Discourse Control and Surveillance Analysis of HSBC

Question: Discuss about the Discourse Control and Surveillance Analysis of HSBC. Answer: Introduction Financial and banking sector control has proved to be critical because of the dynamic growth thus compelling the bank managers to use different controlling methods. Given the distinct tasks experienced in banks, the managers have the responsibility to avoid using the standard control mechanisms that have disregarded the aspects of cash flow, capital investment and credit. Without doubts, banks value these processes. The management of banks are based on the interested fields including the services and internal operations. The managers can achieve this integration by linking information service functions, plan-fact analysis, and planning. Given the significance of the manager, this paper answers the questions regarding the managerial responsibilities of the HSBCs manager. Discourse Analysis of HSBC The social control is inevitable in the modern globalization era because it is the only way stakeholders can overcome the challenges of crime and immigration. It is this important to discuss about control thus connect the reflection on control and modern society (Lianos, 2003). As part of the discourse analysis, the institutional control becomes evident. According to Lianos (2003), an institution is indicate any source of mediating activity between human beings (p. 413). To this effect, the organizations such as HSBC must regulate the behaviours of its employees without compromising the cultural negotiation. The HSBC bank is a source of institutional normativity and sociality thus makes it critical for it understands the combined effects on employees. Social control as used under the discourse analysis depends on the historical and socioeconomic conjectures in maintaining continuity. However, understanding homogenise social behaviour has proved difficult as expressed in Foucauldian suspicion. Lianos (2003) maintains that control is a conception found on arbitrary restrictive effects. The mistrust in the society among the people helps in defining the discourse. In fact, discourse focuses on routine to the erosion of liberties and the capture of society by dark and totalitarian forces (Lianos, 2003, p. 414). It is thus important to understand the significance of social control relating to the HSBC banks. Such an institution has a planned and conscious management of the human activities. For example, the managers of the institution can control the break times of workers by generating the control from the institutional activities. Unlike in the social communities, institutional control is never spontaneous because it depends on the planned managerial activities that correspond to the organizational contemporary society or environment (Lianos, 2003). As a financial institution, it is important for management to use social control mechanisms such the use of CCTV cameras for surveillance. How bank managers regulate the break time Under the working time regulation relations policy, the working time ensures an individual conducts his or her work at the disposal of the employer. The provisions of overtime and the hour of work are important to every employee. The managers of the bank must understand the working hours of the employees. Without a doubt, the employees of banks enjoy different working hours compared to other government employees. According to Vijayhavan and Ghosh (2010), HSBC provides flexible working hours for its employees. The managers of the bank have given the employees an opportunity to decide when and how to pace at their working environment. In fact, this applies to the companys 600-odd employees (Vijayhavan Ghosh, 2010). They have the opportunity to decide when to report and leave the premises. However, the managers are against employees who compromise their productivity. Nevertheless, the Flexible Work Arrangement is favorable to many bank employees. The HSBC bank managers are spearheading this revolution to ensure the workers remain happy. The move is to ensure the company becomes the much-sought-after employer. With the increasing employee population, bringing balance in work/life and allowing workers to take control of their working style. The HSBC bank manager has segmented the employees into mature employees, singles, and working couples. This segmentation has ensured it motivates and challenges their productivity based on their needs. With the FWA, many employees of the bank have signed for it. For this reason, about 6,500 workers are working under flexible arrangements (Vijayhavan Ghosh, 2010). Therefore, the manager must be responsive to the changing demographics. The managers may also offer staggered working hours. This ensures the employees report early and leave early or vice-versa. This arrangement allows workers to have the best working breaks as they work under team leadership. The flexi hours option has benefited employees beyond the reproach. Talent attrition and the FWA provisions have promoted productivity of workers. HSBC (2014) identifies that the standard working hours of bank workers are 35 hours per week. Every day, the employee should work for 7 hours. This working hours exclude the unpaid breaks like lunch breaks. The managers understand the working hours and related unpaid lunch breaks (HSBC, 2014). However, this depends on the type of contract that specifies all schedules of an employee. How the manager handles sick employees The health and safety of any employee is critical to every manager and the company. In most cases, employers value productivity and performance of their workforce. This productivity depends on the health of employees. Therefore, managers have always responded to any eventualities that affect the employees performance. For instance, the manager must understand the provisions regarding an employees health and safety situation. According to Employee Handbook, HSBC (2014) has identified the significance of offering sick workers a time-off for medical check-ups. The manager has the duty to grant an employee a paid time off so that the worker can attend to all the medical appointments. The medical appointments can only be payable if arranged within the working hours. However, the application of this provision depends on the local procedures and policies. For example, the bank staff can seek for an appointment with an optician or the dentist. The managers should advise the employees to make the appointments during early or late working hours. This allows the manager to request the affected employee to work extra hours to recover