Top‐down change in a public sector bank: lessons from employees' lived‐in experiences

Purpose – This paper aims to examine a case study of an Indian public sector bank (PSB) to better understand the employee's experience of the change, specifically top‐down culture change. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a qualitative case study approach to describe and extract lessons from a top‐down change in an Indian PSB. The data were collected twice to understand the extent of change with a gap of two years. Findings – The study indicates that selective change has occurred as a response to the external environment that affected organizational mission and strategy. The study findings indicate that there is a significant realignment of the strategy, structure, systems, and technology along with the level of customer satisfaction. Efforts to realign employees' experiences and attitudes, however, leave a lot to be desired. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on single case study. Practical implications – Lessons on how to implement change in the public sector are discussed. The findings bring forth a unique challenge faced by organizations to create a culture which is a blend of market and employee orientation. Further studies are needed in this domain. Originality/value – This research fills the literature gap in the domain of culture change by carrying out a study in a developing country in Southern Asia. Second, most of the studies do not make a clear distinction between behavioral and values levels, and very few studies have looked at both the levels simultaneously. The current study is an attempt to fill this research gap.