DWS Staff Complaints Show UBS That Scrapping Titles Isn’t Easy

As UBS Group AG becomes the latest finance firm to ax senior titles, a rival who pushed through similar moves is finding it’s not always smooth sailing.

DWS Group, Deutsche Bank AG’s asset management arm, scrapped ranks in an effort to flatten hierarchies. But removing a few rungs from the corporate ladder also brought some resentment from employees who felt deprived of career progression, according to several current and former staffers.

Even now, two years after the decision to do away with titles such as “managing director” and “associate” and eight months after it came into effect, a ...