Bank of America continues to be plagued with a very low level of customer satisfaction that were in part driven by their decision to concentrate more on internal efficiency and less on customers getting their transactions and banking done more efficiently (McKenney, Mason, Copeland, 1997) (Gonzalez, Mueller, Mack, 2008). This mindset has completely reversed in the last three years and today Bank of America is one of the leading banking institutions to invest in information technologies including secure mobile banking (Valentine, 2011)
A large part of the mortgage losses stem from an $8.5 billion settlement publicized last month over investor claims related to Countrywide loans sold off throughout the housing boom (Rothacker, 2011)
com, but does include some promotion at its banks and ATM's. The online creative hypes the investment insights of Merrill Lynch and the banking strength of Bank of America in Merrill Edge, abbreviated as "ME" (Snyder Bulik, 2011)
Lastly, Bank of America has begun to earn a lousy reputation among consumers for its service and its business practices. The bank has been a target of both protests (Dolan, 2011) and various boycotts as well
Previously, it has acquired MNBA in 2006, that company being one of the largest issuers of credit cards in the world (AP, 2006). In January of 2008, BoA purchased struggling mortgage banker Countrywide Bank in a deal that now ranks as one of the worst ever in the banking industry, costing Bank of America nearly $31 billion on top of the $4 billion acquisition cost (Ovide, 2011)
In January of 2008, BoA purchased struggling mortgage banker Countrywide Bank in a deal that now ranks as one of the worst ever in the banking industry, costing Bank of America nearly $31 billion on top of the $4 billion acquisition cost (Ovide, 2011). In addition to the debacle that is Countrywide, the Bank now faces the prospect of having to spinoff Merrill in order to generate the capital needed to staunch the flow of red ink at Bank of America (Touryalai, 2011)
However, Maslow's need-hierarchy and Herzberg's theories of motivation are the two motivational theories that are currently missing in Bank of America's motivation strategies. Maslow's Need-hierarchy Theory: This motivation theory is based on the fact that employees are considered to have five levels of needs with the need to satisfy the lower level needs before the higher level needs in order to motivate employees (Lindner, 1998)
22. 2008) or to deliberate denial of service attacks from a gang of pro-WikiLeak hackers (Martelli, Jan
In 2008, the bank services were outaged for five hours with 24 million online customers unable to access information. The bank speculated that the systems problem was related to turmoil in the nations' financial markets (Reckard, Nov
They are not only cost and time effective, but are also appealing to clients in various ways and have developed through the years becoming increasingly sophisticated. ATMs nowadays can perform not only standard ATM transactions, but can also dispense multiple currency amounts, split deposits among accounts and accept checks without a deposit envelope (Saunders, 1992)
) Being as highly complex as it is, the BOA has developed a highly complex network of communications. In the forefront of this is its reputed grid deployment structure (Schneider, 2005)
Investment Decision: Based on this analysis, my decision on whether or not to invest in Bank of America will incorporate its past market trends, the company's ability to tolerate risks and mitigate threats as well as the investment horizon emanating from the company's business opportunities. Bank of America's Internal and External Stakeholders: Bank of America highly regards its position in serving as a means of success and growth for many individuals, families, households and businesses across the globe (Moynihan, 2011)
File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9ODM3NDZ8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1 "Bank of America Corporation: Company Profile." (2011, March 17)
Impact of Recent Economic Trends on BOA: As a major player in the United States banking industry, Bank of America has been largely influenced by the recent economic trends that have impacted its operations. These has resulted in the bank's troubling trends with analysts predicting that it will have a difficult time to grow its business in the future (LaCapra, 2010)
Because of the impact of the recent economic trends, the corporation's management has commented on the changes in the banking business and the difficulty in the existing operating environment. Bank of America's Strategies: In order to adapt to changing markets and achieve its strategic goals, Bank of America has taken various strategic initiatives and tactics including: Deepening Relationships: For Bank of America to achieve its goals and increase its annual profits and revenues, the company has adopted a tactic of intensifying relations between its various business units (O'Daniel, 2010)
To achieve its business goals, Bank of America's human resource department deals with the management of people, which is the most important and challenging aspects of business management. The major role that this department plays in the achievement of the company's business goals is to bridge the gap between employees and the management (Shetty, 2011)
Some economists however argue that there exists a more efficient solution to achieving this desiderate -- that of eliminating the mark-to-market accounting model. This endeavor would ensure that the assets of the Bank of America do not continually depreciate and would also "stop the deterioration in bank balance sheets and allow time to heal without taking down the entire economy in the process" (Wesbury and Stein, 2009)
25, closing the year with a quotation of $14.08 (Bank of America 2008 Annual Report)
Bank of America had a high level of toxic assets and required a substantial amount of bailout funds. It received $45 billion and then suffered scandal from its "unfair and improper foreclosures" and struggled to repay the TARP loans (Alden, 2010)
Regulators and government also are major external stakeholders, in particular in light of the bailouts. There was outrage when it was learned that some of the public taxpayer money used in the bailouts was used to pay bonuses (Blodget, 2009)