MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

Implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean hospitality groups. Case of Regency Leisure group.

BY

Varipavo Petros (R112668F).

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Bachelor of Commerce in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Honours Degree at Midlands State University

GWERU, ZIMBABWE

OCTOBER, 2014

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APPROVAL FORM

The undersigned certify that they have supervised the student Varipavo Petros’ dissertation

entitled, “Implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean hospitality

groups, Case of Regency hotels and leisure group”, submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements of the Bachelor of Commerce Tourism and Hospitality Management Honors

Degree at the Midlands State University.

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SUPERVISOR DATE

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CHAIRPERSON DATE

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LIABRARIAN DATE

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RELEASE FORM

NAME OF STUDENT: Petros Varipavo

DISSERTATION TITLE: Implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean hospitality groups. Case of Regency Leisure group.

DEGREE TITLE: Bachelor of Commerce Tourism and Hospitality Management, Honours Degree.

YEAR GRANTED: 2014Permission is hereby granted to the Midlands State University Library to produce single copies of this dissertation and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purpose only. The author does not reserve other publication rights of the dissertation nor may extensive extracts from it be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission.

PERMANENT ADDRESS: 20097 Mbiya St, Rujeko C, Masvingo

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DEDICATION

To my special family

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To God, the Almighty for his abundant wisdom and grace in helping me partaking this study. I

would like to acknowledge that many people helped for this great achievement of my life.

Firstly, I would like to thank my academic supervisor, Mr. Z. Zhou for his professionalism and

crucial comments that guided me throughout this study. I am appreciative to Mr. Sibanda the HR

Manager at Regency and service staff at the Regency’ Chevron and Flamboyant hotels for their

efforts and co- operation during my field research. Special thanks to my siblings Rwarinda,

Albert, Boaz, Margret, Mejury, Cullend and Simbie, love u all guys, u are so special, your

support and prayers made it through. Special mention to Mr. and Mrs. O Muvhunie thank you for

your overwhelming support your life really worth to be modelled. To Capernaum Trust and the

entire family of ‘HISTORY MARKERS, surely history is on print. Last but not least my regards

and blessings goes to my graduating friends and classmates, special mention to Nhengo Lionel,

Guruvheti Lloyd, Manyande Tinashe and Mupfapairi Gwinyai.

ABSTRACT

The major purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean hospitality groups focusing on the Regency group. Before this study,

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the was no any confirmed research that had addressed the information gap in literature on how Zimbabwean hospitality groups implement internal marketing strategies. The key objective objectives of this study were to determine the implementation procedures by Zimbabwean hospitality groups, establishing employee perceptions on internal marketing programs in their organisations and to find out on the challenges being faced by the organisations in executing internal marketing programs in their organisations. Related literature on the concept of internal marketing revealed that the variety of interpretations as to what internal marketing constitutes has led to a diverse range of activities being grouped under the umbrella of internal marketing. In internal marketing practice, employees constitute an internal market that needs to be informed, educated, trained, rewarded and motivated to meet external customers’ needs and expectations in quality service delivery. This study adopted an exploratory study and a case study technique. Questionnaires and interviews were major data collection tools used. 30 questionnaires were administered to service employees in the Regency group and an interview was successfully contacted with the Human resources manager. The major findings of this study were that internal marketing is not fully executed in the Regency group and as a result employees perceive the current internal marketing programs as partially satisfactory. More so the limited priority given to the human resource function from the financing department is hindering the successful implementation of the internal marketing programs. It was therefore recommended that, there should be a transition from being external oriented to be internally oriented if internal marketing is to be realized in the group. Management should also apply external marketing principles like product development, distribution and promotion to attract and retain its employees. And lastly the service organisations, hotels in particular are recommended to train, retrain and equipping their employees to be successful ambassadors of their externally promised brand. In this study main focus was directed to learn on how Zimbabwean hospitality group are implementing internal marketing strategies using the case study of the Regency hotels and leisure groups, the same research can be repeated using different hospitality groups and other categories of hotels as well as other types of service contexts such as restaurants and motels.

TABLE OF CONTENTSAPPROVAL FORM iRELEASE FORM ii

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DEDICATION iiiACKNOWLEDGEMENT ivABSTRACT vTABLE OF CONTENTS viAPPENDICES ixLIST OF FIGURES xLIST OF TABLES xi

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction 1

.2 Background of the study

1 .3 Problem Statement

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1.4 Research Objectives 4

1.5 Research Questions 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Delimitations 5

1.8 Limitations 5

1.9 Methodology 6

1.10 Defination of terms 6

1.11 Summary 6

CHAPTER TWO 7LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1 Introduction 72.2 Overview of internal marketing 7(a) The internal marketing mix 11(i) Internal product 11 (ii) Internal price 12 (iii) Internal promotion (iv) Internal process 13

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(v) Internal distribution 13 (vi) Internal people (vii) The physical evidence 14(b) Internal marketing and human resources management in service organisations 14(c) The importance of internal marketing in the service organisations 17(i) Intangibility 17 (ii) Inseparability 17(iii) Perishability 18(iv) Heterogeneity (d) Internal marketing as an internal branding strategy 19

(e) Internal marketing used in change management in service organisations

(f) Internal marketing a strategy to strengthen internal relationships 21

2.3 A review of studies on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in developed countries 23 2.4 A review of studies on the implementation of internal marketing strategies on developing countries 262.5 Implications of related literature 262.6 Chapter summary 28CHAPTER THREE 29METHODOLOGY 293.1 Introduction 293.2 Target population 293.3 Research design 293.4 Study setting 303.5 Sample size 313.6 Data collection Instruments 32(a) Questionnaires 32 (b) Interviews 323.7 Pilot Study 333.8 Data analysis and presentation plan 333.9 Chapter Summary 33CHAPTER FOUR 34DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS 344.1 Introduction 34

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4.2 Response rate 344.3 Findings from the questionnaire survey with the service employees 35(i) Employees perceptions towards the services offered by the regency group 35(ii) Perception of employees on internal marketing 36(iii) Understanding the importance of internal marketing as viewed by the employees 38(iv) Other alternative procedures to be adopted in the organisation 41(b) Findings from the interview with the Human resources manager 41 (i) Procedures that are used to implement internal marketing strategies in the groups 41 (ii) Challenges faced on the implementation of internal marketing strategies 43(iii) Strategies being put in place to address these challenges 43 4.4 Discussion of findings 46 4.5 Chapter summary 46CHAPTER FIVE 47

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 47 5.1 Introduction 475.2 Summary of the study 47 5.3 Achievement of research objectives 475.4 Conclusions 485.5 Recommendations 495.6 Directions for further research 52REFRENCES 53

APPENDICES

Appendix Page

Appendix I: Introductory letter 60

Appendix II: Questionnaire for Regency’ service employees 61

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Appendix III: Interview guide with the human resources manager 64

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

Figure 4.1:Employees knowlegde on internal marketing

Figure 4.2:Averarge rating on internal marketing elements 38

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table 3.1 Sample size 29

Table 4.1 Response rate 33

Table4.2 Findings on employee satisfaction 34

Table 4.3 Knowledge on internal marketing 36

Table4.4 Knowlledge on internal marketing elements 38

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CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction

This chapter examined the implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean

hospitality groups, focusing on the Regency Group. Internal marketing is a managerial concept

that views an employee as an internal customer, job as an internal product and holds the view

that all employees in the organisation serve both a customer and a supplier even in the event

where one or both are internal colleagues. The variety of interpretations as to what internal

marketing constitutes has led to a diverse range of activities being grouped under the umbrella of

internal marketing. In internal marketing practice, employees constitute an internal market that

needs to be informed, educated, trained, rewarded and motivated to meet external customers’

needs and expectations in quality service delivery. Firstly, this chapter will look at the

background of the study. Secondly, it will provide statement of the problem. It also outlines

research objectives and research questions. Thirdly, the chapter will also explain the significance

of the study, delimitations and the study limitations. Lastly, the chapter will review the

methodology and the definition of terms. Finally, ends with the chapter summary.

1.2 Background of the study

Managing attrition and retaining skilled workforce is one of the pertinent issues in the hospitality

sector. This is a scenario within the local industry and in particular the Regency Group which is

struggling to retain its employees. To this effect the group is affected with high attrition rate

which is not only affecting the service quality but also leads to unnecessary higher training and

development expenditure, thus dropping off the overall performance of the organisation. With

this view, management in the hospitality sector adopted the use of internal marketing in their

organisations to recruit and retain a motivated workforce. Thaden (2007) indicated that internal

marketing implementation strategies are seemingly indiscriminately changed and adopted to suit

individual studies and often broad internal marketing elements are broken down to numerous

specific constructs until one is focused with a variable minefield of possible elements.

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Cheng and Chang, (2008) carried out a study in Taiwan on internal marketing implementation

strategies and employees’ turnover intentions in tourism and leisure hotels. The study focused on

how tourist leisure hotels were implementing internal marketing strategies to motivate its

workforce. The study used questionnaires to gather data and the Pearson product-moment

correlation technique was used to analyze the data. The study’s results indicated that education

and training are the significant and satisfying variables that the management can keep. The

study’s implications indicated that the same study can be replicated using different organisations

to examine the implementation of internal marketing strategies.

Mohammad et al (2009) had a study in Iran which aimed to examine the implementation of

internal marketing on outcomes and factors of organizational commitment of thirty hotels (one to

five-star) in Esfahan city. In this study, two questionnaires were used to measure variables. A

stratified sample of sixty top managers of hotels in the city was developed. Results were

analyzed using SPSS-Lisrel software which is a multivariate modelling technique. The findings

of the study indicated that hoteliers can use reward management schemes like fair salaries and

commissions to motivate employees so as to achieve organizational goals. It was recommended

also that managers must appreciate and acknowledge employees’ differences in terms of norms,

values, insights, needs and interests so that they can design jobs and a working environment that

accommodates each and every employee in the organisation. They suggested that future

researchers can further test the internal marketing variables using different hospitality

organisations.

Yu-ting and Huang, (2010) conducted yet another study in Australia to examine if cultural

congruence moderates the relationship between internal marketing practice and employee

satisfaction in a culturally diverse workplace setting. Four hundred and fifty-eight valid

responses were received from English and traditional Chinese online and face to face interviews

of tourism employees. They made the immigrant Taiwanese borne employees their focal study

group, examining how cultural congruence is determining the practice of internal marketing in

Australian hotels. The study indicated that cultural congruence affects the implementation of

internal marketing and is a major determinant of how successful the internal marketing programs

can be. Yu-ting and Huang, (2010) indicated that a similar empirical study would assist future

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researchers to understand the various aspects that may lead to employee satisfaction and bring

morale to the diverse workforce in the hospitality industry.

In U.S.A, Chung and Chen, (2011) carried out a study investigating the internal marketing

practices of international tourism hotels for the elderly service. The elderly tourists in that

research were identified as persons who were at least 65 years old and who travel for leisure. The

research was based on a set of questionnaires to which the management of 10, three, four, and

five star hotels in New York City, U.S.A were requested to respond. The selection of the sample

was based on the service that these hotels provide to international elderly tourists and these

hotels were also provided with one hundred questionnaires to distribute to elderly tourists. The

study revealed that hotels with internal marketing strategies indicated that inspiring and

rewarding staff would lead to better service provision to the elderly tourists. They also indicated

that recruitment, training, motivation, communication, and retention of employees are all internal

marketing strategies that future studies may adopt in testing internal marketing implementations.

Sharma et al, (2012) carried out a study to examine how internal marketing was being

implemented at Chester in London. They also investigated employees’ perceptions on internal

marketing practices. The study subjects were the service staff and line managers. In depth semi-

structured interviews were used to survey the internal marketing programs in the organisation.

The results of the study indicated that they used three main strategies to conduct internal

marketing which were: marketing to employees, internal function marketing and marketing the

organization`s products and services to employees to encourage them to make use of its own

services. In their research they concluded that internal marketing directs and motivates all

employees to understand their jobs to satisfy external customer`s needs. The study’s implications

indicated that further research could be undertaken on other types of organisations like hotels or

leisure centres.

