Wells Fargo Analysis

Wells Fargo Analysis

Nancy Beth Suyak

University of Phoenix

Wells Fargo was founded 150 years ago by Henry and William G. Fargo. Today, Wells Fargo is a "diversified financial services company providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 10,000 stores and 12,000 ATMs and the internet across North America and internationally" (Wells Fargo, 2010). After the $25 billion government bailout in 2009, Wells Fargo seeks to become a stable financial institution. With its acquisition of Wachovia, Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in the United States with "$1.2 trillion in assets and more than 278,000 team members across 80+ businesses" (Wells Fargo, 2010, p. 2). When analyzing the organization, there are factors which must be considered. Those factors are: where is Wells Fargo now, where does Wells Fargo want to be, corporate confidence, how will the stakeholders be impacted, how will Wells Fargo support the change.

With all of the recent changes at Wells Fargo, the vision is "we want to satisfy all our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially" (Wells Fargo, 2010, p. 2). Wells Fargo is an organic organization. Morgan (2006) explained, "organization theory has become a kind of biology in which the distinctions and relations among molecules, cells, complex organisms, species, and ecology are paralleled in those between individuals, groups, organizations, populations (species) of organization and their social ecology" (p.34). The advantages of looking at Wells Fargo as an organic organization is the view of how it takes the organization, as a whole, to reach the goals set within the vision of the organization. Just like the human body, it takes every part, inside and out, to keep the organization fit and capable of doing what it is meant to do. Disadvantage of the organic organization theory is the lack of unity from all within the organization. Often times, organizations find themselves facing opposition from internal and external factors. These factors could be employees, stockholders, vendors, and customers. Customers, employees, and stockholder could have become antsy when Wells Fargo and Wachovia joined forces. However, with the merger between the two financial institutions, customers continue to business as usual; even though, all Wachovia locations have yet to convert to the Wells Fargo name. Also, with the merger, for example, Alabama now has 140 regional banks. With a total of 6,445 banking stores in 39 states and the D. C. area, Wells Fargo has grown as one of the United States most extensive banking franchises (Wells Fargo, 2010, p. 5).

According to Morgan (2006, p. 65-66), the strengths to the organic organization metaphor stems from:

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