Instructor Resource
Rowe, Cases in Leadership 5e
SAGE Publications, Inc., 2019
Case Notes
Case 11.1: Scotiabank: Collaboration Across Business Lines
Professor Gerard Seijts wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The
author does not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial
Teaching Notes
Case Summary
On October 1, 2010, Scotiabank implemented changes to its organizational structure that
realigned its business globally and positioned it for further growth. Under the new structure, the
bank’s businesses were regrouped into four business lines: Canadian Banking, International
Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management. The bank had to figure
out how to help individuals improve on working together across business lines. The
formalization of cross-collaboration was through the newly instituted leadership teams. Team
Case Objectives
The case is geared towards an MBA or executive MBA program, or leadership program in
organizational behavior in which students have already had exposure to teams, leadership and
Instructor Resource
Rowe, Cases in Leadership 5e
Assignment Questions
1. What aspects of Hill’s model for team leadership can be emphasized to help improve the
teams at Scotiabank?
2. Brian Toda, Senior Vice-President of Global Talent Management is concerned about
how to measure the performance of these teams. What aspects of task effectiveness should
be measured and how?
3. What aspects of relationship effectiveness should be measured and how?
4. What are some barriers to collaboration that you think need to be addressed by team
leaders?
Instructor Resource
Rowe, Cases in Leadership 5e
Case Analysis
• Begin the class by talking about the case. Ask students to share what problems they think
may arise by using the teams proposed in the case (15 minutes).
• Explain and discuss Hill’s model for team leadership (10 minutes).
• Go over the assignment questions.