Ashraf and Osman, (2013), had a research to assess internal marketing implementation on a

sample of five-star hotels in Egypt. The study made use of questionnaires to examine internal

marketing implementation in the hotels and to identify the relationship between internal

marketing implementation and other organizational factors such as age, years of experience and

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satisfaction level. A random sample of thirty-six five-star hotels was adopted. Five

questionnaires were distributed among frontline employees in each hotel. The study’s results

indicated that internal marketing principles were implemented in Egyptian five-star hotels and

the perception the implementation between employees differs between different groups. Also the

study’s findings indicated that in order to enhance employees’ job satisfaction, hotel

management should strengthen internal marketing activities for employees. Concerning the

implementation strategies of internal marketing, they hinted that there is no single, precise

prescription for the effective implementation of internal marketing programs. Each hotel

operation may have its own approach and style, systems and processes. The study’s implications

revealed that it was limited to the category of five-star hotels in Egypt and for that reason future

research should explore other categories of hotels as well as other types of service contexts.

Internal marketing is a well operationalized concept as revealed by the current literature but little

has been said on how hospitality groups are employing the concept of internal marketing in

developing countries, Zimbabwe in particular. So this research seeks to examine the

implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean hospitality groups focusing on

the Regency Leisure Group.

1.3 Problem Statement How do the Zimbabwean hospitality groups implement internal marketing strategies in their

organisations?

1.4 Research ObjectivesThe study objectives are:

1. To determine the implementation procedures of internal marketing strategies in the

group.

2. To establish employee perceptions on internal marketing programs in the Regency

Group.

3. To determine the challenges faced by the group in implementation internal marketing

strategies.

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1.5 Research QuestionsThis study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the nature of strategies that are used to implement internal marketing strategies in

the group?

2. How effective are these strategies in covering the dimensions of internal marketing?

3. What are the employees’ views towards the current strategies used in the group?

4. How else can the group implement internal marketing strategies?

5. What are the challenges being faced by the group in implementing the internal marketing

strategies?

6. What measures the group is implementing to address these challenges?

1.6 Significance of the study

In the current literature, there is lack of research on internal marketing implementations in

Zimbabwean hospitality groups, so this study will address this gap. The Regency Group just like

any other organisation in the hospitality sector is struggling to retain their employees, a situation

that implementation of internal marketing strategies can address. This study may bring an

understanding of the scope and significance of internal marketing in Zimbabwean hospitality

industry and its eventual implementation for enhanced service in the organisations.

1.7 Delimitations

This study is limited to Regency’s Chevron and Flamboyant hotels in Masvingo. The research

is focused on internal marketing strategies targeted on restaurant waiters, kitchen staff and front

office staff. The time frame for this research is from July to October 2014.

1.8 Limitations

This study is restricted on two Regency Leisure group hotels in Masvingo. Although it is

believed that they will be representative to the local Hospitality industry, it might not be the case

as other groups bigger or smaller than the Regency mighty have different or no internal

marketing focuses and therefore the results and recommendations may not be generalized to the

wider local hospitality industry.

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1.9 Methodology

This study is an exploratory study that makes use of questionnaires and interviews. Data is to be

collected from the respondents using structured questionnaires. Semi- structured interviews will

be carried out with managers and supervisors. The methodology used in this study is discussed in

detail in chapter three.

1.10 Definition of terms

Internal marketing - internal marketing is a management philosophy aimed at attracting,

developing, motivating and retaining employees through job products to enhance the service

process for customer delight.

Service employees - these are the workers in services organisations such as hotels, that are

involved in the exchange of experiences between the customers and the organisation, for

example waiters, front office receptionists, bar tenders etc.

1.11 SummaryThis chapter examined the implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean

hospitality groups, focusing on the Regency Group. Similar studies on the implementation of

internal marketing strategies in both developing and developed countries were discussed in the

background of the study. The main study objective of this research is to determine the

implementation procedures of internal marketing strategies in the group. This study will add

literature on internal marketing implementation in the Zimbabwean hospitality industry. The

study however cannot be generalized to the wider context. The next chapter will provide a

detailed literature review of the implementation of internal marketing strategies.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The chapter reviews the related literature on the implementation of internal marketing strategies.

Firstly, an overview on the concept of internal marketing is given. Secondly, the chapter reviews

studies on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in developed countries. This is

followed by a review of studies on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in

developing countries. Thirdly, the implications of the related literature are highlighted. The

chapter ends with a summary.

2.2 Overview of internal marketing

Many developed countries have seen a vivid increase in the importance of services to national

economies (Burgess, 1995), and to the individual consumer (Lewis, 1995. Stuart et al, 1996).

Industry, commerce and the academics have responded by investing considerable resources in

effort to improve service quality (Stuart et al 1996, Procopio and Fairfieid-Sonn, 1996). The

concept of internal marketing has arisen from these efforts (Gummesson, 1987).

The term internal marketing appears to be first used by Berry et al, (1976) and later by George

(1977) and Thompson et al, (1978) and Murray (1979). Even though the term was not directly

used by them, the idea of internal marketing was also present in the study of Sasser and Arbeit,

(1976). However, up until the publication of Berry’s (1981) article in which he aligned internal

marketing with viewing employees as internal customers, viewing jobs as internal products that

satisfy the needs and wants of these internal customers while addressing the objectives of the

organization, that the term entered popular discourse (Rafiq and Ahmed 2000). Jones (1986) and

Lewis (1989) were credited as the first to apply internal marketing specifically to the hospitality

and tourism industry, focusing on linking jobs to service employee satisfaction and to the

reengineering of jobs to be employee specific in an effort to motivate staff towards better

services in the hotels. Discourse on the concept of internal marketing has increased over the

recent two decades, reflecting a growing level of sophistication and interest amongst academics

and practitioners. Early studies of internal marketing derived from Sasser and Arbeit’s (1976)

ascertain that employees should be viewed as customers. Berry (1981) adds that by treating

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employees as customers, service quality would improve. The next notable development of

internal marketing stemmed largely from Gronroos’ (1984) debate that marketing-like tools

could be used internally to motivate employees to deliver superior services in a customer-

oriented way. More recent developments of internal marketing suggest broadening the term to

include implementation processes of functional strategies (Ahmed et al, 2003).

Rafiq and Ahmed (2000) describe internal marketing development as three separate, but related,

phases: the employee satisfaction phase, the customer orientation phase, and the strategy

implementation which can also be called change management phase. Majority of the first work

on internal marketing focused mainly on employee motivation and satisfaction. It was believed

that service organizations must have satisfied employees for them to have satisfied customers,

this was because so much of what customers of service companies buy is labor. The basic way of

achieving employee satisfaction was to treat employees as customers (Berry et al, 1976). This

marked what is called the employee satisfaction phase on the development of internal marketing,

(Mohammed & Ahmed, 2000). Secondly comes the customer orientation phase as it was

recognized by Ahmed and Mohammed, (2006) that the relationship between buyer and seller

does not only affects the customer's decision to buy a service or go back for more, but also

provides a marketing opportunity for the company. Employees should, therefore, be sales-

minded as well as customer-orientated. The object of the concept of internal market was

therefore to get motivated and customer conscious employees, and to achieve good coordination

between employees dealing directly with the customer and the company's support staff,

(Mohammed & Ahmed, 2000). According to Mohammed and Ahmed (2000) some authors,

(Mosley, 2007, Ahmed and Rafiq, 2003), now clearly began to recognize that internal marketing

could help an organization to attain its strategy. In particular, it was held that if strategies are to

be implemented more effectively, internal conflicts must be overwhelmed and internal

communications developed. Today the philosophy of internal marketing is seen to be a way of

reducing departmental seclusion, falling internal friction and incapacitating resistance to change.

This describes what is called the strategy implementation and change management stage on the

progression of internal marketing literature.

Despite this considerable body of literature, controversy remains over its conceptual legitimacy

(Papasolomou-Doukakis & Kitchen, 2004), its measurement (Ballantyne, 2000; Lings &

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Greenley, 2005; Gounaris, 2006), and its application (Karantinou & Hogg, 2001; Ashill, Davies,

& Thompson, 2003; Papasolomou-Doukakis, 2006). Internal marketing lacks a widely accepted

definition and many definitions of internal marketing view it as a concept, a philosophy or a

management practice, as either relating to human resources management, services marketing or

change management (Lings; Brooks, 1998). According to Collins, (1991) the term internal

marketing is used to describe the application of marketing principles internally within the

organization. Every department and every person is both supplier and a customer, and the

organization’s staff works together in a manner supporting the company strategy and goals. He

argued that internal marketing relates to all functions inside the organization, but vitally

concerned with the management of human resource (Collins; Payne, 1991). Greene et al, (1994)

defined it as the concept that is involved in promoting the firm and its services to the employees

of that organization and for this strategy to be successful top level management must fully

embrace it. They goes further to mention that internal marketing is a means of applying the

philosophy and practices of marketing to the employees who actually provide service to the

external customers so that the best possible people can be employed and retained and they will

do the best work possible. Joseph ,(1996) is of the view that internal marketing is the application

of marketing, human resources management, and allied theories, techniques, and principles to

motivate, mobilize, co-opt, and manage employees at all levels of the organization to

continuously improve the way they serve external customers and each other.

As depicted by the few extract from the various definitions above, internal marketing lacks a

widely accepted definition, this study comprehends three main subjects: service-mindedness and

customer-oriented behaviors, directing staff attention on the internal activities that need to be

changed in order to enhance marketplace performance and creating motivated and customer-

oriented employees revealed in the literature of internal marketing, (Mosely, 2007) and again this

study will adopt, internal marketing by viewing employees as internal customers, jobs as internal

products, and endeavoring to design these products to meet the needs of these customers better.

More so it will focus primarily on organizational views of the role of the employee in creating

perceptions of service quality postulating that organizations should view employees as customers

and be treated as such or more precisely as internal customers. Investing in efficient staff in a

service business, is investing in product quality (Broady-Peterson and Steel 2002). According to

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the internal marketing concept, businesses could improve the quality of their goods and services

via more satisfied employees.

The case study- Regency Hotels and Leisure Group

The Regency Hotels and Leisure Group is owned by the Zvobgo Holdings Limited. The hotel

group was rebranded in 2007 to create a controlling company for Zvobgo Holdings’ hotels and

completion of this exercise was achieved in 2010. It is a private owned company operating as a

profit making organization. The Hotel group’s core business is tourism, hospitality management,

conferences, and contract management. It has four Strategic Business Units (SBUs) namely

Regency Hotels- Flamboyant located on the immediate periphery of Masvingo; The Regency

Hotel Chevron is a two star hotel found in town of Masvingo, Regency Motel Fairmile situated

in Gweru and Regency Lodge Panyanda situated about 20 kilometres out of the town of

Masvingo and along the Masvingo- Beitbridge road.

It has a workforce of about 300 permanent junior and senior staff members with the aid of

contract employees especially during the pick of the business. The organisation’s main business

is from conferencing and outside catering services. The organisation averagely experience full

house occupancy during the year and sometimes towards and at the end of the festive season.

However, the group normally experiences a trough at the beginning of the year and sometimes

during mid-year. The hotels’ target market has emerged to be groups for conferencing from

companies and other organizations.

Services of the hotel have been experiencing viability challenges, like any other hospitality

groups largely attributed to the political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal

spheres amongst other factors. The Group as any other companies in the service sectors are

struggling to retain their employee base which indicates that the hotels are failing to manage this

attrition of workforce. A high attrition rate in the organisation is not only affecting the service

quality but is also leads to unnecessary higher training and development expenditure, thus

dropping off the overall performance of the organisation.

