’s for example sense of achievement is an implied thing which everyone feels when they encounter with some sort of achievement in any field in which they are working for and is important for them.  Secondly, the thing which is required the most is the solution, that how to deal with them because somehow we all know that these insecurities majorly affect our productivity and decline our performance level. They also affect our life at their full pace.  No doubt the level of effect depends upon the type of insecurity which is generally faced by the people at different level but the fact is that it does affect. It may not affect us at level one, in which we are suppressing it and dealing with the people which lie in the category of incest and that may involve family, relatives, friends etc as a whole the people we know and recognize but it will certainly effect the society in its next level to come and with in the coming years of that person’s life.

The solution of the question that how to deal with these insecurities in the short term lies in our behaviors as for every event or situation that occurs we always have two ways to respond either positively or negatively so one must decide the better way which not only will save him but ultimately will benefit the society. In the long run, we must try to convert our insecurities in our strengths it is the only way to get rid of them. Otherwise these will cause a cannibal affect to occur and will lead us towards destruction. The conversion of one’s insecurities firstly demands the identification of the insecurity which a person is facing and then finding out the possible and convenient ways to overcome it. But over coming will not be the effective way, it is just a one step. We need to process the feelings of insecurities we need to channelize them so that the productive outcomes could be achieved.

Corporeal Death in an Organization

Professionalism always demands from a person to have a suitable and a composed mix of behavioral elements in it along with particular knowledge and skills to perform the role for which one is being hired in an organization. When organizations hire beginners at their initial levels, it requires them to have huge patience to train them and to make them proficient enough to conform to the organizational norms and values. It depends on an individual’s mental temperament and the circumstances prevalent at that time that how swiftly he or she conforms to this.

 As compared to those employees who are in the middle level category in the organizations these new ones require more time for understanding the concept behind compliance to these values and showing all these understandings through their actions. This more time is required not only for the sake of being an active part of the team but also for the transition from being an amateur to professional.

All of this is a normal cycle of anyone’s professional life. But the story lies within it. It is a common trend in the corporate world today that you have to move forward in order to grow and it is a fact. Every organization has its own values and culture, the more time you spend in it the more emotional ties you create in it. All those efforts which you might have faced in order to grow the plant, make you feel hurt and painful when you are detaching the similar roots of the same tree with your own hands and try to adjust them in a new soul. Even not a bigger one yet even one year’s older.

It is the one side of the picture, the second jolt one might encounter after switching keeping in mind the emotional ties, one has already conformed is the disappearance of the familiar faces and mental understanding of the counterparts and many more things. This is not new it might happens to everyone but this is a very sensitive and sentimental time which causes transition of your death in ABC organization and your Birth in XYZ organization. The trauma of the death and the happiness of your Birth both make you feel weird.

Anyhow time has a dual effect on a human’s life. It is the cruelest and on the other end the most reliable wound healer. It might take time to forget the past and to realize and accept the changes but ultimately one gets accustomed to it. However, this is a battle of your mind and heart in which the heart always loses because in the corporate world there is no place for people with the heart to survive and more formally to say this attitude lacks professionalism. And in the long run if one keeps oneself to be persisted all gets well. 

When I Was Posted To Islamic Banking

When I was chosen for the employment in the bank where I am working now, at that time although I was not satisfied enough, yet there was a feeling that I have achieved something. This feeling of achievement was enhanced when I got to meet my batch mates. They all were very excited and enthusiastic about the job and the organization to which they are going to be a part of.

The training period, atmosphere, the learning process everything was great. We were given the detailed demonstration regarding the job. The first shock we were given was the knowledge of being restricted to the cash department, yet being the main department of the bank it was a great opportunity to learn and grasp the functionality of the life blood of the bank. However, this was a bearable trauma until we were unaware from our posting branches.

The whole training process which on one side was full of informative guidelines and procedures showing us how to work on the other side was seemed to be based on the terror lectures and scary tails regarding the cash department which scared us a lot. The result which we were told in case of cash excess or shortage was enough to terrorize us. Anyhow we all completed the training process being totally unaware of the fact that the last and the final bomb was waiting for us.

The last day of training we were supposed to be given our posting letters. My teachers told me that you are the lucky one with other two guys to be posted in Islamic banking group. Oh my God!!  Good news transformed in the bad news as per my perception touched with the waves of my brain. Nah, no please!!! I am not Islamic type…. I can’t be like the girls in that group,,,, they are pathetic people, rigid mentality, confined to their rigid beliefs, who mix there culture and religion together and show attitude and rigidity, who don’t listen to others just say and do whatever they want. Ahhh!!! No please.

This was my reaction when I got my letter of posting. But when I get into the field and encountered with the people working there, all this opened my eyes. I got to know they are more modernized and liberal in their own shells and these are for their own protection. There is a huge difference between what we perceive and what they really are. The consolation of my teachers became a truthful reality when I compared myself with the other batch mates posted in different groups. A sigh of relief came out….

No doubt, the nature of the job is tough and requires more attention but I feel there is more scope in the job apart from the assigned one until I get the other oneJ.