Profits before people: shifting customer and employee relations in Australian credit unions

Not-for-profit organisations now very often compete with one another, and with for-profit organisations for government funding and private philanthropy. Management and employees in this sector are increasingly required to demonstrate their competitiveness in terms of financial measures and performance criteria. Yet, very little is known about the impact of these shifts on employee relations in not-for-profit organisations. Drawing on detailed case study research into credit unions, which are not-for-profit players in the predominately for-profit financial services sector, the paper highlights the contradictions inherent in, and consequences that result, when not-for-profit organisations adopt similar customer and human resource strategies to their for-profit counterparts. The findings in relation to credit unions have important implications for not-for-profit organisations in the voluntary and welfare sectors where the adoption of strategies from the for-profit sector could potentially undermine the ability of employees to deliver care to some of the most vulnerable members of our society.