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(a) The internal marketing mix

The purpose of internal marketing is to apply the concepts of external marketing within the

organisation’s internal market. Abzari and Ghujali, (2011) indicated that in order to utilise

external marketing principles it is essential that an internal marketing mix be developed and

implemented. The internal marketing concept adopted the same definition as of that of the

marketing mix, which is an important component of the marketing function as it relates to the

strategy used to perform marketing activities and the packages of elements used to achieve the

organisational goals but on internal marketing it has an internal market focus with main focus on

the internal package of elements required to achieve both the internal and the external

organisational objectives. Goi (2009) came up with four major marketing mix elements, which

were also adopted by De Bruine (2013) in the internal marketing mix which are internal product,

internal price, internal promotion and internal distribution. Afridi, (2011) however indicated that

the first four elements by Goi (2009) were developed during the ancient world that was

characterised by stability, economic growth and much less competition as compared to the

modern world. This has led to the new processional perspective where the focus became shifted

to the development of relationships between organisational members with the new concept of

internal customer and internal supplier being taken serious. Additional elements were developed

in addition of those four elements to include internal people, internal process and physical

evidence. These additional elements provide internal customers with evidence that the service

has been delivered and allows them to formulate their own judgement regarding the quality of

the service received by the customers.

As this study is to focus on a hospitality case study which is under the service sector, (De Burin,

(2011) suggested service organisations should adopt those additional elements of the internal

marketing mix. So discussed in this study are the seven internal marketing elements which are:

internal product, internal price, internal promotion, internal distribution, internal people, internal

process and internal physical evidence.( De Bruine, 2013).

(i) Internal product- on the internal marketing mix , internal product is referred to as

employee’s job and the additional factor which go beyond the tasks such as training and

development, empowerment, role fit and clarity and career development opportunities, (Yang,

2012). Approaching jobs as internal products goes beyond tasks which need to be fulfilled on a

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daily basis, it also takes in to account the factors like training and development, how responsible

the employee is with his / her job in decision making and carrier opportunities as components of

the internal product. Organisations need to provide satisfying job experiences in return of

employee’s expertise and commitment. Service organisations must also concentrate on role fit

and role clarity to ensure that employees have clarity over their performance and also

organisations need to offer jobs as products that are designed to offer features which employees

value rather than just describing the task requirements. By so doing, jobs can be used attract and

to retain customer oriented employees in the organisation, Conradie, (2012).

(ii) Internal price - internal price according to Ziethmal et al., (2012) was referred to as the

price that employees pay to work for the organisation, which can be called the sacrifices that

they make to join the organisation. These may include the likes of emotional labour costs,

opportunity costs and psychological costs. Jobs demand have been described by, Dererouti,

(2007) as desires that require physical and psychological effort of the employee and in this way

it contributes to the psychological and emotional costs paid by the employees. In the hospitality

sector the is high demand for employees to exercise emotional labour because of the

inseparability nature of services , so for employees to exercise emotional labour they are

encouraged to develop deep acting strategies as an approach to reduce psychological and

emotional costs, (Motaghi-Pisheh and Harianto, 2011). Karatepe, (2011) also added that if

organisations and management become supportive to their workforce, employees will feel that

the organisation is behind them and is providing the needed help to carry on their tasks and cope

with stressful demands placed on them and this reduces role conflict, role ambiguity and burnout

resulting in happier, more productive, more satisfied employees .

(iii) Internal promotion- from the external marketing perspective, promotion has been

described as activities that are used to create awareness of the organisation and any new or

existing products or services, (Pride and Ferrell, 2010). The main objective of promoting is to

influence, inform, and remind customers about the organisation’s products and services offering

and to position or service in the market place, (Hoffman et al, 2005). From an internal marketing

point of view promotion now relates to the internal communications which takes place within

the organisation to ensure that employees are sufficiently informed about the organisation’s

vision , mission and objectives and the role in contributing to these, (White et al, 2011). In the

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same notion an internal promotional mix can be developed similar to that of external promotion

consisting of internal advertising, internal personal selling, internal sales promotion and internal

social media. The hotel management can use internal promotion elements to communicate the

organisations vision and various initiatives. Communication has significant impact on

employees, therefore organisations should design their marketing messages to suit employee

needs.

(iv) Internal process - Javaden, (2010) described internal processes as procedures or processes

in which the internal product and the service is delivered. Kumar et al, (2010) were of the view

that with increased competition and little differences in the hospitality products, achieving higher

levels of satisfaction is to receive much higher attention. From the internal marketing perspective

internal process that are strong and effective lead to better service delivery and service

organisations that succeed in delivery of service excellence will have more satisfied customer.

Internal processes include the design, management, improvement and implementation of

effective processes. In internal marketing, internal process may mean the way employees

receive the job. And the common human resources processes of recruitment, training, induction,

and routine processes necessary for delivering internal service quality will become important.

Process design involves understanding the characteristics of products (jobs) or services in order

to translate the product or service design into knowledge, organisational capabilities and

operating procedures needed to deliver the service.

(v) Internal distribution -was described by Kasper, ( 2006) as the channels needed to get the

job to the internal customer and for the purpose of this study it can include organisational

culture and the organisation format. The main aim focus of internal distribution is to create

internal supportive of the accomplishment of specific goals and objective in order to achieve

higher levels of satisfaction.

(vi) Internal people - refers to the human factor involved in the service delivery and in this

discussion it can involve the supervisors in the restaurants, relationships with co-workers and

leadership styles. From the internal perspective, the employee is the internal customer whose

service perception is affected by the internal suppliers and other employees in the environment.

When employees treat each other with due respect and move from making bad comments to or

about their co-workers and when employees feel as though they are valued members of the team,

28

feel respected by others. These positive interactions may reflect the importance of co-worker

relationships in motivating employee engagement and performance.

(vii) The physical evidence - is the essential evidence which relates to actual physical

environment in which the internal job is delivered and it can take the form of peripheral evidence

which relates to the proof that the service has been delivered, mainly relating to the things that

the employees can keep such as feedback from performance records. In the hospitality

organisations the internal physical evidence would refer to the appearance of the service

buildings like restaurants, kitchens and offices. In this study the Regency’s Flamboyant hotel is

the headquarters with head offices where employees packages are organised, and the branches

includes Chevron hotel. The look and feel of the branches and head offices should encourage

interaction and create positive experience within the hotel group. Performance feedbacks will

enlightens workers in terms of how their good / bad behaviour is contributing to the objectives of

the organisation the by increasing their commitment.

When hospitality groups make use of the internal marketing mix elements they will be in a

position to improve their internal relationships and internal service quality which can lead to

satisfied employees who are more knowledgeable, more productive, engaged and empowered to

serve external customers well. Successful internal marketing should produce positive employee

relationships between attitudes and actions of the employees which will lead to their ability to

meet and surpass the expectations of the external customers. This study will apply these seven

elements in testing how local hospitality groups are implementing the internal marketing

strategies.

(b) Internal marketing and human resources management in service organisations

Collins and Payne (1991) assert that internal marketing relates to all function within the

organization, but it is vitally concerned with the management of human resources and describes

the application of marketing internally in the organization. Internal marketing has been described

as a philosophy for managing the organization’s human resources based on a marketing

perspective, (Collins, 1991). A market-oriented human resources manager is more probable to

make an impact on the progress of the organisation, considering it tends to be more effective in

both demonstrating the relevance of human resources to all the company, helping other managers

to increase their productivity. Rafiq and Ahmed, (2003) highlighted main elements of internal

29

marketing as: employee motivation and satisfaction; customer orientation and customer

satisfaction; inter-functional coordination and integration; marketing-like approach; and

implementation of specific corporate or functional strategies. According to George (1990) the

subject philosophy of internal marketing operates as a holistic management process to integrate

the multiple functions of the organization in two ways: firstly to ensure that the employees at all

levels understand and experience the business and its various activities and campaigns in the

context of an environment that supports customer consciousness, and secondly to ensure that all

employees are prepared and motivated to act in a service oriented manner. This study concludes

that the underlying base of this philosophy is that if the management needs employees to be great

with the customers, then it must be prepared to be great with its employees. Having satisfied and

motivated employees will influence positively customer satisfaction, through more satisfactory

encounters with contact personnel. From this standpoint the act of employment, (job description

and employee-related policies) is the internal product and first-line employees the company’s

internal customers, (Gounaris, 2008). Particularly in this study the first line employees relates to

the restaurant waiters, front office personnel and bar tenders at the respective operations of

regency hotels. Vasconcelos (2008) suggested that people do not simply “buy” a job description.

Actually, the process of exchange between employers and workers are much more complex than

that. Although it is believed that assurances of reasonable job security, continual training, and

development aid to establish a social exchange relationship, employers should offer pleasant job

experiences and receive, in exchange, employees’ expertise and dedication. According to Bansal

et al, (2001) some relevant aspects of human resources management practices in achieving

internal customer commitment, job satisfaction, and trust are relevant to the success of internal

marketing management. Internal customer commitment deals with the employee’s involvement

and attachment to their company. Job satisfaction is the evaluation of the job characteristics and

emotional experiences at work. Trust in management can be described as having trust in the

words and actions of those in management. It was possible to see that internal marketing and

human resources management are closely related, but different concepts.

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(c) The importance of internal marketing in the service organisations

A considerable body of researches in the marketing literature has focused on the "service

encounter," which can be defined as the period of time during which a consumer directly

interacts with a service, (Joseph, 1996). Every occurrence where a customer or key buying

influence interacts with a service company, its products, people, facilities, or communications

represents a moment of truth because each episode can shape a customer's impressions and

judgments about the firm. On the reality a service organization's capability for satisfying the

needs of its external customers depends in part on that firm's ability to satisfy the needs of its

internal customers. In service-providing organizations like the Regency group, the quality of

service is embedded in the quality and performance of human resources. Such critical marketing

events as ‘‘first encounter’’ and ‘‘moment of truth’’ are the works of frontline employees.

In order to survive in today complex organisational environment it is vital that service

organisations are able to attract and retain loyal customers in order to generate more profits, (de

Farias, 2010). Specifically in the tourism and hospitality industry services where competition has

intensified and markets become saturated, the importance and awareness of customer satisfaction

and retention is increasing. This is putting pressure on service organisations to place increased

focus on service quality and customer satisfaction for the organisations to retain customer and

earn competitive advantage. Service quality is dependent on the interaction between the service

employee and the customer, employees become an important component in the service delivery

process and the value chain process, (Hoffman and Bateson, 2006). This situation in the service

industry gave birth to the philosophy of internal marketing whereby the organisations realised

the importance of creating strong internal partnerships, having better communication with

employees and create an internal market where jobs are sold to the employees which needs to

precede quality service to customers. Employees who are well trained and compensated fairly

will be more productive, will need less supervision and more likely to be loyal to the

organisation.

Services, as used by service organisations particularly in the hospitality industry can be described

as actions which involves the transferring value, performed by one party on behalf of the other,

(Molapo, 2010). Edvardsson et al (2005) indicated that a service can be generated by a process

or a number of activities which are intangible in nature, that exist between the customer and the

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service employee and the value will be created as the outcome for instance when the potential

guest is making a booking with the receptionist. The case of services is opposed with that of

physical goods, the consumption of the service takes place where the service is produced for

example in the restaurants where the customer will be present, this affects the results of the

process in terms of added value and the quality received because the customer will inspecting

each and every process of the service chain. The main characteristics of services can be

identified as intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability and these features has

led to many challenges for marketers in the hospitality sector as they individually varies from the

traditional tangible good and require considerable strategies in dealing with them. This creates

the role of a motivated staff being taken into consideration to help in making service experiences

more delightful which is the main focus if the internal marketing concept.

(i) Intangibility – this is the most recognised representative of a service which hold the fact that,

the services are not objects and have no physical dimensions which means that there is no

tangible asset which can be touched, smelled or tested prior to purchase or being exchanged with

money during the service transferred process, (Yao, 2006). The intangible nature of hotel

services pause problems again to the marketers as well as for the customers to make their

purchases. As customers cannot physically see or hold the service they are now forced to rely on

the reputation of the service organisation to assess the perceived quality of the service. When

hotels offer services on the external market they will be selling a dream to the customer because

services are experiences for instance the purchase of a room is an experience that cannot be felt,

so the way the room has been offered and the hospitality nature of employees can be evaluated.

