IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/7467.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Human Resource Management and Performance in the Service Sector: The Case of Bank Branches

Author

Listed:
  • Ann P. Bartel

Abstract

This paper utilizes a unique dataset collected through site visits to extend the analysis of the relationship between the human resource management environment and establishment performance to the service sector, specifically the branch operations of a large bank. Case studies of several branches were used to understand how and why the human resource management environment is likely to affect branch level performance. The branch interviews were instrumental in properly specifying a branch-level performance equation. The econometric analysis showed that, controlling for the characteristics of the market in which the branch is located and the characteristics of the branch employees, as well as unobserved branch-specific and unobserved manager-specific characteristics, the human resource management environment at the branch, as measured by the performance evaluation and feedback system and the quality of communications between the manager and the staff, had a significant effect on the branch's performance. An important finding is that, even though all managers in this bank are given a formal set of human resource policies, they appear to have considerable discretion in their application.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann P. Bartel, 2000. "Human Resource Management and Performance in the Service Sector: The Case of Bank Branches," NBER Working Papers 7467, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7467
    Note: LS PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w7467.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berger, Allen N. & Leusner, John H. & Mingo, John J., 1997. "The efficiency of bank branches," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-162, September.
    2. Susan Helper & David I. Levine & Elliot Bendoly, 2002. "Employee Involvement And Pay At Us And Canadian Auto Suppliers," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 329-377, June.
    3. Neil B. Murphy & Yair E. Orgler, 1982. "Cost Analysis For Branching Systems: Methodology, Test Results, And Implications For Management," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 5(2), pages 181-188, June.
    4. George Baker & Robert Gibbons & Kevin J. Murphy, 1994. "Subjective Performance Measures in Optimal Incentive Contracts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 1125-1156.
    5. Allen N. Berger & David B. Humphrey, 1992. "Measurement and Efficiency Issues in Commercial Banking," NBER Chapters, in: Output Measurement in the Service Sectors, pages 245-300, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1995. "The Economics of Modern Manufacturing: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 997-999, September.
    7. Berger, Allen N. & Mester, Loretta J., 1997. "Inside the black box: What explains differences in the efficiencies of financial institutions?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 895-947, July.
    8. Sherman, H. David & Gold, Franklin, 1985. "Bank branch operating efficiency : Evaluation with Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 297-315, June.
    9. Benston, George J & Hanweck, Gerald A & Humphrey, David B, 1982. "Scale Economies in Banking: A Restructuring and Reassessment," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(4), pages 435-456, November.
    10. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1994. "The Firm as an Incentive System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 972-991, September.
    11. Aly, Hassan Y, et al, 1990. "Technical, Scale, and Allocative Efficiencies in U.S. Banking: An Empirical Investigation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 211-218, May.
    12. repec:bla:scandj:v:94:y:1992:i:0:p:s111-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Edward P. Lazear, 1991. "Labor Economics and the Psychology of Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 89-110, Spring.
    14. Hancock, Diana, 1986. "A model of the financial firm with imperfect asset and deposit elasticities," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 37-54, March.
    15. Ferrier, Gary D. & Lovell, C. A. Knox, 1990. "Measuring cost efficiency in banking : Econometric and linear programming evidence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 229-245.
    16. Schaffnit, Claire & Rosen, Dan & Paradi, Joseph C., 1997. "Best practice analysis of bank branches: An application of DEA in a large Canadian bank," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 269-289, April.
    17. Zardkoohi, Asghar & Kolari, James, 1994. "Branch office economies of scale and scope: evidence from savings banks in Finland," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 421-432, May.
    18. Parkan, Celik, 1987. "Measuring the efficiency of service operations: An application to bank branches," Engineering Costs and Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1-4), pages 237-242, July.
    19. Ichniowski, Casey & Shaw, Kathryn & Prennushi, Giovanna, 1997. "The Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Productivity: A Study of Steel Finishing Lines," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 291-313, June.
