A counsellor role for developing bank branch managers: experiences in a developing country

Discusses the experience of a large bank in a developing country when the bank introduced a counsellor role to improve the managerial capabilities of its growing body of relatively junior and inexperienced branch managers. Explains how this new counsellor position was designed with the specific objective of avoiding additional managerial levels which would otherwise be necessary for exercising close administrative control over branches run by ill‐equipped managers. Contends that an assessment of the bank’s experience yields useful insights for the development of managers in the context of comprehensive organizational transformation, involving changes to administrative culture in an existing hierarchical structure, particularly as they related to role appreciation and hunger for authority.