So when the employees are well motivated and empowered they can deliver that service in an

attracting way there by creating value to the organisation

(ii) Inseparability- services cannot be centralised because the customer is also the participant in

the process of service delivery. Jan, (2012) pointed that inseparability relates to the fact that the

production and consumption of a service takes place at the same time, in real time, with the

provider and the customer co-operating in the process together. It is the exchange that takes place

between the customer and the service employee which determine the quality of the service

delivery. This usually happens in restaurants where the food produced is served and consumed at

the same time with the employees facing the challenge of impressing the guests waiting for the

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delivered service. So it is emphasised from the internal marketing perspective that employees

should be equipped with necessary skills that will require them to deliver a seamless service

that will surpass the expectations of the guest and have the opportunity to market the firm’s

products during the service delivery time.

(iii) Perishability - this relates to the point that services unlike the physical products, cannot be

stocked or stored, they perish when the delivery of the service takes place, once the time of the

service passes the opportunity to sell the services declines or perishes, ( Moeller ,2010). In the

service marketing literature perishability is not connected only to the outcome as service, but

also with the service provider’s capacity to deliver the service. In contrast to the producers of

products who can carry the stocks of the products they produce to fight against fluctuations in

demand, managing capacity in service organisations depend on customers demand, ( Rust and

Chung, 2006). If for example Flamboyant hotel had say fifty rooms on stock on a certain nights,

if only forty rooms got purchased during that night, the remaining ten because their time to be

used as of that night come and passed without generating income , they are said to have

perished. Since the demand of service is catapulted by the image it has created to its customers,

skilled employees who are can successfully handle the moments of truth with the guests will

give an organisation a competitive advantage and repeat business sense.

(iv) Heterogeneity - comes from the view that service involves the use of human resources, so

human labour variable in nature because employees performing services differently, this creates

heterogeneity in services. These variations occur as human beings are giving a service to other

humans meaning that no two service encounters can ever be the same. With different waiters

following the same process will provide different results to the customers and these waiters

themselves will perform differently on a daily basis, this mainly depend on elements such as

personal circumstances. It is the sole effort of the management to motivate its employees to fight

emotions at work and provide clear procedures to make the services more similar and reputable

by the guests.

In reflection of the above discussion, it is vital to note that each service encounter is unique and

often tailored to include the role that a motivated work force will play to curb all the challenges

posed by each of the characteristics. It’s evident from the above discussion that service

employees had a vital role in service delivery. Hoffman and Bateson, (2006) indicated that for an

33

employee to be satisfied to provide customers with top notch services, it is of par importance for

the organisations to make their employees as satisfied and committed to provide higher quality

and audible services, this will enhance the performance of the organisations.

Employees perform pivotal roles in the attainment of organisational goals. Gronroos, (1999),

indicated that promises on external marketing cannot be met always when employees are not

willing and not motivated. Internal marketing aimed at attracting employees and enhancing

employee satisfaction will subsequently become critical to forward external marketing goals,

(Sahaf, 2011). So internal marketing for service organisations should also aim at recruiting,

training, motivating and rewarding its employees towards a more satisfying behaviour on adding

value to the brand of the organisation.

(d) Internal marketing as an internal branding strategy

Internal branding is the employee management process of making internal market (employees),

deliver on the promises made through the external marketing department to the organisation’s

external customers, (Devasagayam et al, 2010). It involves aligning business activities, job

designs, rewards and recognition, and engaging all employees in the brand process. Delivering

on the brand promise depend on the quality of the employees, this includes both the frontline and

back office employees, meaning that each service encounter could be experienced differently by

customers at different times affecting the overall service and brand experience, (Punjaisiri,

2009). On service delivery in the service organisations employees are both customers and

suppliers so each of the employees must ensure that excellent service has been provided to each

of their internal customers to achieve excellent service to the external customer. This alight the

view of internal branding as it suggests that both of the frontline and back-office employees play

and important role in the delivery of the brand promise constantly. For the same reason every

employee across the organisation needs to understand the corporate brand values, (Foster et al

2010). Also internal branding processes should also include communicating and educating the

organisations’ employees about the brand values to enhance their emotional and intellectual

commitment to the brand. Matanda and Ndubisi, (2013) emphasize that clear understanding of

the brand promised to the external customers, allows employees to perform well during the

service encounter, enabling them to deliver on the brand promise.

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Employees can display emotional commitment to the brand if they accept and get themselves

aligned to the values of the brand. Therefore, internal marketing can be applied as an internal

branding strategy by service organisations like the Regency Group to communicate their brand

values to the internal market (employees) ensuring the alignment of the workforce’s behaviour

to the values of the organisation, (Khan and Naeem, 2013). Punjaisri and Wilson, (2009) were of

the view that through the achievement of internal branding objectives; employees are able to

deliver the promises made to the external customers. Sehgal and Malati, (2013) suggested that in

internal branding, service organisations can adopt internal marketing as an employer’s branding

strategy, stating that the importance of recruiting employees with values that fit within the

organisation can be achieved through an employer brand with the perception on the organisation

as an attractive place work from the external labour market. Employer branding allows

organisations to distinguish themselves from their competitors in an attempt to lure talented

applicants who share similar vision with those in the organisation. There is a psychological

contract created between the organisations its employees which involves the employees’

expectations from the time of recruitment throughout their employment with the organisation,

(Devasagayam, 2010). Internal marketing elements in this regard of employer branding are in the

set of employee recruitment and retention efforts aimed at attracting customer conscious

employees who are supported to fulfil their role as part-time marketers for the organisation,

(Gronroos, 2007).

(e) Use of internal marketing as a change management agent in service organisations.

Change is inevitable is business operations and organisational change is continuous as

organisations constantly have to adapt to changing economic conditions, customer expectations

and shifting workforce desires ,(Turner, 2011). Successful internal marketing implementations

are often regarded as the means of change management strategies in order to assist

communication and help overcome organisational resistance to change. It will inform and

involves all employees about new initiatives and strategies. It can be used to market one business

unit to other areas of the organisation or to buy-in on projects, new procedures, processes,

systems or strategy implementations, (Anosike and Ahmed, 2006). Change management

strategies create a vision of what the future state should look like, and all employees in terms of

the change agenda are required to achieve desired taste, this involves communicating the vision

widely and consistently through all levels of the organisation and empowering employees to act

35

and think differently, adopt the new ways of working and overcome barriers to learning while

embedding the change to make it switch. It is the motivated staff that can help the organisations

plan and make change programmes to switch. As new knowledge is produced, employees and

the organisation as a whole develop new ways of thinking and behaving, (Smith, 2011). Based

from the above resonance employees who receive maximum support and welfare from the

organisations will adapt to new developments in the organisation thereby putting the organisation

goals ahead.

(f) Internal marketing a strategy to strengthen internal relationships.If marketing is to create and deliver value for external customer, it is essential that collaborative

relationships are established within the internal market environment between internal suppliers

and internal customers in order to eliminate silo effects which will prevent the flow of and the

transfer of knowledge. Internal marketing needs to collaborate with non-marketing functions and

employees to exchange the knowledge and foster the sharing of the same vision, goals and

resources in order to fetch considerable value for customers. In doing so, a wisdom generating

working space can be created in which knowledge is effectively coordinated and shared,

(Kotlarsky et al, 2008)

Dodd (2011) had the opinion that organisations have to plan and erect close and flexible

relationships within and among their internal functions as internal relationships exchanges need a

success before external relational exchanges are met. In internal marketing much emphasis is put

on the importance of internal relationships and teamwork for strategy success. (Abzari and

Ghujali, 2011) suggest that the purpose of internal marketing getting employed in in

organisations is to engage the workforce to overcome organisational resistance to environmental

and business change. Employees who feel safe in their working environment are far more

accessible and highly absorbed in their work and feel part of smoothing bigger. Grayson and

Sanchez- Hernandez, (2006) believe that internal marketing should be considered as a means to

enhance employee engagement. The role of internal marketing involves far more than attraction

and motivation of employees, it goes further to highlight the need for cross functional

coordination across employees and business units in order to satisfy external customers, (Sincic

and Vokic, 2007).

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In nature the fundamental of internal marketing is to improve internal communications and

customer consciousness among employees in an effort to improve external market performance

and customer satisfaction. Broadly speaking the purpose internal marketing is to involve

employees in organisation’s mission and strategy direction and helps them understand

organisation`s objectives and their role in achieving these objectives in order to create value to

customers, (Mahmood, 2013). It can be concluded that the purpose of internal marketing is to

emphasise on internal relationships between employees and organisations in order to ensure that

employees are motivated, engaged and effectively managed to ensure customer and service

orientation, (Sanchez-Henandez and Miranda, 2011)

Internal relationships thrives in the internal environment which consist of two characteristics,

namely tangible and intangible characteristics, tangible characteristics include organisational

resources ,functional departments ,system and process, while intangible characteristics would be

human ,culture, mission, objectives, leaderships, alignment and team work,(Klopper et al ,2006).

Kaplan and Norton, (2004) indicated that when both the tangible and intangible elements are

alighted with the external marketing, objectives, the organisation has a higher degree of

auctioning its strategy (Murby and Gould, 2005).

Employees are at the heart of the organisation, it is essential that their needs are taken into

consideration when designing and developing organisational strategy, (Conradie, 2012). It is also

essential that employees are included in the development of organisational strategy and are

informed about the organisational strategy and are informed about the organisation`s customer

needs, expectations ,product, services ,concepts and business initiatives through this

approach ,shared goals can be created which results in a common understanding of tasks and

outcomes resulting in employees working together as a unit to achieve the organisational

objectives (Yang et al, 2011). For this reason, internal marketing aims at creating an appropriate

internal environment where strong internal relationships are created in which employees are

engaged and encouraged to work together in coordinated fashion in order to transfer knowledge

and generates ideas and initializations that create value for customers (Peltier and Dahl ,2009).

Internal marketing is a wide concept as revealed by above literature but this study has only

focused mainly on the elements that affect and support the implementation of internal marketing

37

by giving guidelines on how to operationalise it. Important elements that can be adopted in the

implementation process has been discussed also, which are also adopted by this research.

2.3 A review of studies on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in service organisations in developed countries.

In U.S.A, Chung and Chen, (2011) carried out a study investigating the internal marketing

practices of international tourism hotels for the elderly service. The elderly tourists in that

research were identified as persons who were at least 65 years old and who travel for leisure. The

research was based on a set of questionnaires to which the management of 10, three, four, and

five star hotels in New York City, U.S.A were requested to respond. The selection of the sample

was based on the service that these hotels provide to international elderly tourists and these

hotels were also provided with one hundred questionnaires to distribute to elderly tourists. The

study revealed that hotels with internal marketing strategies indicated that inspiring and

rewarding staff would lead to better service provision to the elderly tourists. They also indicated

that recruitment, training, motivation, communication, and retention of employees are all internal

marketing strategies that future studies may adopt in testing internal marketing implementations.

Sharma et al, (2012) carried out a study to examine how internal marketing was being

implemented at Chester racecourse in London. They also investigated employees’ perceptions on

internal marketing practices at the racecourse. The study subjects were the service staff and line

managers. In depth semi-structured interviews were used to survey the internal marketing

programs in the organisation. The results of the study indicated that the racecourse used three

main strategies to conduct internal marketing which were: marketing to employees, internal

function marketing and marketing the organization`s products and services to employees to

encourage them to make use of its own services. In their research they concluded that internal

marketing directs and motivates all employees to understand their jobs to satisfy external

customer`s needs. The study’s implications indicated that further research could be undertaken

on other types of organisations like hotels or leisure centres.

Yu-ting and Huang, (2010) conducted a study in Australia to examine if cultural congruence

moderates the relationship between internal marketing practice and employee satisfaction in a

culturally diverse workplace setting. Four hundred and fifty-eight valid responses were received

38

from English and traditional Chinese online and face to face interviews of tourism employees.

They made the immigrant Taiwanese borne employees their focal study group, examining how

cultural congruence is determining the practice of internal marketing in Australian hotels. The

study indicated that cultural congruence affects the implementation of internal marketing and is a

major determinant of how successful the internal marketing programs can be. Yu-ting and

Huang, (2010) indicated that a similar empirical study would assist future researchers to

understand the various aspects that may lead to employee satisfaction and bring morale to the

diverse workforce in the hospitality industry.

