The Ethical Dimension of Operational Excellence in Banking

Purpose - This paper responds to emerging concerns from stakeholders in banks about service operations mismanagement in the delivery of ethical intentions. It applies the notion of an Operating Model for financial services firms to propose a method of assessing compatibility between the ethical intentions expressed in strategic intentions with operational reality. Design/methodology/approach - The paper begins with archival research of the ethical strategic intentions of banks in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region as expressed in their Annual Reports, using content analysis techniques. These intentions are compared with the published operational performance of the banks, and an assessment method is derived by grounded theory from this data. Findings - Delivery of the ethical intentions of banks in the GCC region is challenged by the implied ethics of western banking operating models used in that region. Research limitations/implications - Although the implications of this qualitative research paper can be translated to the financial services industry in general, the examples presented here are from banking in the GCC region. Originality/value - The notion of an Operating Model for financial services firms is applied to assessing the delivery of ethical strategic intentions into operational reality for banks in a specific region. Practical implications - The method proposed in this paper can be used by stakeholders and regulators of financial services firms to identify the real ethics of operational performance. Paper Type - Qualitative Research