Looking inside T. Rowe Price:

T. Rowe Price was founded in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price; Jr. Mr. Price followed a very simple business principle when creating his company: What is good for the client is also good for the firm. Instead of charging a commission, Mr. Price charged a fee based on the assets under management. If the client prospered, so did T. Rowe Price. Mr. Price is best known for developing the growth stock style of investing. Mr. Price had a passion for investing, he believed that investors could earn high returns by investing in well-managed companies whose earnings and dividends could be expected to grow faster than inflation and the overall economy. Mr. Price’s core approach consisted of research to guide investment selection and diversification to reduce risk.

Today, growth stock investing is one of the many investment styles the firm currently follows. T. Rowe Price also employs value-oriented, sector-focused, tax-efficient, and quantitative index-oriented approaches in managing mutual funds and institutional portfolios. The company offers separately managed investment portfolios for institutions and a broad range of mutual funds for individual investors and corporate retirement programs. T. Rowe Price is a global investment management firm that works to meet the needs of institutional and individual investors worldwide. T. Rowe Price provides a broad array of mutual funds, sub-advisory services, and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans, and financial intermediaries. The firm also offers a variety of investment planning and guidance tools. Although headquartered in BaltimoreMaryland, T. Rowe Price has offices in Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo. T. Rowe Price's investment approach focuses on diversification, style consistency, and fundamental research.

Communication Process

T Rowe Price uses a highly structured group of IT programs to assist with their communication processes. These systems allow for complex tasks to be performed very quickly. Since this company is a global company, they need to be able to communicate with other employees and clients in other states and countries quickly and effectively. They use global email, inter office communication and teleconferencing to get together and share information. T Rowe Price recently updated its software to make communication run more smoothly. Doren Jacobs, Vice President of T. Rowe Price Investment Technologies, Inc. noticed his organization tended to work in a reactive mode rather than take a proactive, preventative approach. T Rowe Price added Alert Find to its IT systems. The new programming has helped with this issue. T. Rowe Price has integrated Alert Find into their overall crisis communication strategy. This change has been instrumental in helping T Rowe Price affordably and quickly alert and notify key individuals and groups. They use this new technology on a regular basis in a wide variety of scenarios – ranging from locating an individual to convening our senior executive crisis management teams in response to natural, technological or man-made crises.

A centralized database reduces the chances of conflicting sales efforts while helping to ensure the right person is contacted at the prospected firm.

The communication at T Rowe Price is excellent. They seem to have a system in place that works well and is capable of evolving as the company continues to grow.

Social influence

Social influence is when the actions or thoughts of individuals are changed by other individuals.

T. Rowe Price has always played a role in improving the quality of life in the community. The T. Rowe Price Associates Foundation, Inc. is a way which the firm accomplishes this goal by making charitable contributions. The Foundation is a strong supporter of nonprofit organizations that benefit education, arts and culture, civic and community, and human services interests. The Foundation also encourages employees of T. Rowe Price to provide individual community support. Through a generous matching gift program, the Foundation matches dollar-for-dollar contributions employees give to qualifying charities of their choice. Through their Dollars for Doers program, the Foundation also awards a cash gift to a qualifying charity where an employee volunteers at least 25 hours of service a year.

The Community Relations function combines the community resources and the volunteer efforts of the associates within the communities where they live and work. The associates complement the firm's charitable efforts by investing their own time and energy into projects that support a wide range of charitable organizations. Many associates serve on the boards of community organizations and participate in various fundraisers. In the past two years, more that 1,500 associates have spent over 8,000 hours to make a difference in our communities. The company has received many Recognition Awards including The Governor's Volunteer Award in Maryland, The Mayor's Business Recognition Award and The Good Neighbor Award for Baltimore County.

I was very impressed with the social influence at T Rowe Price. They are very active in the community and they encourage their employees to be active as well. I wouldn’t change anything.

Individual differences and personality

The company’s ability to be a leader in its field depends on the skills of people with varying backgrounds and experiences. T Rowe Price strives to recruit highly motivated and skilled individuals who share their vision of a diverse workplace. The result is a creative, productive work environment with broader business perspectives, and high quality service for their diverse client base.