Ayse and Isil, (2008) had yet another study in Turkey. The study had 28 five star hotels in

Istanbul. Data collection was achieved through face to face interviews and 107 managers were

interviewed from 13 five star hotels to measure their internal marketing level and their

performance indicators. They used the dimensions of staff selection, training design and

measurement of competency, strategic rewards, staff climate monitors, internal communications

and support for quality improvement. And they indicated that internal marketing can be offered

as a coordinating philosophy in the hospitality setups. Internal marketing also includes internal

and external relationships, networks interactions and collaborations by establishing all activities

involved in satisfying customers throughout the internal supply chain.

Pantouvakis, (2012), had conducted a study in Greece carrying knowledge from the hospitality

service organisations. The study had its main focus on the view of internal marketing and

assesses how it affects internal customers, the employee’s satisfaction. The study was an

exploratory study with a case study technique. The sample consists of 478 hospitality service

staff, (waiters, front office receptionists and management staff staff) from nine different 5-star

hotels, in an attempt to examine various service duties in respect to different aspects of internal

marketing orientation. In result the findings they got support the proposed models of internal

marketing and emphasized on moderating aspect of service duties. The current literature had

provided the basis for creating human resource management, the learning organisation paradigm

and Bitner’s services cape framework, in order to present and empirically test an instrument for

assessing internal marketing.

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2.4 A review of studies on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in service

organisations in developing countries.

Cheng and Chang, (2008) carried out a study in Taiwan on internal marketing implementation

strategies and employees’ turnover intentions in tourism and leisure hotels. The study focused on

how tourist leisure hotels were implementing internal marketing strategies to motivate its

workforce. The study used questionnaires to gather data and the Pearson product-moment

correlation technique was used to analyze the data. The study’s results indicated that education

and training are the significant and satisfying variables that the management can keep. The

study’s implications indicated that the same study can be replicated using different organisations

to examine the implementation of internal marketing strategies.

Mohammad et al (2009) had a study in Iran which aimed to examine the implementation of

internal marketing on outcomes and factors of organizational commitment of thirty hotels (one to

five-star) in Esfahan city. In this study, two questionnaires were used to measure variables. A

stratified sample of sixty top managers of hotels in the city was developed. Results were

analyzed using SPSS-Lisrel software which is a multivariate modelling technique. The findings

of the study indicated that hoteliers can use reward management schemes like fair salaries and

commissions to motivate employees so as to achieve organizational goals. It was recommended

also that managers must appreciate and acknowledge employees’ differences in terms of norms,

values, insights, needs and interests so that they can design jobs and a working environment that

accommodates each and every employee in the organisation. They suggested that future

researchers can further test the internal marketing variables using different hospitality setups.

Ashraf and Osman, (2013), had a research to assess internal marketing implementation on a

sample of five-star hotels in Egypt. The study made use of questionnaires to examine internal

marketing implementation in the hotels and to identify the relationship between internal

marketing implementation and other organizational factors such as age, years of experience and

satisfaction level. A random sample of thirty-six five-star hotels was adopted. Five

questionnaires were distributed among frontline employees in each hotel. The study’s results

indicated that internal marketing principles were implemented in Egyptian five-star hotels and

the perception the implementation between employees differs between different groups. Also the

40

study’s findings indicated that in order to enhance employees’ job satisfaction, hotel

management should strengthen internal marketing activities for employees. Concerning the

implementation strategies of internal marketing, they hinted that there is no single, precise

prescription for the effective implementation of internal marketing programs. Each hotel

operation may have its own approach and style, systems and processes. The study’s implications

revealed that it was limited to the category of five-star hotels in Egypt and for that reason future

research should explore other categories of hotels as well as other types of service contexts.

Conradie, (2013) had a study in South Africa on the implementation of internal marketing mix

elements and how influence brand awareness in service organisations focusing on the car rental

organisations in the country. The probability sampling was conducted to cluster all the car rental

companies in South Africa and their customers, adopting case studies of Avis First Car rental

company and Hertz were used. They examined the eleven internal marketing mix elements

which on their role in creating brand awareness to customers through persistent quality service

delivered by motivated staff. Their model of eleven elements proved to be widely applicable.

The study indicated that car rental firms should make enhancement of their current internal

marketing programs since this will improve employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction as

well. Satisfied customers will remain loyal to their car rental company and profits and

competitiveness of that company will be higher. If this is achieved they claimed that all the

stakeholders, customers, employees, shareholders and the overall economy of South Africa will

prosper.

2.5 Implications of related literature

The available literature was aimed at the various thoughts on the implementation of internal

marketing strategies in the Zimbabwean hospitality groups. The literature exposed the internal

marketing concept as a double edged sword as it brings both positive and negative perceptions to

the implementation of internal marketing in local groups.

Eldeen and El-Said, (2011) indicated that in the past, most hotels had lacked marketing concepts,

particularly the concept of internal customers. Based on the findings of their study, in order to

enhance employees’ job satisfaction, hotel management should strengthen internal marketing

activities for employees. These activities would promote employees’ job involvement and job

41

satisfaction, which are helpful in achieving employees’ organizational commitment. As a result,

the concept of internal marketing can become a concrete strategy for improving the quality of

service in hotel operations. By providing exceptional service, hotel employees can enhance the

image of the hotel and the level of perceived and authentic service quality. Hospitality managers

could benefit from these findings as well by adapting strategies to engage and retain highly

effective, devoted, and satisfied employees on one hand, and to implement internal marketing

principles on the other. The more the managers allocate their resources towards internal

marketing implementation, the higher the probability of the organization’s success. In addition,

they implicated that hospitality managers should recognize the importance of internal marketing

to the survival of hotel operations as competitive pressure increases. As a great deal of both time

and costs are involved in training employees, the best way to retain outstanding employees and

reduce turnover costs and personnel problems is for employers to understand the needs and

expectations of their staff; therefore, internal marketing is a practical and sound strategy for

increasing organizational commitment.

Turk and Akyol, (2010) concluded that a positive relationship between internal marketing and

dimensions of company performance indicated that a high level of internal marketing leads to a

higher level of company performance and a low level of internal marketing produce a lower level

of company performance. Thus this study concludes that there is a significant and positive

relationship between internal marketing and dimensions of company performance (customer

ratio, occupancy ratio, educated personnel ratio, profitability ratio, and budget for education,

service quality, and supporting participation in decision making, hotel performance, handling

customer wants and arguments).

Dr. Chung and Dr. Chen, (2011) indicated that with fierce competition in the hotel industry,

hotel owners must build customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. This can only be

obtained through exceptional service delivery, which is the responsibility of the hotel staff.

Loyalty schemes for elderly tourists are one of the strategies that international tourism hotels can

use to their advantage, especially because such guests are less adventurous than others and are

more outspoken about their needs and interests. Therefore, hotel management must train their

staff to employ strategies that most appeal to elderly tourists when attending to their needs and

interests.

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Pantouvakis, (2012) implicated that internal marketing is employed not only as an important

means of providing internal customer satisfaction but also of aligning the internal and external

efforts and objectives of a company. In particular, it has shown that both the physical and the

interactive environment or the services scape (physical or social) affect employees by

influencing their behaviours. As services scape has been identified as a major determinant of

customer satisfaction as well, this provides further evidence on the significant role of the services

scape in the achievement of company objectives.

2.6 Chapter summaryThis chapter has highlighted the views that are held by various authors on the concept of internal

marketing. Its main focus was to integrate, synthesize and critique the arguments and ideas of

various scholars who have studied on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in

hospitality organisations. It brought about the arguments on the widely considered elements

which determine the successful implementation of the concept of internal marketing. Studies

from developed and developing countries were brought to light on the implementation of internal

marketing strategies in the related countries. The chapter also presented some implications of the

related literature review, of the implementation procedures and the results that are brought about

by the successful implementation of internal marketing perceptions. The next chapter focuses on

the research methodology.

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CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 IntroductionThis chapter seeks to highlight the methodology used in study. Secondly, the chapter highlights

the research design, study population, sampling procedure, the instruments used to collect data

and the justification provided also. Thirdly, the pilot study and data analysis and presentation

plan are explained. Finally, chapter ends with a summary.

3.2 Research design

This study has adopted an exploratory research design because the study is qualitative.

Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out “what is happening, to seek new insights;

to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light” (Robson 1993: 42). Exploratory

research offers an open, flexible and inductive approach in coming up with new intuitions for the

research problem. The objective of exploratory research in this case is to identify key issues and

key variables on how Zimbabwean hospitality groups are implementing internal marketing

strategies. More so, this study has adopted the exploratory design because there is a gap in

literature that needs to be explored on the implementation of internal marketing strategies in the

local industry. Boyd, (2004) states that exploratory researches should be creative and diagnostic

and they seek to identify variables associated with the subject under investigation. In this case

this has helped in studying a relatively bigger sample size, which its results can be generalized to

a wider context of the local hospitality industry. However the research design adopted in this

research suffered from the fact that it solely depends on the honest and motivation of the

respondents and as result if the respondents are not motivated, biases data will be provided and

less response rate will be recorded.

3.3 Target population

Total population refers to the total number of observations or units of the situation under

consideration or the total number of items about which information is desired. Study is focused

of the Regency hotels and Leisure group. This group has four sub business units which can be

enumerated as, the Regency’ Chevron and Flamboyant in Masvingo, Regency Fairmile motel in

44

Gweru and the Panyanda lodge and has a total about 300 permanent employees. Reflecting

further, this study is limited to four hotels owned by the Regency group, the employees who

work in these hotels and the management staff of the organization.

3.4 Study setting

The research was conducted at Regency’s hotels, Chevron and Flamboyant in Masvingo

province. The hotels are accessible along the Mutare- Bulawayo and the Harare-Beitbridge

highway which heads towards South Africa, a major source for our regional tourism. It is sited

about 300kms from all the major cities in Zimbabwe which includes Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo

and Beitbridge. The hotels are about 25kms from the Great Zimbabwe Ruins and where

Zimbabwe’s largest inland lake, Lake Mutirikwi and Kyle National Park are located.

3.5 Sample size

A sample is the representative of the whole population. Two hotels, Chevron and Flamboyant

were chosen out of the four units. Judgmentally these two hotels were chosen because they are

the well-established units in the group. Thirty employees out of total about 200 employees were

chosen. They were selected from the service departments of the restaurant, front office and the

bar. One human resources manager in the group working at the headquarters was chosen for the

interview to provide overall information on the implementation of internal marketing strategies

in the group. Both the service employees and the manager were adopted through the use of

judgmental sampling technique. Since service involves the interaction between service

employees and customers, so as internal marketing focuses on service employees, they can be

more suitable for this study. Human resource managers are responsible for the creation and

implementation of employee management programs, to make them fit as the suitable study

respondents. This was to increase the reliability of the results as the data was provided by the

experts. The table below shows the sample size against the target population in percentage.

Table 3.1 Sample size

Target population Sample size in numbers Sample as a % of population

4 hotels 2 50

200 employees 30 15

Source: Survey data 2014

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Clough et al, (2007) indicated given a study population, a sample of 10 % is representative and

the results from the sample can be validly generalized to the whole study population. So this

study adopted a 15% sample size to increase the validity and the reliability of the results.

4.6 Data collection Instruments

Research instruments are data gathering tools used by a researcher when conducting research.

This study made use of questionnaires and interviews. Thirty questionnaires were hand delivered

to the service employees and the respondents were given 2 days to carefully analyze and then

respond to the questionnaires, 28 were recovered. A single interview with the Human resources

manager was conducted; it was booked for personally two days before it was conducted.

(a) Questionnaires

This study used self- administered questionnaires which were completed by the respondents

with closed questions. The questionnaire was developed with 5 points were the respondents were

requested to tick of the variable statements that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Closed questions provided them with suggested answers to choose from so as to minimize the

time taken in answering the questions and also reduce misinterpretation of questions by

providing suggestive answers as guideline. In distributing the questionnaires, respondents were

chosen using the convenient sampling methods were service employees who were on duty during

that day were presented the instruments. This method was bias free and it saves time. Thirty

questionnaires were administered to hotel employees of from the service departments. The

questionnaires were designed to get information on the implementation of internal marketing

strategies in the Regency Group and these questionnaires were had delivered to the respondents.

