The evidence suggests that despite the rhetoric surrounding such training
programmes, they are used in a manipulative way. Managers claim that these
programmes clearly demonstrate that the organisation cares about the needs and
wants of all staff, when it is clear that only front-line staff benefit from most of
these courses. Very often, these programmes are launched within the context of
Internal Marketing, only in order to signal a more people-oriented management
style. However, involvement in these programmes tends to benefit mainly the bottom
line of the firm through improved staff performance and productivity rather than
through improved morale and employee satisfaction. Quite clearly this ritual signals
that a differentiation approach to culture is more in line with what is going on in
these banks rather the integration perspective which suggests that employees share
the same values and are treated in the same way.