T. Rowe Price is committed to diversity and the principles of equal employment opportunities for all individuals, regardless of race, color, age, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, and veteran status or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. This policy of equal opportunity covers all aspects of the employment relationship, including recruitment, application, initial employment, promotion, transfer, training and development, compensation administration, and the application of employee benefit and retirement plans.

The habits of effective people are Be proactive, Begin with the end in mind, Put first things first, Think win-win, Seek first to understand, Synergize, Sharpen the saw!

High-performance teams

Share a common purpose and goals

Build relationships for trust and respect

Balance task and process

Plan thoroughly before acting

Involve members in clear problem-solving and decision making procedures

Respect and understand each others' "diversity"

Value synergism and interdependence

Emphasize and support team goals

Reward individual performance that supports the team.

Communicate effectively

Practice effective dialogue instead of debate Identify and resolve group conflicts

Vary levels and intensity of work.

T. Rowe Price continues to evolve and excel as a high performance team. They are currently using a new content management system to bring strategic benefit to its marketing and sales departments. The system allows marketing and sales professionals to quickly assemble content from a variety of sources and deliver customized documents in response to client needs. By incorporating varied data sources, across its enterprise, T. Rowe Price gains the ability to cut costs, streamline business processes, ensure brand integrity, and efficiently manages tasks. T. Rowe Price's disciplined approach focuses on diversification, style consistency, and fundamental research. This integration creates an increased opportunity to improve client communications. Their high performance teams provide clients with more timely and personally relevant communications with this architecture.

But these high performance teams do not come easily. The employees at T Rowe Price are constantly working on their team building skills by attending training sessions and workshops. Attending these workshops allow T Rowe’s management to reconnect with peers and strengthen their skills. Managers have unique challenges and not always some one to talk to. It’s nice to have the chance to be with people who face the same kinds of challenges and who can understand. Among the benefits of these share sessions are the opportunity to collaborate with peers facing similar issues in a highly supportive, non-threatening and non-competitive environment.

Motivation

Motivation is the act or process of motivating; something that motivates; an inducement or incentive.

T. Rowe Price recognizes the value in providing their associates with a benefits package they can feel good about. They also realize that each individual has different needs, so they offer something for everyone. There are the usual plans; dental, medical, vision, and prescriptions. They also offer adoption assistance, and employee assistance. The employee assistance plan addresses personal or family problems, emotional strains, substance abuse, financial worries, work stresses, dependent care issues, and other issues that may affect work performance. By offering a wide variety of services to its employees T Rowe Price keeps them happy and motivated. The employees know that the company cares about their needs and the needs of their families. The company also offers reimbursements for using health clubs to stay in shape and has made generous retirement programs and stock option program available to employees.

I know that not everyone agrees that bonuses and benefits are motivators but for some people they are. When you have a family to support having a good medical plan and retirement package can motivate you to work hard and keep your job. Some people will only take a job if it has great benefits.

Quality management and teamwork is a philosophy of management that is driven by the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all organizational processes.

The firm cultivates high achievement and talent in a variety of areas including accounting, communication, design, economics, finance, human resources, information technology, investment management, operations, marketing, research, and sales. T Rowe is an environment which has simplified its reporting activities making it easier to discern trends across multiple divisions and departments.

Quality management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary to design, develop and implement a product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system and its performance.

Teamwork is a cooperative effort by the members of a group or team to achieve a common goal.

Quality Management and Teamwork are essential to this company. They must research all the information that is current in their field so that they may give their clients the best service possible.

Leadership, management, and loyalty

Leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals.

Management is the act, manner, or practice of managing; handling, supervision, or control.

Loyalty is a feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection.

A good example of the leadership, management and loyalty that is a part of T Rowe Price is George A. Roche. Roche is the chairman and president of T. Rowe Price. He and his family own T. Rowe Price Group stock worth $200 million. He has worked for nearly four decades with the Baltimore mutual fund company. He earned his money by staying with one company, helping executives like him; build that company into a premier, ethical institution. In this day and age, when executives move from company to company looking for ways to move up, Roche stayed loyal and steadfast at T. Rowe. He chose to leave an enduring legacy to his shareholders and community. He did not get rich quick by selling T. Rowe Price to someone who did not care about the company or the employees, despite numerous opportunities. Big financial houses have been trying to buy Price for years, but the answer has always been no. It is corporate policy not to flip the company and make a windfall profit. The expectation is that employees will succeed by delivering a great product to customers, not by auctioning the company to the highest bidder.