Questionnaires were used because they allowed information to be obtained from a considerable

number of employees over a short period of time. Administering questionnaires was less

expensive and questions were kept simple and explicit. During the survey the questionnaires

proved useful because they offered the following advantages. The method was cost effective to

the researcher. It gives the respondents enough time to give well thought out responses to the

quest and the respondent were free from interviewer bias

However the method had some setbacks like control of the questionnaires was lost by the

moment they were left to the respondents and this has resulted in some respondents

misunderstanding the questions and gave wrong information, and some respondents were

46

unfriendly and left other questions not attempted. The method lacks clarity in the sense that it

doesn’t allow follow up on ambiguous responses unlike in interviews where one can ask the

respondent to shade more light. To overcome the drawbacks, extended time was offered to

employees to answer the questions as an ample time to clarify questions and the employees gave

then better answers.

(b) Interviews

To augment the information from the questionnaire surveys, this research carried out a personal

interview with the human resources manager at Flamboyant hotel. The interview was guided by

a pre structured interview guide as it lasted for about 20 minutes. The responses from the

respondents were written down in the notebook. Semi- structured interviews questions were

directed to the respondent to solicit for information on how internal marketing was executed in

the group. This instrument was preferred as it gave definite and precise responses. The

interviews allowed questioning and verification of responses than what other methods provided.

The in-depth interview with the managers covered the implementation procedures used and their

effectiveness and employee perceptions of those internal marketing studies. The challenges faced

by the Regency Group in adopting and implementing internal marketing strategies and the

strategies being implemented to overcome the challenges were also enclosed.

3.7 Pilot Study

This study conducted a pilot study to validate the effectiveness of the questionnaires and

interviews and the value of the questions to elicit the right information to answer the research

objectives at Midlands hotel. Six questionnaires were administered to service employees in the

bar, restaurant and the front office. In this research, a pilot study acted as a pre- test of the final

response before actual field research to improve other questions. A pilot study was necessary as

it relates to the research design, development of the instrument, data collection procedures, or

characteristics of the sample. This facilitated modification of instruments to avoid vague

questioning. The improved questionnaires were then administered to the target population of 30

employees in Regency hotels.

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3.8 Data analysis and presentation plan

Kochaar, (1995) indicated that, data analysis involves breaking down information that has been

obtained from the field into components and to indicate the relationship that exist between them.

The section reflects on the techniques this study has adopted on examining, categorizing,

tabulating, and recombining the data to address the initial propositions of a study. This research

used qualitative analysis methods to explore attitudes, behaviors and experience on the findings.

Findings from the respondents were mainly analyzed using spreadsheet application to analyze

and moderate the information of the retrieved questionnaires. The second data analysis technique

used was content analysis. Content analysis was used because it provided a way to extract

information gathered in all field settings. The findings were presented on bar graphs, pie charts

and tables. These methods also show the analysis of data to answer the research questions and

make reasonable conclusion. The methods used in this were very effective as it reflects on all the

information needed regarding the implementation of internal marketing strategies in

Zimbabwean hospitality groups.

3.9 Chapter Summary

The study was conducted at Regency’s Flamboyant and Chevron hotels. It adopted the

exploratory research design. The human resource manager and thirty service employees were

chosen through judgmental sampling technique. The research used an interview and

questionnaires were used to collect data. Six questionnaires were administers for a pilot study at

Midlands hotel. The study used mainly content analysis to analyse field findings. Tables and

graphs were adopted for presentation of the findings. The next chapter will analyse and present

study's findings.

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CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 IntroductionThis chapter presents and analyses data from the field. Firstly, the chapter gives the response

rate. Secondly, the chapter provides the findings from the respondents. Thirdly, this chapter

discusses the findings obtained from the field research. The chapter ends with a summary.

4.2 Response rateAn interview was successfully conducted with the human resources manager at Regency hotels

and Leisure group headquarters’ offices, Regency’s Flamboyant hotel. As stated in chapter

three, thirty service employees were chosen as the study sample, 15 questionnaires were

distributed to three departments which are the restaurant, front office and the bar, five

questionnaires per each department and all of the questionnaires were returned answered at

Regency’s Chevron hotel, so the response rate was 100%. The same exercise was repeated with

the Regency’s Flamboyant hotel, 13 were returned answered and the remaining two were not

answered to make it 87% response rate at Flamboyant. In overall thirty questionnaires were

administered 28 were returned answered to reap 93% response rate. A response rate of 30% is

required to guarantee that the response rate is valid and reliable, Yvonna and Denzin, (2005).

They recommended that it will be good for someone to go ahead and analyze data.

Table 4.1 Response rate

Total questionnaires

administered

Questionnaires recovered Response rate in %

30 28 93

Source: Survey field data (2014)

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4.3 Findings from the questionnaire survey with the service employees

(i) Employees perceptions towards the services offered by the regency group.

The section A of the questionnaire survey was put forward to test for the satisfaction of services

as offered by the Regency group. The services were ranging from the recruitment process,

management attitude towards employees, rewards strategy and systems and the dissemination of

work related information. On average 50% of the service employees indicated that they are

satisfied with the overall services as they are provided with the Regency group with 29% of the

employees being neutral to the services offered and lastly about 25% indicating not satisfied with

the current services offered by the organisation. Table 4.2 below shows the averaged statistics of

the respondent service employees.

Table 4.2 Employees satisfaction levels with services in the organisation.

Factor Variable Satisfied Neutral n/satisfied

R % R % R %

Recruitment Policy of hiring through extensive interview process 16 57 4 14 8 29

There is a policy of hiring new employees 14 50 5 18 9 32

New employees receive training 24 86 2 7 2 7

Promotion is based on performance 10 36 10 36 8 28

Managers Managers attitude towards employees is positive 8 29 15 53 5 18

Our managers review our performance regularly, monthly 14 57 4 14 8 29

Managers treatment show us we are valued 12 42 8 29 8 29

Rewards I feel I’m getting fair reward 10 36 15 53 3 11

The hotel cares for its employees 14 50 6 21 8 29

Reward system are based on our performances 10 36 15 53 3 11

Best employees are always recognized 16 57 8 29 4 14

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Information I know about my firm’s corporate image and strategy 14 50 9 32 5 18

We have open channels to communicate 18 64 8 29 2 7

We meet with management regularly 18 63 6 21 4 14

We are informed of new events, adverts & promotions 11 39 9 32 8 29

We are adapted to new products and product changes. 14 50 4 14 10 36

AVERAGE RESPONSENTS IN PERCENTAGE 50 29 21

Source: Survey data 2014

Originally the questionnaire had a five-point scale, anchored at strongly agree and strongly

disagree, with (1) indicating strongly satisfied with the services and (5) strongly not satisfied

with the services while (3) denotes a neutral condition. Specifically reporting the individual

elements, on recruitment and selection on average 57% the employees are satisfied with the

recruitment and selection process at Regency, 18% were neutral as to the process were

satisfying or not suitable. A quarter of the respondent employees were not satisfied with the

services. The statement, “New employees receive orientation training” received big responses

with 24 respondents and 10 respondents were on the statement, “promotion is based on

performance”, that has received least reception.

Management attitudes towards employees is not clear at Regency with mixed statistics with 39%

being satisfied with the attitude of the management, 32% are lukewarm and 29% are not

pleased with the services. The statement “our management treat us as professionals”, scored

badly with 10 employees giving a positive and the statement “our managers review our

performance was rated better with 14 employees. On rewards 46% of the employees are satisfied

with the rewards systems at Regency, 15% of the respondent service indicated strong

disagreement with the services offered and at the mild level are 39% of the employees saying the

services are not that bad as well as they are not fully satisfactory. Information dissemination to

the service employees is fair at Regency with half of the employees being satisfied, 26% are mild

and the remainders, 24% of the employees are not satisfied.

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(ii) Perception of employees on internal marketing

Section B was testing the understanding of internal marketing and its elements to the service

employees. The seven elements of internal marketing by De Bruine, (2013) which are internal

people, internal process, internal price, internal distribution, internal process, internal product

and internal physical evidence were tested using a series of seven statements that describe those

elements answered with a Yes or No. Table 4.3 indicates the number of respondents and their

percentage per each item.

Table 4.3

ELEMENT YES NO

RES % RES %

Internal product 25 89 3 11

Internal price 18 64 10 36

Internal distribution 26 92 2 8

Internal promotion 25 89 3 11

Internal process 25 89 3 11

Internal people 24 86 4 14

Internal physical evidence 12 43 16 57

AVERAGE 78 78 22 22

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Source: Survey field data (2014)

On average the employees are aware of the concept of internal marketing at the group as 78% of

the employees on average confirm knowing the elements of the mix and only 22% averagely

responded with a NO. Service employees indicated a high positive response on internal

distribution on the statement which reads, “I know who to report to in my workplace” which got

26 positive responses out of 28 respondents employees. The lowest agreement was on Physical

evidence on the statement, “the job environment is influencing my work” scoring 43 % of the

total respondents.

Fig 4.1 Employees knowledge on internal marketing

(iii) Understanding the importance of internal marketing as viewed by the employees.

The second part of the section B of the questionnaire consists of 15 statements distributed

among the seven elements of internal marketing to test the importance of each of the internal

marketing elements to the employees using a five-point scale, anchored at strongly agree and

strongly disagree, with (1) indicating strongly agree for items important to the employees and (5)

strongly not agree for items that are strongly not important to the employees, while (3) denotes a

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neutral condition with 4 ,5 representing less importance. Table 4.3 below is representing the

results of the survey as the statements were answered by the employees on average.

On average 17 respondent employees were ranking all the internal marketing variables as

important for them to make it about 61%. 28% of the employees were neutral to the statements

on the elements of internal and only 11% of the total respondent indicated they are not taking all

those statements as not important to their welfare.

Table 4.2

VARIABLE IMPORTANT NEUTRAL NOT IMPORTANT

RES % RES % RES %

Training,development 18 64 6 21 4 14

Role clarity 20 72 8 28 0 00

Role fit 17 61 7 25 4 14

Empowerment 14 50 11 39 3 11

Burnout 22 78 4 14 8 28

Stress 22 78 5 18 1 04

Opportunity cost 23 82 4 14 1 04

Communication 20 17 10 36 2 07

Recognition 19 68 8 28 1 04

Co-workers 16 57 10 36 2 07

Rewards 24 86 2 07 2 07

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Structure 10 36 10 36 8 28

Culture 15 53 5 18 8 28

Process 12 42 12 42 4 14

Workplace evidence 13 46 11 39 4 14

AVERAGE 61 28 11

Source: Survey field data (2014)

Of the 15 statements distributed among the seven internal marketing mix elements, rewards were

ranked as most important items an internal marketing programme has to offer. The employs

indicated that the opportunity cost of taking job at the Regency is also important. It was based on

the fact that by working for Regency, employees should not feel that they are missing

opportunities else to similar organisations on this statement. 82% of the total employees ranked

that as very important. On 78%, were burnout and stress, employees feel that they need their job

environments to be free stressing activities and the actions of the co-workers should be friendly.

Issues on the internal product, the job were also ranked to be important by the employees also,

these variable included training and development opportunities, role fit, role clarity and

empowerment on the job, they each receive a response rate of above 60% to reveal their

importance from the perception of the employees. Communication on the aspects of internal

distribution was also rated to be of vital importance and worth to be included in the internal

marketing programme. Ranked low where the role of organizational structures and the physical

evidence of services report. They received appreciation of less than 50%.

Following is a graph showing the total average response rate of the employees rating the

importance of the various internal marketing mix elements.

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Fig 4.3 Average rating on internal marketing elements

The majority of the employees agree with the statements on internal product elements which

were including offering training and development opportunities, role clarity and role fit. As

depicted on Table 4.3, they ranged on 18, 20 and 22, which is a strong importance rating from

the employees. The least variable which was lowly rated is internal physical evidence variables

like structures appearance, space layout and machine assembling ranging 15, 13 and 11

importance rating from the service employees.

(iv) Other alternative procedures that the group can adopt to implement internal marketing strategies.Section C of the questionnaire was to get information from the employees as to which other

strategies the management can employ to satisfy its workforce. A checklist of provisional

strategies was provided for the employees to choose on the best strategies they would prefer to

be included or added to their job descriptions and benefits.