    20. Baba Prasad & Patrick T. Harker, 1997. "Examining the Contribution of Information Technology Toward Productivity and Profitability in U.S. Retail Banking," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 97-09, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    21. Kochan, Thomas A., 1996. "What works at work : overview and assessment," Working papers 3886-96., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Casey Ichniowski & Kathryn Shaw, 2003. "Beyond Incentive Pay: Insiders' Estimates of the Value of Complementary Human Resource Management Practices," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 155-180, Winter.
    2. Takao Kato, 2003. "The Recent Transformation of Participatory Employment Practices in Japan," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States, pages 39-80, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Hiroyuki Chuma & Takao Kato & Isao Ohashi, 2004. "What Japanese Workers Want: Evidence from the Japanese Worker Representation and Participation Survey," Discussion papers 04019, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Das, Abhiman & Ray, Subhash C. & Nag, Ashok, 2009. "Labor-use efficiency in Indian banking: A branch-level analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 411-425, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berger, Allen N. & Humphrey, David B., 1997. "Efficiency of financial institutions: International survey and directions for future research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 175-212, April.
    2. Ann P. Bartel, 2004. "Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance: Evidence from Retail Banking," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(2), pages 181-203, January.
    3. Berger, Allen N. & Leusner, John H. & Mingo, John J., 1997. "The efficiency of bank branches," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-162, September.
    4. G.S. Donatos & D.I. Giokas, 2008. "Relative Efficiency in the branch network of a Greek bank: A quantitative analysis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 53-72.
    5. Giokas, Dimitris I., 2008. "Assessing the efficiency in operations of a large Greek bank branch network adopting different economic behaviors," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 559-574, May.
    6. Bauer, Paul W. & Berger, Allen N. & Ferrier, Gary D. & Humphrey, David B., 1998. "Consistency Conditions for Regulatory Analysis of Financial Institutions: A Comparison of Frontier Efficiency Methods," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 85-114, March.
    7. Hassan, M. Kabir, 2006. "The X-Efficiency In Islamic Banks," Islamic Economic Studies, The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), vol. 13, pages 50-78.
    8. Taylor, William M. & Thompson, Russell G. & Thrall, Robert M. & Dharmapala, P. S., 1997. "DEA/AR efficiency and profitability of Mexican banks a total income model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 346-363, April.
    9. Sathye, Milind, 2001. "X-efficiency in Australian banking: An empirical investigation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 613-630, March.
    10. Vaneet Bhatia & Sankarshan Basu & Subrata Kumar Mitra & Pradyumna Dash, 2018. "A review of bank efficiency and productivity," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 55(3), pages 557-600, November.
    11. Paradi, Joseph C. & Rouatt, Stephen & Zhu, Haiyan, 2011. "Two-stage evaluation of bank branch efficiency using data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 99-109, January.
    12. Kuussaari, Harri, 1993. "Productive efficiency in Finnish local banking during 1985-1990," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 14/1993, Bank of Finland.
    13. Resti, Andrea, 1997. "Evaluating the cost-efficiency of the Italian Banking System: What can be learned from the joint application of parametric and non-parametric techniques," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 221-250, February.
    14. Sufian, Fadzlan & Abdul Majid, Muhamed Zulkhibri, 2007. "Bank Ownership, Characteristics and Performance: A Comparative Analysis of Domestic and Foreign Islamic Banks in Malaysia," MPRA Paper 12131, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Jun 2007.
    15. Das, Abhiman & Ray, Subhash C. & Nag, Ashok, 2009. "Labor-use efficiency in Indian banking: A branch-level analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 411-425, April.
    16. Daniel Gropper & Steven Caudill & T. Beard, 1999. "Estimating Multiproduct Cost Functions Over Time Using a Mixture of Normals," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 201-218, June.
    17. Berger, Allen N. & DeYoung, Robert, 2006. "Technological Progress and the Geographic Expansion of the Banking Industry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(6), pages 1483-1513, September.
    18. Aude Hubrecht & Fabienne Guerra, 2005. "Mesure De La Performance Globale Des Agences Bancaires : Une Application De La Méthode Dea," Post-Print halshs-00581212, HAL.
    19. Paradi, Joseph C. & Zhu, Haiyan, 2013. "A survey on bank branch efficiency and performance research with data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 61-79.
    20. Allen Berger & Robert DeYoung, 2001. "The Effects of Geographic Expansion on Bank Efficiency," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 19(2), pages 163-184, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L8 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7467. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.