Introduction: This case revolves around Audrey Locke, a summer intern at an investment bank, who strives her way,

to get employed in the prestigious Brussels and Bradshaw. The performance review that she was to get, would decide her employment in the company, which was highly at stake for she had been a part of all rumors and pranks all the time, which also had a genuine reason behind for, she, despite being talented, was seen with jealousy and despise. Was she really rubbing against the wrong shoulders, was she wrong or was she right, but the culture of the company was such that it didnt encourage new talents, would be explained better, in the analysis. B&Bs culture and structure: There were 5 hierarchical levels. Each of them had their own groups and assigned products. Cross staffing was also done on a regular basis, for it allowed them to harness proficiencies from multiple areas to benefit from one transaction, thus allowing for more innovative and strategic advising. As far as the culture is concerned, the company, in fact the whole investment banking industry itself, concentrated more on performance based evaluation, less on other stuff. Their salary was fixed, and they bargained on their incentives. Work-life balance was never known, for when it comes to performance, all these dont matter. This company also, did not have a Human Resource Department. The company also had a policy of hiring undergraduates for the summer internship programme, giving them training and retaining them in case they satisfy the requirements of the company. Our protagonist, Audrey was the intern who was selected amongst 300 people after four rounds of intense interviews. False deadlines and assigning projects with no real purpose was another common scene in there. they followed a fraternity mentality amongst the vice presidents and associates, which in fact seems to be a good sign, but these false pressures, not being taken as pranks but as a means of performance evaluation, shows a clear sign of job burn out on the pipeline, which would result in losing of employees, which in turn would lead to losing customers, for they are clients, in the investment banks, the clients know not the company but the employees.

The sorority girls: Along with Audrey, there was one other female employee in B and B named Christine Page, who played the buddy role in Audreys development. Page took exceptional interest in her improvement, talking to her on how to go about her projects, and how to succeed. She also in the end was being accused for the same, for Richards had an assumption that it was because of her, Audrey was able to complete the task given to her, which was truly exceptional and was never expected out of a summer intern, of all people. The last few days before the review: Audrey was constantly being ridiculed for not meeting the deadlines, but her work was never defined, which made her over do the work. She was tagged to me incompetent, which was again, poor delegation of authority. Her request of change in project manager was also not met with, for any good reason. Had there been a human resource department, such issues would have been dealt with by them, in an efficient manner. The Conclusion: In short, after all the trauma undergone by Audrey, its not reasonable to blame the companys culture, for its natural for a player in the investment banking industry to concentrate on performance based evaluation. Audreys extra efforts to prove herself put her into jeopardy. Understanding a companys culture before going ahead with the work is necessary. The company takes equal pride in discouraging Locke to do anything significant by not delegating work properly, and by not having a separate department for the meeting of the grievances of the employees. Audrey could have seemed like a good hire in the beginning, but, she is a misfit when it comes to the culture of the company. One talent could be lost, but changing the whole culture of a company just because of one single person would be a lot time consuming. Though the company is to be blamed equally, its pragmatic to consider the other employees who have been working and are successful. Audrey could be very much interested in the finance sector, provided she had made her mind to change according to the culture in there or choose a company which would definitely look for a scope for development and improvement both in itself and in its employees.