From Personnel Management to Human Resource Management? The Case of the Co‐operative Bank

This paper is concerned with examining the development of a human resource management strategy in the Co‐operative Bank and explores the relationship between business strategy and the management of labour in pursuit of flexibility. As the product market has changed, so the Bank has sought to become a more market driven organisation, much more flexible in its ability to respond to customers and a more uncertain environment. The paper examines the impact of this on employment practices and the problems involved. The flexibility debate has tended to concentrate on quantitative aspects of flexibility, for instance numerical, whereas this paper addresses qualitative aspects and links this to Human Resource Management.