Corporate Transformation or Cosmetic Makeover? Case of a Public Sector Bank in India

A longitudinal study was carried out in a public sector bank (PSB), which has taken many change initiatives during the last seven years (post 2004) like technology up-gradation, new products, strategic focus on customer centri-city, and human resource management. A qualitative approach was adopted to collect data from different locations. In-depth interviews were conducted with employees across levels including some focus group interviews. Findings indicate that the changes happened at a surface level but not at a deeper level. PSB was able to gain its employees acceptance of the fact that change was inevitable and that customer centri-city and performance could not be done away with, in order to survive. However, this was accepted very reluctantly.