I think this company should offer training and workshops for management to assist them with the problems that managers can face. Teach them how to lead and create an atmosphere that fosters loyalty.

Effective and ineffective teams

Effective teams exhibit clear goals; purpose and common vision; the ability to take action; flexibility; effective communication; strong personal commitment; strong relationships and sensitivity to individual differences; accountability for results; and a commitment to long-term progress.

Ineffective teams lack alignment, so team members are pulling in different directions. The result is wasted energy.

T Rowe Price embodies all of these qualities. I am not sure what I would change.

Source of Conflict

Conflict is a state of disharmony between incompatible people, ideas, or interests; a clash. Some of the employees are not happy with the 401 K plans that T Rowe Price has offered them. The problem seems to be that all the options are retail funds that T. Rowe also sells to the public. The employees would like the option of buying institutional funds. The company offers such funds to some of its clients for their 401(k) plans, but not to its own employees. The cost would be lower and the benefits better for the workers. Price Vice Chairman James Riepe said it was important to show customers that "we eat our own cooking.

I think that T Rowe should listen to their employees. They should offer their employees more than what their offer to the public; this would make them feel appreciated and special. If employees have proven that they are hard working and go that extra mile, they should be rewarded. It’s good for business. Fewer turnovers with employees would occur.

Conflict resolution and Negotiation

Conflict resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict. Successful conflict resolution happens by providing each side's needs, and addressing their interests so that both sides are satisfied with the outcome.

Negotiation is the process resolving disagreements. As part of T Rowe’s policies and procedures it is stated that one of the privileges of being a shareholder is the right to vote on all issues submitted for a shareholder vote. This includes the election of directors and important matters affecting the company’s structure and operations. There are specific voting guidelines that must be followed. The T Rowe Price proxy committee develops the firm’s positions on all major corporate issues, creates guidelines and oversees voting procedures. The proxy committee is also responsible for monitoring and resolving possible material conflicts and interests at T Rowe Price.

T Rowe Price uses outside consultants to assist with conflict resolution when necessary. The consultants help translate business strategy into behaviors people can use in the workplace. They consult on management practices, how to coach leaders at all levels, and design training interventions on topics including negotiation, leadership, team building, sales, and sales management.
I think letting stockholders have a say in the workings of the company is a good idea. Owning stock in a company is the same as owning a small piece of that company. I think that there should also be a system in place that allows the employees (who don’t own stock) to have their opinions heard. When employees know that they can go to management and express themselves without repercussions and that management will take them seriously, those employees will work harder because they feel that they are a part of the company and not just a worker.

Groups Decision Making Techniques

Group decision making techniques include, Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique, Delphi Technique, Devil’s Advocacy Approach, and Dialectical Inquiry.

Perception and Attribution

Perception is recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based on memory.

Attribution is the process through which people employ generic principles to come to some conclusion about the cause for a behavior or event.

Employees Managing their Managers

This is achieved by creating an environment in which people feel empowered, providing opportunities, and motivating people to do their best.

Since the company seems to be excelling, I believe that this is probably happening already although I can not find a specific example. It has been difficult to find inside information.

Power and Politics

When employees in organizations convert their power into action, they are engaged in politics.

I could not find any information on Politics within this company. As in all companies, there is a certain amount of game playing and politics that goes on, I am sure that T Rowe Price is no different.

Giving and receiving feedback

Feedback is the information about the results of a process which is used to change the process itself.

The communication with in this company is very good. Feedback is a major part of communication. They have a system set up to follow accounts and clients to see if everything is working out and that everyone is satisfied.

Based on my research and readings, I would say that T Rowe Price is a good company to work for. They treat their employees fairly and compensate them generously for their hard work. They know how to work together as a team and how to communicate ideas effectively. They use feedback as a tool to improve themselves and how they approach things. They believe in using diversity and people’s individual talents and personalities to their advantage.