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Among the statements provided, employee management practices like having service training

and development, offering opportunities for career development, having a democratic work

environment, having handsome rewards and fringe benefits and equal opportunities for

promotion have been chosen by the majority of the employees as benefits that maybe included or

reinforced in their benefits. Majority of the employees choose to be trained and given some

opportunities for advancement that got the majority ticks of about 80% of the employees. Second

on preference order were rewards. Having better packages of rewards with fringe benefits got

75% of the majority needs of the employees? Also employees recommend fairness at work in

form of equal opportunities for promotions and opportunities for advancement. Employees also

showed great interest in having a democratic working environment and having the power to

make decision be decentralized to service employs where they can be allowed to make instant

decision pertaining their jobs so that they will provide seamless services to the guest.

(b) Findings from the interview with the Human resources manager.

(i) Procedures that are used to implement internal marketing strategies in Regency Leisure group. In an interview with the top human resources manager seeking to understand how internal

marketing was being implemented in the group revealed that internal marketing is being

implemented in the hotel group. They indicated that internal marketing activities that worked as

a motivating factors were employed to curb the grievances of the employees. In the organisation

they indicated that there is too much focus on external marketing. The respondent indicated that

employees must be motivated, committed and recruited for the right job. So the manger indicated

that the hotel group is trying to make the working environment better, so the employees can have

satisfying work. In the Regency group, many propositions are raised to implement the concept of

internal marketing as supported by Eldeen and El-Said, (2011), who stated that there is no single,

precise prescription for the effective implementation of internal marketing programs. Each hotel

operation may have its own approach and style, systems and processes.

The respondent indicated that they had a policy of recruitment and selection in the organisation

which they follow when they recruit and select their employees. Secondly the organisation has a

policy of training and development were new and old employees are offered an opportunity to

develop through internal courses offered and management contracts to small organisation. They

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also foster internal relationships with departmental coordination taken seriously in the view of

need to provide a seamless service. Jobs at Regency are well designed with roles clarified and

aimed to fit the users. The respondent also indicated that there is a great relationship between

management and employees and open channels of communication are maintained in the

organisation. Supervisors and immediate managers are obliged to communicate directly and

regularly with the service employees. Performance appraisals are carried out quarterly every

year. Employees are encouraged to keep service records and to report service difficulties and

problems they face when serving guests. Managers communicate with employees whenever they

had budgetary problems. This is mainly done during times when there are to be delays in

payments, they communicate to employees and give them some assurance on the delays.

Authority has been given to employees to act independently during the service experience and is

allowed to give operational decisions on the service. Also the hotels have a strategic reward and

incentive system. Rewards are based on grades where they group their employees on level of

seniority, departments and qualifications. He indicated the current reward system motivate

employees to exchange some expected level of work for promised rewards by the organisation.

Working hours for service emplosyees are flexible and they rotate in shifts in order to manage

pressure and give them enough time to rest and have their own social life. Their day has 8hours

with three shifts of morning, afternoon and night shifts. He indicates also that the current reward

system is mainly focused on attracting and retaining good employees. The organisation offers the

following incentives to its employees like medical aid to employees; funeral policy is subscribed

on behalf of employees to the C.B.Z life assurance programme. They also offer employees

transport to and from work to those who had late night shifts. The organisation also has a soccer

team at each hotel and follows database marketing principles by throwing surprise birthday

parties and gifts to its employee mainly senior managers.

(ii) Challenges faced on the implementation of internal marketing strategies

The findings also reveal that most significant aspects are the implementation barriers of internal

marketing programs within the workplace. The manager as a respondent discussed internal

marketing barriers in detail concerning training issues, staffing problems, costing concern, and

time elements. Costing issues are said to be coming from lacking infrastructural investment. He

indicated that the group lack funds that set aside for training and development programs

sometimes due to the seasonal nature of the hospitality sector. Time elements also relate to the

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lack of organized meetings and trainings and insufficient budget to fully implement human

resources welfare programs. The human resources department is receiving less priority from the

financing department. It was revealed that little attention is given mainly to the welfare of

employee’s budgets mainly for money that needs to be channeled to develop programs like

system appraisals and to offer surprise parties to all the employees for existing and new staff. It

was stated that there is yet another issue that has resulted in the creation of implementation gap

mainly on excessive workloads which takes place during large conference groups or other

promotional events where employees do not get time to rest at Regency hotels. The other

challenge was also from the employees who fail to comply with the directions of the company

like keeping service records that may be necessary for the appraisal.

(iii) Strategies being put in place to address these challenges

The manager indicated that a fixed account has been created to finance all the welfare programs.

He also pointed that communication levels are getting increased through all the levels of

management to increase the awareness of the employees. Trainings are also offered to all top

managers to make sure they are providing best service to their internal customers as they are all

internal people aimed to deliver best services. Jobs are getting designed and redesigned so that

they are not causing much pressure on the employees. Staffing is also a problem because in the

recent years attrition was high which are curbed by improving all the process of managing

employees moving from being external customers oriented to increased attention to the

employees.

4.4 Discussion of findings

Literature revealed that internal marketing can be implemented using different ways in the

hospitality industry. It was revealed that internal marketing is not fully implemented in Regency

hotels and leisure group. In the group the management is employing only limited number of the

internal marketing variable to motivate their staff. Papasolomou, (2006) suggested people are

critical resources on the success of organizations mostly service setups in particular. Companies

therefore have to cautiously select, develop, manage and motivate all employees to produce

59

outstanding business results if they need to gain competitive advantage. In objective internal

marketing is focused on having motivated and customer conscious workforce to achieve service

excellence.

The testing of internal marketing elements suggests that an emphasis on the instrumentation of

external marketing methods, styles, conceptions, and theories is aimed mainly to achieve

satisfaction to internal customers, (Cardy, 2001). The findings from this research indicated that

employees generally have knowledge about the elements of internal marketing scoring an

average of 78 % of respondent employees who indicated that ‘YES’ they know about the

elements of internal marketing. When comparing the satisfaction level of employees which is on

50% and 78 % appreciation rate on internal marketing elements. Theory based evidence from

Berry (1976) can reveal that some internal marketing programs lack implementation. A varied

response rate on the elements of internal marketing indicates that the appreciation of these

elements varies from employee to employee and from organisation to organisation, although a

fair average of 78% appreciation was reaped. Papasolomou and Vrontis, (2006) pointed out that

the internal marketing mix put forward can be varied and numerous and mainly will lack co

relation to each other, although some cases present similar elements. Further the elements

cannot be mutually exclusive, rather they often overlap and co- dependent on each other.

Employees indicated great interest on the internal product, (the job) as an important component

that needs to be addressed to be welly organized in terms of role fit, role clarity, burnout issues,

and the degree of authority to act on the job as well as training and development. This is

supported by the related literature by Gounaris, (2006) who revealed that when designing jobs,

hotels must be careful and mindful of the layout of the jobs. Grobler et al, (2006) relatedly,

indicated that proper job descriptions allow hotels to introduce job products in an effective and

attractive way to the labor market. Also these descriptions allows organisations to have a chance

of marketing the products to new recruits and employees in organisations currently in terms of

role requirements, functions of the job possibilities for future advancement and satisfaction

derived from the job. They go on to indicate that the most basic function of a job description in

terms of the concept of internal marketing is to clarify the role of the employees on to the job

being offered.

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The findings from the interview with the human resources manager agrees with the notion of Dr.

Chung and Dr. Chen, (2011) which goes that mobilization, training, encouragement,

communication, and retention of employees are all internal marketing strategies that can be

employed to improve services at the organisation. Service organisations like hotels that train

their staff to cater to offer quality service to their guests can be better evaluated by the latter.

Evidently, the quality of service of motivated employees is a major determinant factor on the

positive perception of the customers towards our own brand.

Of the seven internal marketing mix elements, 61% of the respondent service employees

indicated that they are all important employee management practices in an effort of attaining the

goals of the organisation. Also the manager confirms that they believed motivating their

employees played a vital role in the reception and services offered to their guests. He also goes

on to say that they encourage their staff to express any feelings, apprehensions and issues that

arose when attending to their guests. This confirms a relationship in the literature by Conradie,

(2012) that in hotel management programs, internal marketing practices i.e. the distribution of

promotion information to the staff, the implementation of recognition and reward systems, and

the emphasis of an employee service culture can be seen as prerequisites for business success.

The main objective of such hotel practices is to meet the desires and needs of their internal

customers to meet promises on external customers.

Employee management practices like having service training and development, offering

opportunities for career development, having a democratic work environment, having handsome

rewards and fringe benefits and equal opportunities for promotion have been chosen by the

majority of the employees as benefits that maybe included or reinforced in their budgets. This

also supports the option of Bergh and Theron, (2000) who indicated that employees are to be

motivated to well in form of rewards, monetary or intrinsic, expected by the employs as a result

of performing well. They also poised that reward system conditions and their nature will

stimulate employees to exchange a level of work for the rewards on offer from the company.

Medical aid benefits and funeral policy were among the motivating packages offered to the

employees at the Regency group mainly to motivate workforce and to make them feel they are

being cared for and this created a sense of belonging to the employees. Grobler et al, (2002)

indicated that the primary objective of incentive reward systems is to attract and retain good

61

employees. Also he poised that by an effort to link rewards to the outcomes of internal marketing

programs in service organisations, the assumption is that rewards will energize, retain and

maintain on the actions and workforce actions required for such a program’s success.

4.5 Chapter summary

This study presented findings from the Regency’s services employees and their human resources

manager. The study reaped 93% response rate. 28 service employees from the front office bar

and restaurant departments were interviewed. The service employees indicated that they are

partially satisfied with the services offered in the group. The human resources manager revealed

that employee management policies are used in executing the philosophy of internal marketing.

The next chapter presents the study’s the conclusions and recommendations.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 IntroductionThe chapter presents conclusions and recommendations of the study. Firstly, the chapter will

summarize the study. Secondly, it reflects on the achievement of research objectives. Thirdly, it

will present the conclusions of the study. Fourthly, the chapter presents the study’s

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recommendations. Lastly, suggestions for future research on the implementation of internal

marketing strategies rounds up the chapter.

5.2 Summary of the studyThe study was aimed at determining how Zimbabwean hospitality groups are implementing

internal marketing strategies focusing on Regency hotels and leisure group. Secondly, the study

aimed at determining the perceptions held by the employees on the internal marketing programs

offered by the Group. Thirdly, the research intended to find out on the challenges faced by the

group in implementing internal marketing strategies. The research adopted an exploratory

research design as well as the case study technique. Interviews and questionnaires were the

major data collection tools used in this study. The study findings were gathered from 28 service

employees at Regency’s Chevron and Flamboyant hotel, and the human resources manager at the

headquarters’ offices. Judgmental and random sampling techniques were used to choose the

respondents. Excel and content analysis were the methods used to analyze the data, with graphs

and tables used to present the results. Findings from the field research indicated that,

implementation of internal marketing programs in the groups is still growing and employees

perceive the current services in the groups as partially satisfying. It can be recommended that the

group should improve the priority of the human resources function by financing its programs.

Future research can focus on comparing the profitability of the organisations in relation with the

implementation of internal marketing strategies.

5.3 Achievement of research objectives

This study has successfully achieved its objectives through the following discussion:

● To determine how Zimbabwean hospitality groups are implementing internal

marketing strategies in their organisations.

This objective was achieved as the research had managed to gather information on how internal

marketing is being implemented by the Regency hotels and leisure group. Internal marketing is

being practiced in Regency with employee management programs available in the group. The

group has erected polices on recruitment and selection, and retention of employees. Jobs are

improved and training programs are offered to the workforce. The results of this study showed

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that internal marketing is still growing in the group with a slow but visible transition from being

external marketing oriented to be more internally driven.

● To establish the perceptions held by the employees on the internal marketing

programs offered by hospitality groups.

