A study of leadership within the rapidly changing transaction banking environment

Transaction banking is changing in a fast pace due to digitalization, changes in regulation, new competition in the market etc. This acronym VUCA describes this environment; Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. Due to changes in technology, politics and economics strategic renewal is critical to ensure long term survival. Middle managers play a vital role within strategic renewal and leadership behavior is important to be able to perform strategic renewal. This study uses a single case study with a qualitative and inductive approach and five middle managers from different functions within transaction banking were interviewed. The interviews were conducted by semi-structured open-ended questions to be able to get an indepth understanding. Based on the interviews it was possible to draw conclusions on the middle managers role within the strategic renewal process and connect their behaviours to the different leadership behaviours. Strategic renewal consists of four renewal journeys and in transaction banking there is an ongoing transformational renewal journey. It was found that Middle managers within transaction banking will best perform transformational renewal with a leadership behaviour that is transformational rather than transactional.