E-Commerce, Human Resource Strategies, and Competitive Advantage: Two Australian Banking Case Studies

Service organizations need to consider in depth the human resource management (HRM) strategies that will enable them to achieve sustained competitive advantage in the e-commerce era. This paper analyzes the HRM strategies developed to accommodate the changing customer service practices associated with B2C e-commerce in the retail banking sector. Based on case study data, it describes how two banks in Australia, one large, the other small, have linked their e-commerce strategies with their overall business strategy, and the extent to which their HRM strategies have helped them to utilize their e-commerce capability to achieve sustained competitive advantage.

[1]  Danuta A. Nitecki,et al.  The dynamics of service: Reflections on the changing nature of customer-provider interactions , 1996 .

[2]  Anthony Gandy.  Banking Strategies Beyond 2000 , 1999 .

[3]  Cary L. Cooper,et al.  The Employment Relationship: Key Challenges for HR , 2003 .

[4]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Shifting boundaries and new technologies: a case study in the UK banking sector , 1998, ICIS '98.

[5]  David Knights,et al.  New technology and the labour process , 1988 .

[6]  S. Parker,et al.  Work, organisations, and change : themes and perspectives in Australia , 1989 .

[7]  E. P. Michael.  Strategy and the Internet. , 2001 .

[8]  D. Llewellyn.  Banking in the 21st Century: The Transformation of an Industry , 1996 .

[9]  Philip W. Lowe,et al.  The Australian Financial System in the 1990s , 2000 .

[10]  Christopher P. Holland,et al.  Product-market and technology strategies in banking , 2001, CACM.

[11]  Huw Beynon,et al.  The Restructuring of Career Paths in Large Service Sector Organizations: ‘Delayering’, Upskilling and Polarisation , 2002 .

[12]  Maureen McNeil,et al.  Gender at Work , 1985 .

[13]  David Knights,et al.  Job Redesign: Critical Perspectives on the Labour Process , 1985 .

[14]  Shoshana Zuboff,et al.  In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power , 1989 .

[15]  Yvette Blount,et al.  Approaches to Managing Employees in the B2C Banking Environment: Two Australian Case Studies , 2004 .

[16]  Pamela Mathews,et al.  The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy and Performance , 2002, Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.

[17]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[18]  Rajiv M. Dewan,et al.  Current issues in e-banking: introduction , 2001, CACM.

[19]  Malcolm Edey,et al.  The future of the financial system , 1996 .

[20]  Paula M. C. Swatman,et al.  EBanking adaptation and dot.com viability : a comparison of Australian and Indian experiences in the banking sector , 2001 .

[21]  R. Pringle,et al.  Gender at Work , 1986 .

[22]  David B. Wolfe,et al.  The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism , 2004 .

[23]  Lois W. Sayrs.  Interviews : an introduction to qualitative research interviewing , 1996 .

[24]  Felix Hampe,et al.  Knowledge Generation and Dissemination in Virtual Communities and Virtual Teams , 2002 .