Internal marketing as an agent of change – implementing a new human resource information system for Malaysian Airlines

The first part of this research determines the relationship between ten selected variables andemployees’acceptanceofaplannedchangeinMalaysianAirlines.Thesecondpartdrawsontheoriginal findings to conceptually investigate the potential role, degree and nature of internalmarketing as a positive agent of change. The findings initially determine the causality of theprimary research results. Subsequently and prescriptively, they indicate that ‘perceptionmanagement’ through internal marketing may play a critical role in both the acceptance andthe implementation of change, especially regarding the more professional positions/processesof an organisation. The paper finally develops a provisional prescriptive model of internalmarketing towards organisational change and expands on the practical and managerial implica-tions of the findings. The value of the research lies primarily in its unorthodox introduction of internal marketing as a catalytic agent of organisational change, as well as in its prescriptivemanagerial implications and its innovative contemporary marketing contex

Corporate social responsibility (CSR): theory and practice in a developing country context

After providing an overview of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) research in different contexts, and noting the varied methodologies adopted, two robust CSR conceptualizations – one by Carroll (1979, ‘A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance’, The Academy of Management Review 4(4), 497–505) and the other by Wood (1991, ‘Corporate Social Performance Revisited’, The Academy of Management Review 16(4), 691–717) – have been adopted for this research and their integration explored. Using this newly synthesized framework, the research critically examines the CSR approach and philosophy of eight companies that are considered active in CSR in the Lebanese context. The findings suggest the lack of a systematic, focused, and institutionalized approach to CSR and that the understanding and practice of CSR in Lebanon are still grounded in the context of philanthropic action. The findings are qualified within the framework of existing contextual realities and relevant implications drawn accordingl

Analysing the Commitment – Service Quality Relationship: A Comparative Study of Retail Banking Call Centres and Branches

Adopting an internal marketing approach, this paper attempts to provide a deeper understanding of the organisational commitment – service quality relationship in the service context. This is done by empirically testing the relationships that the three components of organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) have with the service quality of customer-contact employees. The hypotheses were framed by critically reviewing the extant literature in the areas of services marketing and human resource management. A large sample comparative study was conducted on employees in call centres and branches of a major retail bank in UK. We explore the important question of how the three components of organisational commitment influence the employee-perceived service quality differently in call centres and in branches. The findings indicate that in branches, both affective commitment and continuance commitment have significant positive impact on service quality while in call centres, only affective commitment is found to affect service quality significantly. Having established the commitment – service quality relationship, the implications for designing internal marketing strategies are further discussed