Internal Services Marketing
SWP 59/91
“INTERNAL
SERVICES MARKETING”
PROFESSOR BRETT COLLINS School of Management Deaking University Victoria 3217 Australia (Tel: +6152 471277) and PROFESSOR ADRIAN PAYNE Marketing and Logistics Group Cranfield School of Management Cranfield Institute of Technology Cranfield Bedford MK43 OAL UK (Tel: 0234 751122)
Submitted to European Management Journal Copyright: Collins and Payne 1991
INTERNAL
SERVICES
MARKETING
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years the term internal
marketing
is increasingly being used to
describe the application of marketing internally within the organisation. There are two dimensions relevant to our discussion of internal marketing. Firstly there is the notion that every department and every person within an organisation is both a supplier and a customer. The second aspect relates to the organisation’ staff and s involves ensuring they work together in a manner supporting the company strategy and goals. This has been recognised as being especially important in service firms where there is a close relationship between production and consumption of the service. It is thus concerned with both quality management and customer service and involves co-ordinated people and process improvement strategies. Internal marketing relates to all functions within the organisation, but it is vitally concerned with the management of human resources. However the traditional personnel department, and the more advanced human resources department, have frequently been oriented towards control and administrative activities rather than the alignment of human resources towards achieving strategic organisational purposes and goals. In this paper we explore the marketing of a particular internal service within the organisation - the human resource function. Our purpose is to illustrate how internal marketing concepts and methods used by marketing managers can provide the basis of a new perspective on meeting the opportunities and
“INTERNAL
SERVICES MARKETING”
PROFESSOR BRETT COLLINS School of Management Deaking University Victoria 3217 Australia (Tel: +6152 471277) and PROFESSOR ADRIAN PAYNE Marketing and Logistics Group Cranfield School of Management Cranfield Institute of Technology Cranfield Bedford MK43 OAL UK (Tel: 0234 751122)
Submitted to European Management Journal Copyright: Collins and Payne 1991
INTERNAL
SERVICES
MARKETING
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years the term internal
marketing
is increasingly being used to
describe the application of marketing internally within the organisation. There are two dimensions relevant to our discussion of internal marketing. Firstly there is the notion that every department and every person within an organisation is both a supplier and a customer. The second aspect relates to the organisation’ staff and s involves ensuring they work together in a manner supporting the company strategy and goals. This has been recognised as being especially important in service firms where there is a close relationship between production and consumption of the service. It is thus concerned with both quality management and customer service and involves co-ordinated people and process improvement strategies. Internal marketing relates to all functions within the organisation, but it is vitally concerned with the management of human resources. However the traditional personnel department, and the more advanced human resources department, have frequently been oriented towards control and administrative activities rather than the alignment of human resources towards achieving strategic organisational purposes and goals. In this paper we explore the marketing of a particular internal service within the organisation - the human resource function. Our purpose is to illustrate how internal marketing concepts and methods used by marketing managers can provide the basis of a new perspective on meeting the opportunities and
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