This paper examines the effects of two high-involvement approaches to organizing work in retail bank branches: worker discretion and cross-functional flexibility. Both discretion and flexibility have positive effects on productivity and sales effectiveness. The effects of discretion and...

This case study in retail banking reviews the work of a Wharton School research team which has been tracking the process of change at one of the larger American commercial banks. The bank is referred to by the pseudonym "National Bank." The team's research focuses on how a bank chooses what...

Financial services comprise over 4 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States and employ over 5.4 million people. By offering vehicles for investment of savings, extension of credit and risk management, they fuel the modern capitalistic society.<p> <p>While the essential functions...</p></p>

There is substantial debate about the effects of technological change on wages. We argue that the relationship between technology and wages is context-dependent. To test this proposition, we use data gathered from 303 U.S. bank branches and examine empirically the association between different...

We document changes in the gender composition of jobs in a large American bank. This change was occasioned by a restructuring initiative that created new positions. Through interviews with employees and direct observation of work in four geographic regions, we identify five factors that underlie...

The authors examine trends in job content and earnings in selected jobs in two American banks. Firm restructuring and technological changes resulted in higher earnings for college-educated workers. The banks followed different strategies in implementing these changes for lower-skill jobs, with...

How does a retail bank innovate? Traditional innovation literature would suggest that organizations innovate by getting new and/or improved products to market. However, in a service, the product is the process. Thus, innovation in banking lies more in process and organizational changes than in...

A decade of econometric research has shown that X-efficiency dominates scale and scope as the drivers of inefficiency in the U.S. banking industry. However, this research falls short in explaining the causes of the high degree of X-efficiency in the industry. This paper summarizes a four-year...

The proposition that the way firms manage their labor forces should be consistent with their organization strategy might seem both obvious and noncontroversial. What this means in practice in a turbulent industry such as consumer financial service, however, is by no means obvious. Human resource...