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Ashley Sutton-Pryce, General Manager of Human Resources (HR) at Nedcor Bank in South Africa, contemplated some of the issues that had been vigorously debated in the meeting he had just closed. Once again, the strategic re-positioning of the HR function at Nedcor had been the primary discussion point. Debate had reached its zenith after 18 months of research and discussion regarding the attributes of the proposed new HR model for the bank.The plan was that a central HR function be retained, but with decentralised commercial units having a high degree of autonomy with regard to HR management. Sutton-Pryce had to determine the extent to which the HR function should be autonomous in the separate business units, and the exact role that would be played by the central HR function. He knew he would have to create a balance between autonomy and central compliance, particularly as joint ventures, alliances and mergers became more common. In making this decision, he would have to determine which HR issues were negotiable.There was a challenge for HR to prove to the business that it added value as the bank was faced by continuous pressure to reduce costs. Faced by an increasingly hostile banking environment, he could not afford to make a mistake.