1.0 Introduction

Today, the business environment is highly dynamic and new technological advancements have disrupted the traditional business models in a great deal. Within this context, success largely depends on the adaptability and business flexibility. Hence, businesses need to continuously evaluate the external environmental factors to identify potential business challenges which might seriously affect their business sustainability and continuity. Proper change management strategies, having a right organizational culture and leadership will be really important to secure a sustainable competitive advantage within the present context. The present study will examine the Sampath Bank which is a dominant player within the Sri Lankan banking industry. First, a brief analysis of external environmental factors which affect the bank will be discussed and then several models which explain the current organizational culture will be used to get an idea about the organizational climate in a way to understand the readiness of the organizational culture to embrace change triggered by external environmental factors. Finally, few leadership models will be used to assess the current leadership style and gaps, so that recommendations can be made to fill the leadership gaps throughout the change management process and business growth.

2.0 A brief external environmental analysis

The below PESTEL analysis will briefly identify the most important environmental factors to the Sampath Bank, which is a dominant private commercial bank in Sri Lanka. With the current political and economic crisis faced by the country, the bank is evaluating its growth trajectory and has identified ‘digital banking’ as the next phase of development in the perspective of business growth and competition. Thus, to secure a strategic advantage and survive under current market conditions, investing in digital banking has been identified as a key priority (Refer appendix 1 for a detailed analysis)