Implementation Of Internal Marketing Research Articles

Internal marketing: a qualitative study of culture change in the UK banking sector

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study carried out in the UK retail-bank sector on the implementation of Internal Marketing (IM). While the overall aim of Internal Marketing is the creation of a unified culture around the values of customer service, employee empowerment and service quality, the evidence suggests that Internal Marketing is perceived and enacted in ways that at times contradict such managerial rhetoric. The paper sheds light on what internal marketing is (its underlying principles within the organisations studied), the ways in which the banks studied use it in order to change their organisational culture as well as the difficulties encountered in implementing IM as a culture change agent. It concludes that the implementation of Internal Marketing in the banks under the study is problematic and does not result into a unified organisation culture. Indeed, implementing Internal Marketing is a process fraught with difficulty, which at times leads to divisions, ruptures and ambiguity in the newly created organisational culture.

Internal marketing: a means for creating a sales or marketing orientation? The case of UK retail banks

The concept of 'internal marketing' has received considerable coverage in the literature, but even its most ardent supporters have noted problems in translating the concept into reality. This paper discusses the findings of an exploratory case study carried out within 35 UK high street retail banks. Internal marketing is an initiative adopted by the organizations studied in order to nourish a marketing orientation.The implementation approach shapes the nature and form of the internal marketing communications that organizations adopt. Even though UK retail banks intend to implement internal marketing effectively, in reality the current implementation approach appears to be counter-productive to the achievement of the core aims of the initiative. The core finding from this exploratory research suggests that there are substantial barriers to the successful implementation of internal marketing within the banks studied, barriers such as the focus on short-term sales goals, the lack of a formal and 'holistic' implementation approach and the creation of 'personnel discrimination' and negative internal competition.

The effect of work climate on critical employee and customer outcomes

This paper examines several work climate variables and their impact on service quality. While there exists a variety of work climates relevant to contact employees during service encounters, this study investigates two components for successful implementation of internal marketing, service climate and supportive management. Both climate variables are proposed to affect the attitudes and behaviors of employees, and consequently affect customers’ perceptions of employees’ service performance. This study, which combines perceptions from customers and their contact employees, shows that both climate variables contribute directly to job satisfaction and work effort, and indirectly impact on customers’ perceptions of employee service quality. Also, the empirical results indicate that in addition to job satisfaction, employees’ work effort also plays a strong, central role in determining customers’ perceptions of employee service quality.