Reengineering the Corporation

Commitment in the workplace

Internal marketing has been discussed in the management and academic literature for over three decades, yet it remains ill defined and poorly operationalized. This paper responds to calls for research to develop a single clear understanding of the construct, for the development of a suitable instrument to measure it, and for empirical evidence of its impact. 
Existing, divergent conceptualization of internal marketing are explored, and a new, multidimensional construct, describing the managerial behaviors associated with internal marketing is developed, and termed internal market orientation (IMO). IMO represents the adaptation of market orientation to the context of employer-employee exchanges in the internal market. The paper describes the development of a valid and reliable measure of IMO in a retail services context. Five dimensions of IMO are identified and confirmed. These are 1) formal written information generation, 2) formal face-to-face information generation, 3) informal information generation, 4) communication and dissemination of information, and 5) responding to this internal market information. 
The impact of IMO on important organizational factors is also explored. Results indicate positive consequences for customer satisfaction, relative competitive position, staff attitudes, staff retention and staff compliance.

Measuring internal market orientation

Little research has examined the impacts of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementation on job satisfaction. Based on a 12-month study of 2,794 employees in a telecommunications firm, we found that ERP system implementation moderated the relationships between three job characteristics (skill variety, autonomy, and feedback) and job satisfaction. Our findings highlight the key role that ERP system implementation can have in altering well-established relationships in the context of technology-enabled organizational change situations. This work also extends research on technology diffusion by moving beyond a focus on technology-centric outcomes, such as system use, to understanding broader job outcomes.

Job characteristics and job satisfaction: understanding the role of enterprise resource

It has become cliche to argue that a chasm of significant proportions has developed between mainstream economic analysis1 of technological advance and business practice. This chasm is often attributed to the insistence of many economists to cling to old-fashioned ideas concerning the creation and diffusion of innovations and to disregard the pragmatic study of technological progress. The resulting underestimation of the complexities of the process of technological advance and the institutions which affect it has had serious consequences on the predictive ability of theory.2

The Process of Technological Innovation

One of the major obstacles to successful implementation of TQM/CQI in hospitals has been management's failure to consider the workforce cultural situation. This quasi-qualitative study investigates eight workforce cultural factors in seven midwestern hospitals. Results reveal only one of the seven hospitals successfully implementing TQM/CQI.

Workforce cultural factors in TQM/CQI implementation in hospitals.

Apathetic employees constitute one of four employee categories in Blau and Boal’s (1987) model. Six sensitivity analyses were applied to create positive and negative changes in the measurement scores on job involvement and affective commitment of 553 employees to determine which variable produced the greatest Apathetic employee mobility. While changing both variables simultaneously created the greatest movement, on an individual basis, changing affective commitment produced greater Apathetic employee mobility than changing job involvement. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

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Job Involvement or Affective Commitment: A Sensitivity Analysis Study of Apathetic Employee Mobility

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the approaches towards implementation of business process reengineering (BPR), and to provide some evidence as to which approach offers a greater chance of success.Design/methodology/approach – A hospital case analysis is used to study where both top‐down/participative BPR and enterprise resource planning (ERP)‐driven BPR were used to reengineer its processes.Findings – With an ERP‐driven BPR, it is easier to define the scope of the project, design of the process changes, mapping of the new system in the software, and to obtain a realistic preview of the outcomes.Research limitations/implications – ERP‐driven approach to BPR implementation used in this hospital represented a holistic rather than a piecemeal approach to an organization‐wide change effort. There is always a tendency for the motivation and support for such change efforts to dissipate. Research is needed on how to sustain the momentum for such change endeavors.Practical implications – With ERP...

The recovery of BPR implementation through an ERP approach: A hospital case study

Abstarct An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and its implementation represents a substantial organizational change. Top management involvement has been cited as a critical factor in the success, as well as, failure of ERP implementation. To increase ERP implementation success, we propose that top management redesign its ERP implementation work to strategically concentrate on managing employee behavioural change to increase employee acceptance and commitment to the ERP project by specializing its involvement on just two factors – cultural and environmental contextual factors. Three case studies are used to validate this proposition. Eight strategic task, responsibility, and relationship changes to be used by top management to increase ERP implementation success are highlighted in the paper.

Realigning Top Management's Strategic Change Actions for ERP Implementation: How Specializing on Just Cultural and Environmental Contextual Factors Could Improve Success

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of internal marketing orientation, external marketing orientation, and subjective well-being on the affective organizational commitment of frontline employees.




Design/methodology/approach




Previous research was used to develop hypotheses and develop a questionnaire for this project. An online survey was completed by 108 frontline employees.




Findings




The hypothesized model of all three variables having positive effects on organization commitment was supported. Internal marketing orientation, external marketing orientation, and subjective well-being were significant predictors of affective organizational commitment.




Research limitations/implications




A key limitation of this study is the cross-sectional, data collection design. A longitudinal study would allow for increased confidence when evaluating causal inferences with this type of data.




Practical implications




This paper identifies how managers may be able to use internal marketing orientation, external marketing orientation, and subjective well-being as potential tools to increase the affective organizational commitment of frontline employees.




Social implications




This paper demonstrates the importance of subjective well-being as an important component of life for an employee and success of the organization.




Originality/value




This paper extends current research on affective organizational commitment by testing a new model that includes internal marketing orientation, external marketing orientation, and subjective well-being as predictor variables.

Thomas N. Martin

Papers

Workforce cultural factors in TQM/CQI implementation in hospitals.

Job Involvement or Affective Commitment: A Sensitivity Analysis Study of Apathetic Employee Mobility

The recovery of BPR implementation through an ERP approach: A hospital case study

Realigning Top Management's Strategic Change Actions for ERP Implementation: How Specializing on Just Cultural and Environmental Contextual Factors Could Improve Success

Factors influencing organization commitment: Internal marketing orientation, external marketing orientation, and subjective well-being