Internal Market Orientation (IMO)

Nuestra compañera  Marta Marín Muñoz presentó en clase el artículo en inglés "MEASURING INTERNAL MARKET ORIENTATION", del cual ha hecho el siguiente resumen:

MEASURING INTERNAL MARKET ORIENTATION

IAN N. LINGS

University of technology, Sydney

GORDON E. GREENLEY

Aston University

In 1970 emerged the concept of internal marketing because the companies want to improve the level of customer service.

At the moment few companies have implemented some internal marketing practice because most companies lack the underlying philosophy of IMO and this is equivalent to “market orientation”.

IMO represents the adaptation of market orientation to the context of employer- employee exchanges in the internal market.

The article describes the development of a measure of IMO in a retail services context.

Encounters between customers and employees are critical for customers satisfaction and it is commonly accepted that internal marketing and HRM are closely related.

Internal marketing is the company´s effort to understand the needs of their employees and increase their job satisfaction. This will facilitate customers to receive better service because these satisfied employees will be better predisposed to provide the service.

One of fundamental ideas of IMO is the concept of exchanges between employees and the organization.

Equity theory was first proposed by Adams in 1963 and proposed that employees evaluate their jobs by comparing what they put into their work with they get out of it.

As noted by Berry in 1976 about Internal Marketing, it is important to meet the need of employees before a company can meet the needs of its customers and the rules that apply to the external market of the company are also applicable by analogy to internal market.

The adoption of market orientation enables companies to systematize the practice of marketing and better coordinate their marketing programs to creating value for its customers.

Internal marketing is the training and developments of people who will be focused on customer satisfaction, that is, train internal customers so that they meet external customers.

This is a key tenet o internal marketing and is based on the assumption that happy and motivated frontline employees are essential in the delivery of good service to customers.

Finally it is also proposed that leaving intentions and staff retention are consequences of IMO as happy and motivated employees are less likely to seek alternative employment.

IMO constitutes a core competency of the organization, creating a potential competitive advantage through more satisfied and loyal customers, which in turn should give rise to increase market share or profits compared to competitors.

Results indicate positive consequences for customers satisfaction, relative competitive position, staff attitudes, staff retention and staff compliance.

It has been very important in the last 20 years:

è As a consequences of the increasing globalization

è And increased levels of demand by the market

It is simply a tool to align employees with the external marketing strategy of the organization.