Services currently offered in the group are received by the employees with mixed views and

feelings. On average the 50% of the respondents are satisfied with the current services, 29 % is

neutral and 21% totally not satisfied. A test on the importance internal marketing elements found

that employees perceive the internal product, the job as much important. The respondents

indicated they value greatly the job to clear with fitting roles. Secondly they revealed that reward

systems that will address their basic coupled with some other fringe benefits are also important.

Also they rated low but also important the aspects of structure and internal processes as

important elements that needs to be implemented in all internal marketing programs. So the

perceptions held by the employees were revealed and the objective was achieved.

● To find out the challenges faced by the group in implementing internal marketing

strategies

This objective was attained as this research has sighted major challenges that are hindering the

successful execution of internal marketing as training issues, staffing problems, costing concern,

and time elements. Costing issues are said to be coming from lacking infrastructural investment.

He indicated that the group lack funds that set aside for training and development programs

sometimes due to the seasonal nature of the hospitality sector. Time elements also relate to the

lack of organized meetings and trainings and insufficient budget to fully implement human

resources welfare programs so these findings helps to achieve this objective.

5.4 ConclusionsBased on the findings of this research, it can be inferred that internal marketing is being

practiced partially in the Regency group. The presents of employee management policies in the

group and fringe benefits being offered to the employees represents forms of internal marketing

strategies being employed in the group. The low priority given to the internal marketing

strategies represent the implementation gap in the group.

64

Implementation of internal marketing strategies can take many forms and many procedures can

be used to execute it. In the Regency it can be concluded that, internal marketing is implemented

in polices that are used as employee management practices. Present in the group are human

resources polices like, recruitment and selection polices, the training and development polices,

promotion and transfer plan. Also in Regency, human resources management programs are

planned and organized at the headquarters, Flamboyant hotel and then are transferred various

managers in other group hotels.

The findings of this study established that internal marketing principles are being implemented in

Regency hotels and that perception on the implementation varies between employees. Different

views have been aired from the employees. Employees perception have been proved to be

different as half of the employees were satisfied with services offered in the organisation, with

the remainder of the employees either satisfied or unsatisfied. These represent variety and the

difference in employee perception towards how the strategies of internal marketing are being

implemented.

Employees were requested to rank on the importance of the internal marketing elements and to

reveal their relevance to be considered in the internal marketing programs. Elements relating to

the job like training and development, role fit and role clarity and those on rewards management

topped the preference list. Employees prefer to get fair rewards that are comparable to other

similar organisations. Well-designed jobs that fit the employees, which are clarified and clear to

the employees, appear to be desirable. This will arrive at the conclusion that when implementing

internal marketing strategies, internal products and internal price needs to be given more priority.

There are various challenges that are faced in the implementation of internal marketing in the

group. These setbacks range from difficulties in communication, excessive workloads due to

pressure on groups and banquets making it difficult to allocate resources. The major obstacle is

on the financing of the internal marketing programs. The results indicated that the human

resources department is not getting enough attention which is possible to execute those programs

because without money to finance the implementation of internal marketing strategies, the whole

concept will won’t be available. So to conclude the major barrier to the successful execution of

internal marketing is the lack of organized and specified financial resources.

65

5.5 Recommendations

From the findings of this study it therefore recommended that:

● This research recommends hospitality groups to increase their efforts on motivational

management programs of employees. Conrade, (2013) indicated in a study in South

Africa on car rental companies that, special emphasis in service organisations must be

placed on management to enhance employee motivation by fully implementing internal

marketing and by taking respective steps that are meant to eliminate the root cause of its

failure or to overcome any other obstacle that may block its full execution. In this regard,

the researcher recommends that hospitality organisations must increase the priority they

give to their human resources management functions and are supposed to be more service

oriented other than be external market oriented.

● One of the dimensions of the internal marketing is on the implementation of an organized

reward and recognition system. Freedman and Montanari, (1990) assert that a rewarding

and recognition structure induce a great impact on employees’ behavior and

organizational effectiveness. Guest and Conway (2002) also supported this behavior by

indicating that a psychological contract exist between the management and the employees

by which managers make promises and commitments to employees that they will receive

certain rewards for showing appropriate behaviors. Fair and effective rewarding

procedures coupled with the proper execution of such procedures provide a guarantee of

rewards that promote exceptional employee cooperation and customer-service

performance (Allan and Tyler, 1988; Desatnick and Detzel, 1993). So the management in

the hospitality sectors must implement strong and attainable reward system to get fully

motivated staff.

● The other concern of this study is on communication between employees and the

management together with the attitude of management communicating very badly to the

employees. Communication is the means by which organizations transfer information

from one entity to another, that is to disseminate information to all service departments in

66

the organisation, (Johlke & Duhan, 2000). Consequently, it has some effects on the

performance of service staff. Information dissemination is a very important prerequisite

to realign employees’ attitudes and behaviors with the goals that needs to be attained by

the organisation, (Guest & Conway, 2002). In the philosophy of internal marketing

orientation, all employees should be treated as internal customers; there must be the

creation of specifications, the establishment of awareness, and identifying expectations

through market research. Hospitality organizations in the country must put employees to

segments and instrument specific strategies for each segment. The procedures

implemented should be inspected through staff climate monitors created in the

organisation.

● Managers have to make use of the principles of marketing to attract and retain

employees, and develop a comprehensive understanding of their new and available

employees’ needs, the way they examine the needs of their external customers. Within

service organisations, the behavior and attitudes of service employees are of critical

importance because they determine the level of quality received by the guests, (Susskind

et al, 2000). Therefore, for an internal marketing program to be effective it stresses a

close cooperation between marketing and human resource management. A marketing

style to human resources management jerks with hiring the right personnel and the

assortment methods that identify customer-oriented applicants, which must be used as

stage of the hiring process.

● It is important also that organisations build considerable trust with their employees. In

order to build employee trust, it is vital that organizations function in a more translucent

manner, with service focus. So in this view it is important that companies are prepared to

openly share with their members, information on their strategy, financial statements and

performance, and expenditures. Sharing internal information is a key success factor to the

implementation of internal marketing. More so employee empowerment is another

essential way to stimulate employee attitudes and manners and as a result the level and

quality of service provided to the external customers, (Bansal et al, 2001). Organisations

should be consistent with a focus on information sharing and empowerment of

67

employees, hotels with an emphasis on internal customers should be careful to reduce the

status variations that make some employees feel more or less valued than their

workmates.

5.6 Directions for further research

This study had focused on how Zimbabwean hospitality group are implementing internal

marketing strategies using the case study of the Regency hotels and leisure groups, the same

research can be repeated using different hospitality groups and other categories of hotels as well

as other types of service contexts such as restaurants and motels to allow comparisons. This

study has adopted seven internal elements in internal marketing mix which are internal people,

internal product, internal distribution, internal process, internal promotion and the internal

physical evidence by De Bruine, (2014) to test the implementation of internal marketing in the

country, future research can adopt different elements in their studies. Another direction of future

research can be considered in examining the relationship between profitability of the hospitality

organisation and the implementation of internal marketing programs. It can also include some

other relationships, cost reduction, staff turnover intentions and absenteeism reduction, for

instance.

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APPENDIX 1

MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Commerce

DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

Date

Dear Sir/ Madam

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RE: LETTER OF INTRODUCTION

This letter serves to introduce a final year student at the above institution. He/

She is doing a Bachelor of Commerce in Tourism and Hospitality Management Degree. He/ She

is undertaking a research titled:

as part of his/ her degree program. The department therefore kindly asks for your assistance in

this regard. Please note that the information you shall provide will be used for academic purposes

only and will be treated with outmost confidentiality. Your cooperation will be greatly

appreciated.

For any inquiries please contact the undersigned.

Yours faithfully

CHIKUTA O.

CHAIRPERSON – DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

chikutao@msu.ac.zw (0773 094 501)

APPENDIX II

Questionnaire for Regency’s service employees.

My name is Varipavo Petros. I am a fourth year student at the Midlands State University undertaking a Bachelor of Commerce: Tourism and Hospitality Management Honours Degree. 1 am doing a research study entitled, “Implementation of internal marketing strategies by Zimbabwean hospitality groups focusing on the Regency Group”. You are kindly being requested to complete this questionnaire as honestly as possible

Your responses will be treated with utmost confidentiality and will be used for academic purposes only. Please do not write your name on any part of this questionnaire.

Instructions

Please, tick the boxes and fill in the spaces provided where relevant.

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SESTION A- TESTING SATISFACTION ON SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE ORGANISATION

1) In your own opinion, how do you rate on the following services as offer with the Regency Group? Please tick on the most appropriate response, 1 being absolutely agree and being absolutely disagree.

Factor Variable 1 2 3 4 5

Recruitment Policy of hiring through extensive interview process

There is a policy of hiring new employees

New employees receive training

Training programs are employee based

Managers Managers attitudes towards employees

Our managers review our performance regularly.

Managers treatment show us we are valued

Rewards I feel I’m getting fair reward

The hotel cares for its employees

Reward system are based on our performances

Best employees are always recognized

Information I know about my firm’s corporate image and strategy

We have open channels to communicate

We meet with management regularly

We are informed of new events, adverts & promotions

We are adapted to new products and product changes.

SECTION B- UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF INTERNAL MARKETING

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1) Internal marketing mix elements

Please answer the following statements in terms of how much you understand them. Indicate your own response – either YES/ NO.

Measurement Statement Yes No

Internal product I’m aware of my job description

Internal price I know my total cost to the organisation

Distribution I know who to report to- lines of command

Internal promotion I receive regular communication from my managers

Internal process I know the whole service process

Internal people I have a strong relationship with my co-workers

Physical evidence The physical evidence is influencing my work

2) Understanding internal marketing

Please answer the following questions in terms of how much you agree with the statement, ie ( 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree.)

Measurement Statement 1 2 3 4 5

Training and development

It is important that my company provides training and career development opportunities

Role clarity It is important that I understand what I’m supposed to deliver in my job.

Role fit It is important that my skills match with the job I do

Empowerment It is important that that I’m given opportunity to make my own decision on the job I do.

Degree of passion It is important to have passion about my job

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Variable Statement 1 2 3 4 5

Burnout It is important that I don’t have too much to do and too little time to do my tasks

Stress It is important that the sacrifice I make at work worth it for me

Opportunity cost It is important for me to feel that by working for my company I have not missed out on opportunities elsewhere

Internal promotion It is important to me that I talk regularly to my supervisor regarding my performance with the guest

Communication It is important that my organization’s vision communicates with me every day.

Communication It is important that my managers review my performances regulary and offer me feedback on how I am performing

Recognition It is important for to be known for the job I do and to be recognized with my job tittle

Co-workers It is important that my co-workers treat me with respect and they are satisfied with their jobs just like me

Please answer the following questions in terms of how much you agree with the statement 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree.

Variable Statement 1 2 3 4 5

Reward It is important that the pay I receive is fair as I compare with those at similar organisations

Reward It is important that I receive an extra award when I reform above the rest of my co-workers

Culture It is important that everyone in our organisation works together to provide high quality service

Structure It is important that the structure of our organisations allows us to communicate directly to top level managers

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Process improvement

It is important that we are provided with improved ways of doing work to give better service to our guest

Physical evidence It is important that my co-workers are grouped around me in an organized way to make our work easier

SECTION C- TESTING CRITERIA FOR IMPLEMENTING INTERNAL MARKETING

Please indicate which human resources practices you would prefer to be included in your benefits list show by ticking the corresponding box

1) Offer on job and off- job training to employees

2) Offer opportunities for career development

3) Offer authority and empowerment to the job to make free decisions

4) Offer a fair remuneration that meet my basic needs

5) Offer rewards fringe benefits like golden handcuffs

6) Offer equal opportunities for promotion

7) Provide a democratic work environment

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8) Decentralize decision making authority to the staff

9) Offer performance related pay

10) Provide a clear recruitment and selection policy for the organisation

APPENDIX 111

INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR REGENCY’S HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGERS

1. What procedures you are using to implement internal marketing in your hotel group?

2. How effective are these strategies in covering the dimensions of internal marketing?

3. From your own view what are your employees’ views and perceptions towards the

current strategies used in the group?

4. What are the challenges being faced by the group in implementing the internal marketing

strategies?

5. What measures the group is implementing to address these challenges?

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