An exploratory investigation using a survey study approach was undertaken in two organisations in retailing, to explore whether there is any connection between HOD leadership style and the effectiveness of marketing concept in the organisation. Findings emerged on several levels. Despite the agreement on the importance of leadership in IM, little integration of leadership and IM research is found in the literature. Traditionally, leadership studies relate to job satisfaction, motivation, performance, productivity and communication. The term leadership means different things to different people (De Jong 2006). Although no ultimate definition of leadership exists (Yukl 2002) the majority of definitions reflect some basic elements including influence, motivation, intention, and change. Despite the importance of acknowledging the concept of leadership and its implications on internal marketing, it emerges that empirical studies of the relationship between leadership and internal marketing are unduly under-represented. Looking at the results, the achievement oriented and participative styles are positively associated with internal marketing. The achievement oriented is somewhat a better predictor than participative style in predicting variability in internal marketing. Conversely, the directive style is negatively associated with the internal marketing variable. The only leadership style that has no significant effect on internal marketing is the supportive style. The results also show that staff job satisfaction levels are positively predicted by leadership style. Further analysis shows that only 2 out of 4 leadership styles have positive significant effects on internal marketing; these are: achievement oriented and participative styles. The other two are not significant in predicting the variability in job satisfaction. The regression results show that leadership style has a significant effect on the HOD performance variable. All leadership styles, except supportive style, have significant effects on HOD performance. The achievement oriented and participative styles have positive significant effects, but the directive style has a negative effect on HOD performance. The overall results show that achievement oriented and participative styles have positive significant effects directly and are mediated by internal marketing effects on job satisfaction and HOD performance. But the directive style of leadership has a significant direct negative effect and is mediated by internal marketing on HOD performance only and not on job satisfaction. Survey data at the individual level was aggregated across the two organisations and analysed. While these results cannot be statistically generalisable because of the small and unrepresentative sample used, the findings suggest that the link between individual organisation members’ perceptions of Internal Marketing and HOD leadership would be worthy of a larger study.

No abstract available / Graduate School of Business Leadership / M.B.L.

M.Comm. (Business Management) / Marketing as field of study has developed as a vibrant and evolutionary management function over a number of decades. In the 1950's the primary focus was on consumer goods. In the ensuing three decades industrial marketing, societal orientation and the marketing of services respectively, came to the fore. It is anticipated that relationship marketing will increasingly capture the attention of marketers in the 1990's. Relationship marketing addresses internal markets in the organisation, such as the personnel and jobs, suppliers, influencer markets, referral markets and customer markets. The focus in relationship marketing shifts from transaction marketing, as practised in the past, to long term relationships developing between the markets mentioned above (Christopher, 1991:9).The student holds the opinion that both relationship marketing and internal marketing have immense application potential in business on corporate and small business level. These concepts however, are still in the infancy stage with a low level of awareness amongst businessmen and entrepreneurs alike.

Investigating internal employee behaviors that influence firm results is an area of on-going interest to both academics and practitioners. This study combined the two recently developed constructs of internal market orientation and industrial service quality to investigate their relationship. The integration of the business outcomes of overall service quality, customer satisfaction, and commitment to the relationship were included to add practical application to study. Additionally, the moderator length of relationship between service provider and customer was included to examine its influence in the model. Internal marketing and market orientation influenced the development of the internal market orientation. Decades of studies into service quality lead to the development of the business-to-business service quality scales applied to this study. Studying these constructs in real world settings, including the moderator, and measuring subjective business outcomes was conducted to confirm scale use, broaden the settings, and offer depth to the field of study. Two surveys to employees and one survey to matching customers created 107 dyad records for structural equation model analysis. Results showed no significant relationship between internal market orientation and industrial service quality. There was a significant relationship between industrial service quality and overall service quality perception, confirming past studies. However, counter to past research industrial service quality did not influence customer satisfaction and commitment to the relationship. A surprising result was the significant relationship reported between employee perceived service quality and the two business outcomes of customer satisfaction and commitment. This research did not support the theoretical premise that internal market orientation is an antecedent to industrial service quality. This study reported mixed results for the connections between perceived service quality and the business outcomes included. Some of the limitations from previous research were addressed while a more integrated model was investigated to add to the understanding of the marketing concept.

No description available.

Problem definition: In service organizations, front-line employees are considered to be the primary element when providing the organization’s services as they interact directly with customers and influence their perception of service quality. In other words, if the front-line employees are satisfied they will deliver the organization’s services in the best way which will directly lead to customer satisfaction. So it is worth studying how the service organizations use internal marketing tools towards their front-line employees in order to achieve their satisfaction.     Purpose of the Research: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the human resources practices aimed at front-line employee’s satisfaction that is related to internal marketing at SEB and to show how using the various methods implemented by SEB has took the organization to the position as of now.   Research Questions: How the Internal marketing elements are practiced by human resources at SEB bank in order to achieve front-line employee´s satisfaction?   Methods: In order to fulfil the purpose of dissertation the primary and secondary data has been analyzed based on the theoretical concepts. The theoretical concepts are based on academic data from books and scientific articles. The empirical data consists of both primary and secondary data. The primary data has been collected by conducting two interviews, one with the manager from human resource department at SEB and another with a front-line employee. The secondary data were collected from SEB’s webpage.    Conclusion: This study explores the potential effect the organization can have on the services due to the workings of the front-line employees. It can be concluded from the theoretical and empirical analysis that SEB’s management sees internal marketing practices (such as empowering, motivations and rewarding, job security and training) as a fundamental approaches to achieve their front-line employee’s satisfaction. SEB considers its employees as the most vital asset that can create and achieve its customer’s satisfaction, which has led to its immense growth.

