Wachsende Geschäftsvolumina als Problem der Unternehmenspolitik von Banken

Abstract

Growing Business Volumes as a Problem of Bank Management Policy

In the past, banks have responded to growing business volumes (as an expression of growing firm sizes) by engaging additional personnel, which necessarily entailed corresponding increases in personnel costs. But since on the other hand, there are more or less narrow limits to the covering of such additional costs - not the least reason being the changing macroeconomic conditions - by way of higher charges and prices, it would seem advisable to consider how rising business volumes can be coped with efficiently, especially with regard to the personnel sector. In view of the peculiarities of bank production activities and the essential determinants of personnel costs, above all organizational measures must be taken into consideration for solving the problem of restricted decision capacity and the problem of the optimum range of control. As a consequence for the make-up of bank organizational structures it follows that the introduction of novel organizational forms cannot be regarded as the sole and permanently effective therapy. Instead, constant observation is necessary of the development of personnel effectiveness (ratio of personnel costs to output) as an early warning indicator and an internal standard of comparison within the banking business. For the success of management policy action in this area, it is of decisive importance to reduce the number of organizational decisions relative to the number of subject-matter decisions and to level off bank hierarchies. Any effort in this direction, however, requires that also in banks methodical approaches be used to limit the rise of personnel costs, as is already the case in other lines of business.