Yvette Hyater Adams And Terry Larsen At CoreStates Financial Corp Case Solution

2. Introduction

Yvette Hyater-Adams (Senior Vice President) and Terry Larsen (CEO) worked in close collaboration with each other to bring about a cultural change in the organization. Larsen was the CEO of CoreStates Financial Corp, which was a notable financial organization, noted for its strict working atmosphere. He had a vision to create a more people-oriented organization. The organization was at that facing a period of mergers and acquisitions in the industry. It was a difficult decision to have taken such a decision to bring about a rapid change in the working culture. He developed a close collaboration with Hyater-Adams, an HR and change management professional to create a working culture that can help employees to achieve their potential. With the passage of time, they develop a close collaboration, in terms of mentoring and coaching that helped them to make use of the relationship for a very long time, in the interests of their mutual benefit.

3. Analysis

i. Motivational Theories and Coaching (including context of the case)

Motivation is an important aspect in an individual that helps him to achieve important goals and objectives in his life (Fanselow, 2018). It is important for employees to be motivated, in order to face the competitive environment of the business world. Coaching is an important activity that helps in making the workforce or professionals working in the organization achieve their potential by bringing out the best in them. Coaching would be looked in further detail in the next section. However, it is important to ascertain the importance of motivation, in the context of different theories, so as to better understand the need to use mentoring and coaching to help the workforce work more effectively and efficiently in a suitable working atmosphere.

A notable motivational theory is the Maslow’s needs hierarchy, which emphasizes that an individual strives to fulfil his different needs over a period of his life. Initially, he works to satisfy his physiological and security needs, and he continues to work hard to fulfil his self-esteem and self-actualization needs (Kovach, 2018). This is also applicable in the context of an organization, where the leader tries to ensure that different needs of their employees are met, so as to ensure that their motivation level is maintained to perform various organizational tasks. Hertzberg’s two factor theory also emphasize on two important factors of hygiene and motivators. Hygiene factors include working conditions, salary, safety, security and status (Kanfer, 2017). Motivators include provision of opportunities for advancement, growth and responsibility. Both of the factors are required to be present in the organization, so as to create an environment that facilitates a smooth working atmosphere for the workforce.

In the context of this case, it can be seen that the work pressure was quite intense in the organization. Before the cultural change efforts could be implemented, it can be seen that people coming from certain backgrounds in CoreStates Financial Corp, particularly those belonging to minority communities did not feel a certain level of comfort. Turnover were also high among young women, and apart from this a certain group of white man occupied highest ranks in the organization. This showed that there was a lack of motivation in certain groups of people who wanted to bring about a change in the working atmosphere of the organization. This was not considered appropriate considering the vision of Larsen who wanted to develop this large organization into a people-oriented one. In order to achieve this, he had to ensure that different needs of his employees are met, so that they are motivated to work to their best in the organization.

ii. Coaching, Mentoring and Self-Efficacy, and Disciplining (including context of the case)

Coaching and mentoring are important ways to ensure that workforce is working productively for the progress of the organization. Coaching and mentoring are particularly important in bringing about a high-level of self-efficacy in employees so that they can fully believe in their capacities to achieve different work-related goals. It has often been noted that although employees are inducted in different coaching programs, but they are not able to bring about the best in them for the reason that there is lack of commitment on part of the participants of the coaching program (Bozer & Jones, 2018). Coaching is a short-term arrangement of a relationship that is focused towards developing an association that is performance driven. Coaches are hired for purpose of bringing about an improvement in the performance of coachee, and it is a more structured process, where coach and the coachee meets periodically, for the purpose of achieving measurable and specific outcomes from the whole process. On the other hand, mentoring takes a more holistic approach, and is development driven. It is also more of a long-term relationship. The mentee asks a number of questions, during the process of mentorship in order to make sure that he is working in the right direction in making appropriate use of the expertise of a mentor. However, at the same time, it is also important to maintain a discipline in the organization, so as to ensure that performance levels are maintained in the organization, and efforts are made by employees to reduce the performance gaps in order to ensure that they are working in a suitable and appropriate manner for realizing organizational goals (Bradford, 2017).

Considering the context of this case, Yvette Hyater-Adams provided coaching to Terry Larsen – although it was not a formal one- and ensured that Larsen become acquainted with diversity issues that are relevant in the perspective of cultural change. It is also necessary to note that it took time for Larsen to develop a rapport with Hyater-Adams, who was quite well-versed with issues related to Human Resource and diversity management in organizations. Larsen, being the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company learnt a number of things under the coaching process, and the relationship between the two got strengthened to such an extent that he used to take advice from his coach before different important meeting. Hyater-Adams showed great all-round knowledge of business and people management, which allowed her to provide valuable input to the CEO, for him to conduct the affairs of the organization in an effective manner. This also helped him make better decisions that were required to make in an environment that was uncertain, as a result of the merger that was taking place in the organization.