AbstractThe subject of gamification is a relatively new and novel concept when it comes to stimulating behavior. Gamification is the use of game elements in a non-game context. Gamification is a tool that can motivate people to engage with activities related to health, education and personal productivity. Gamification can be used in a plethora of areas, and business and organizational contexts are no exception.This study investigates how gamification and the use of game elements in an organizational context influence internal marketing activities. Internal marketing is a management philosophy that explores how to treat employees as internal customers to increase the quality of service. This study investigates how gamification and game elements can help accomplishing this goal through influencing internal marketing activities. The study answers the following research question:The purpose of the study is to investigate how gamification and game elements of an app influence internal marketing activities. The app we are investigating was developed by Volvo Group for their employee ambassador program, called #WeAreVolvoGroup. The app is the context which is being investigated as it contains elements of gamification. A conceptual framework has been developed containing game elements as an influence on seven internal marketing activities, which are job product development, employee recruitment, training and education, motivation and reward, internal market research, internal communication, and retention of staff.A qualitative study was conducted by interviewing managers and users of the app, #WeAreVolvoGroup. By using the thematic analysis, the results were presented and combined into themes that were further analyzed and connected to the conceptual framework. The conceptual framework was revised by retracting internal marketing activities that the app did not contribute to, which were job product development, employee recruitment, training and education, and retention of staff, and adding additional factors that the app contributes to. The findings of this study demonstrate that gamification influences the internal marketing activities that were present in the app listed as motivation and reward, internal communication, and internal market research, as well as additional factors which was company culture and personal branding. Our findings showed that the gamification and game elements of the app influenced these activities

No description available.

Šis diplominis magistro darbas skirtas ištirti vidinio marketingo poreikį, nustatyti jo įgyvendinimo galimybes bei įvertinti galimą reikšmingumą darbuotojų pasitenkinimui, gydymo kokybei ir visos organizacijos tikslams Kauno medicinos universiteto klinikų Centriniame reanimacijos skyriuje – ribinėje ligoninės vietoje, kur dažniausiai kyla pacientų gyvybės ar mirties klausimas. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje aptariamas teorinis vidinio marketingo aspektas, supažindinama su vidinio marketingo kompleksu. Remiantis moksline literatūra bei paslaugų rinkos specifika, aprašomi vidinio marketingo poreikio nustatymo metodai, strateginė reikšmė, bei galimi rezultatai paslaugas teikiančioms organizacijoms. Antroje dalyje pagal vidinio marketingo komplekso logiką aprašomas minėto skyriaus dabartinės situacijos tyrimas, identifikuojamas vidinio marketingo poreikis ir taisytini momentai. Trečioji darbo dalis skirta aprašyti minėto skyriaus reikmes ir charakteristikas atitinkančio vidinio marketingo kompleksą. Darbo pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados, literatūros sąrašas ir priedai. / This diploma paper is dedicated for the study of the need, possibilities of adoption and potential meaning of internal marketing and its impact on job satisfaction of the employees, quality of the healing and organizational goals in the Intensive care unit of Hospital of Kaunas University of medicine – ultimate place in the hospital where it becomes clear whether patients live or dye. In the first part of this diploma paper the main theoretic aspects of the internal marketing and its complex, which is the leading root of the work, are discussed. The second part is dedicated to analysis of the present situation of the unit according to internal marketing complex. Suggestions how to adopt internal marketing and to improve the present situation are given in the third part of this paper. In the end conclusions, the list of used material and appendixes are presented.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the internal communication, as a dimension of internal marketing, in a global multicultural company. The study was based on a conceptual model that is a miscellany of theoretical concepts of how to create effective internal marketing communication for global organizations. Through the investigation of the company referred to as Alpha, a quantitative study across six countries was conducted to further the knowledge on how to address the needs of internal customers and adjust the internal marketing strategy thereafter. A questionnaire was sent to a random sample, with a response rate of 215 employees that together reflected the total population of 2831. Through the usage of ANOVAs, the findings displayed significant differences of how the employees in all countries perceived the internal communication at Alpha. The study also compared differences within two countries where there was enough data to investigate differences between categories of employees, these results were not significant. In general, it can be said that the results were grouped by the differences of the three European countries against the three non-European countries. Another prominent finding was that China was separated from the other countries, this was also the instance collectively shown for Sweden and Finland as they were often grouped together. The implications are that possible differences in business culture may have affected these results, which further studies need to investigate. The results jointly report that the internal customers are not satisfied with the internal communication. The conclusion is that the needs of the employees at Alpha should be addressed much further, as a part of the company internal marketing communication strategy.