the lost time. The provision relating absenteeism is clear. It allows the entity manager to receive any communication from the affected workers (HSBC, 2014). For instance, the company has provided procedures that an employee should follow in case of absenteeism due to injury or sickness. For instance, the worker needs to telephone the entity manager to explain the situation. Whenever the situation becomes worse and the employee needs to be out of work for more than seven working days, the bank recommends that the staffs fill a self-certification form (HSBC, 2014). Any absenteeism that exceeds seven working days, the affected individual must provide the medical statement to the manager. Thereafter, the manager should access the employees current prognosis. If the situation persists, the manager should recommend the companys medical adviser who will give consent to the employee to receive further prognosis (HSBC, 2014). These are important provisions, which any manager handling an employee must consi der. How managers deal with employees who fail to achieve their targets The managers have the responsibility to support the employees to meet their goals. Any employee would also wish their efforts payback as expected by the corporations. To this effect, they need to set the right targets that connect to the managers goals (Gallo, 2011). However, anyone who fails to meet the set targets must prepare for adverse consequences. The manager must balance their involvement with the ownership. Gallo (2011) provides that the manager should offer supportive autonomy that is relevant to the individuals capability. It is important that the manager to offer the best room so that the affected individual can succeed. This can involves connecting the goals of workers with the corporate goals (Gallo, 2011). In most cases, goals should be effective and meaningful in motivating workers. This is possible if these goals are tied to the firms ambitions. Employees who can never understand their roles would remain disengaged. The HSCB managers must ensure the goals are challenging and attainable. Indisputably, the employees must reach their goals by setting a strong voice. According to Gallo (2011), the manager should ask the workers to contribute to the firms mission. The manager must try to share the ideas with the employees to ensure that the goals and realistic and achievable. Indeed, the workers should create a plan that can succeed. To avoid the failures, the manager should help the employees to understand the goals. The manager should also help the employees solve their problems. The manager should stay ahead of the employees to avoid troubles. Importantly, the employees and managers should recognize the significance of achieving the goals in partnership (Gallo, 2011). Whenever things go wrong, the manager must help the employee to understand the road bumps. Nevertheless, building relationships with workers will help them feel comfortable, especially whenever any problem arises (Gallo, 2011). The e mployee who encounters obstacle must be supported. This will help in in achieving potential solutions. The manager needs to advice and coach his worker to enhance the solution. Nonetheless, people must always be held accountable for failing to meet their goals. However, the manager must be sure of the areas that require redress. This should involve engaging the employees to identify the areas of concern (Gallo, 2011). Through the negotiation, the managers should try to find lasting solutions by encouraging the workers to retry new strategies to meet the targeted goals. This can be realised by diagnosing and learning about new ideas. This is because; the manager could be part of the issue and by involving them would help them reflecting on their failures and success. The HSBC bank managers have further advised their workers to improve the satisfaction of customers to earn bonuses (Boyce, 2013). By focusing on the customer services, the company manager must address the needs and areas of concern to avoid poor service delivery. Recruitment Criteria The banking sector is experiencing fierce competition. To this effect, many banking institutions have opted to search for the top talents to meet their goals and regain competitive edge in the market. To acquire the best workforce in the market, the bank has opted for aptitude tests and the mock tests online. In the aptitude test, the company can determine the candidates technical aptitude, verbal reasoning, analytical reasoning, and English proficiency (Kevin Tammy, 2011). The technical aptitude exposes the candidates to the data structures and algorithm analysis as the primary subjects. Therefore, the candidate is subjected to rigorous interviews and tests so that the hired individual proves his or her relevance in the field. Monitoring the Conduct of Workers at Work The employer has the responsibility to watch and listen to the employees always. Recently, the employee privacy has raised ethical issues in the HR management. With the technologies emerging, the human resource managers of banks and other organizations are using computer terminals, telephones, and voice mails to monitor workers (Kevin Tammy, 2011). The presence of the electronic monitoring systems has fueled debates. The managers have thus used different employee monitoring systems such as computer monitoring. This involves the use of employee keystrokes accuracy and speeds, video surveillance. These strategies have ensured the managers detect employee horseplay, theft, and safety (Schmitz, 2005). The spying aspects involve the use of detective techniques, especially when there is a suspicious behavior. Managers also use phone tapping and eavesdropping to track the frequency of phone calls, outgoing and incoming calls thus track their locations. Employee privacy is becoming a controversial issue that no manager can underestimate. With the available technologies, the bank managers, especially the HR managers like computer terminals, monitor telephones, and voice mail to protect organizational data (McHardy, Giesbrecht, Brady, 2005). Indisputably, employers have the duty to monitor the actions and behaviors of workers through different strategies. Importantly, Citizen Advice (2017) recognizes the use of CCTV cameras, opening e-mail, checking websites logs, and the use of automated software. According to Claburn (2016), checking or recording the phone calls and logs, the managers can track the activities of the employees. The bank requires the credit reference information. To this effect, it has to acquire such information from the relevant agency. The