Abstract

Banks used to be very definite firms having in common some important features: a strong hierarchy, a focus on processes, an idiosyncratic technology, an orientation to stability and predictability, a strong and specific culture. But the bank business has strongly diversified: we now have private, investment, corporate, retail banks and, at the same time some traditional deposit taking banks have evolved in market funded financial institutions. Because form follows function the bank organizational form has also diversified. As a consequence bankers, but also bank scholars, lost their original identity and don't share any more a common set of skills, culture and competences.