Magister Commercii - MCom (Business and Finance) / This master's thesis report is a record of my action research study conducted at a traditional bank
in South Africa. The report follows a narrative writing style. It contains my personal learnings and
reflections. In it I record my practices aimed at promoting Islamic banking products of a traditional
bank. In undertaking this action research, I employed interventions whereby I improved my own
learning and behaviour through practice. This action research took place within the customer
facing division of a national traditional bank in the Western Cape.
While conducting my situational analysis, I found that front-line employees lacked knowledge and
awareness about Islamic banking products, which negatively impacted their attitude and
willingness to promote the Islamic banking offering. As the action research progressed, another
concern was identified, namely, the lack of awareness of Islamic banking by customers. In order
to guide activities that are directed at improving the behaviour of front-line employees and
customers, I drew insights from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by Icek Ajzen (1991) for
my theoretical framework. Observations, interviews and interview schedules were used to collect
data and continuously analysed using content analysis and univariate analysis for the respective
data types. Evidence was generated by measuring the data against a standard of judgments as
required for an action research project. This resulted in the identification of key factors that
influence front-line employees' willingness to promote the Islamic banking products. These factors
were their attitudes and perceived behavioural control. It was further identified that the lack of
awareness by customers had a negative impact on their attitudes towards using the Islamic
banking offering. Both issues were addressed, by following the cyclical approach of action
research. In order to influence front-line employees' behaviour, with the support of the necessary
stakeholders, I implemented internal marketing programmes such as training and development.
To increase the level of customer awareness, I implemented activities directed at external
customers such as brochures and poster displays within branches. The study finds that through
my ethical and political practices, front-line employees were motivated and stakeholders actively
participated in planning and executing interventions designed to improve the performance of
Islamic banking sales. The practices implemented by myself, as an Islamic banking product
champion, were identified as a key influence in the promotion of Islamic banking. I also identified
that senior management and middle management influenced front-line employees' acceptance
and implementation of internal marketing practices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6396 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Damon, Shameem |
| Contributors | Bayat, Abdullah |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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