mentioned monitoring strategies are within the data protection laws (Johnston, 2016). In most cases, the data protection laws have failed to prevent the workplace monitoring activities. This law, however, has established the rules relating to the circumstances and the manager should monitor the situation (McHardy et al., 2005). However, the manager needs to decide on the introduction of monitoring. It should involve identifying negative impact of the monitoring to the workforce. Through the impact assessment, it is possible to determine the realities regarding the monitoring aspects. The managers can be pushed to take reasonable efforts to inform the employees about the monitoring. For the employers, they need to justify the monitoring process so that the employees can consent to the idea as explained by MacDonald and Rudner (2014). The monitoring electronic communications have become a common practice in many institutions. Various employers have legally monitored the employees through their phones, fax, internet, and email (Claburn, 2016). However, the monitoring remains important and relevant if it relates with the business activities. The employer must stick to the spiteful reasons or rules in monitoring the electronic communications. According to MacDonald and Rudner (2014), secret monitoring is also an option for the bank managers. This involves installing the secret monitoring systems without informing the workforce. For instance, in many companies, the hidden audio devices and cameras have helped managers to monitor the conducts of workers. In most cases, this is a rare legal affair. Based on the data protection law, the secret monitoring is a violation of workers privacy rights. Nevertheless, the companies, such as HSBC bank, have established the code of conduct that has enhanced workplace monitoring (HSBC, 2014). In fact, the code of conduct forms the basis of an employment contract. When an employer opts to monitor the behavior of an employee, this could be part of the disciplinary actions. For instance, workers who use workplace equipment, the managers can use the employers policy to monitor the activities (Johnston, 2016). Since the employees may not accept these monitoring aspects, they have alternatives to challenge them. This could involve talking to them so that the managers can persuade them to accept the monitoring process. The employee should be conversant with the employment contract and HSBC handbook to understand the workplace monitoring policy (HSBC, 2014). Whenever the staff feels aggrieved by such actions, the employee can contact the relevant commission to assess whether they are meeting their obligations as defined under the data protection law. Schmitz (2005) believes that the information commission can enforce and supervise the this data protection statute and advise both parties appropriately. In fact, if the commission finds the employer guilty of eavesdropping, the commission can make relevant recommendations that are enforceable (Citizen Advice, 2017). However, the commission has no power to penalize the employer. McHardy et al. (2005) held that the data protection law provides proper mechanisms regarding the right to privacy. In the workplace, the employees rights are limited because of the collective agreement and related statutory provisions. The courts have offered various interpretations regarding the privacy rights are based on the surveillance. Nonetheless, the privacy defines the value of the society. The federal priva cy laws have changed recently to guarantee the rights to the employees. MacDonald and Rudner (2014) have determined the significance of the Personal Information Protection and Electric Documents Act (PIPEDA) (par. 2) as relates to the collection of employees private information. This provision ensures the employers and employees reach an amicable agreement to avoid conflicts. The rights to privacy compel the employer such as the HSBC bank to obtain the employees consent to disclose or collect their personal information. Therefore, the employer has the responsibility to advise the workers on the type of data required. Indeed, the worker should be informed about a continuous surveillance processes and purposes such as safety or disciplinary (Rudner MacDonald, 2014). Reflection Institutional control is an important aspect of achieving organizational success. However, some aspects of these controls can constrain organizational success because they can establish pre-existing conditions. Investors would only choose banks where their savings would safer than those that offer opaque management practices. With proper security surveillance, organizations guarantee investors security and certainty in their investment. It is important to protect the users from dangerous intruders by creating a social environment with social stratification. Through this module, I have managed to understand the social control and how the new technology or surveillance extends the senses and has low visibility or is invisible (Lianos, 2003, p. 417). Therefore, the technological systems have improved the management and control of institutions. However, with the new technology, the risk of data manipulation become inevitable and the managers must provide security systems that protect the sensitive data from intruders. Therefore, this module has made me understand the new theoretical paradigm that focuses on the significance of sociotechnical systems, the unintended control, and an embedded control to the institutional actions, outlets, and systems. Conclusion Employees are important assets of any organization, and the employers try to maintain the performance and productivity of their workers. The management has the responsibility to oversee the responsibilities of workers. This ensures that they conduct proper roles as defined within the job descriptions or contract. This paper provides relevant information on how the manager can handle different activities relating to the working environment, especially the HSBC bank. References Boyce, L. (2013, Fen 20). HSBC tell Branch Staff to Improve Customer Satisfaction if They Want Bonuses as Bank Scraps Sales Incentives. This is Money. Retrieved 17 April 2017 from https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2281734/HSBC-scraps-staff-bonuses-linked-sales-targets.html Gallo, A. (2011, Fen 07). Marking Sure Your Employees Succeed. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 16 April 2017 from https://hbr.org/2011/02/making-sure-your-employees-suc HSBC. (2014, Feb 5). Employee Handbook (HBEU). 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