Thesis
Developing and testing a model of firm-employee relationship strength for use in relationship marketing situations
Southern Cross University, School of Commerce and Management
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
2003
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Abstract
The relationship marketing literature provides no direction as to how to measure firm employee relationships in order to empirically examine the impact of such relationships on customers. To this end, this thesis investigated the following research question:
What are the key indicators of the strength of the relationship between
a firm and its internal market of employees, and what impact does this
set of relationship strength elements have on the level of employees'
commitment to the firm?
Eight elements were identified as possible key elements indicating firm-employee relationship strength. The elements were identified from extensive examination of the relationship marketing and social psychology literature as well as from a series of focus groups. The eight elements were identified as cooperation, balanced power, communication, attachment, shared goals and values, respect, trust and absence of damaging conflict. A model was developed that posited that these elements indicated firm-employee relationship strength which then impacted on commitment to the firm. Commitment was treated as the sole outcome of the model, because it has been identified as the desirable level of relationship development. A number of hypotheses that investigated the relationship between each indicator construct and the latent firm employee relationship strength construct as well as the relationship between firm employee relationship strength and commitment, were tested.
The research methodology used a survey of employees utilising a questionnaire that was designed to measure their opinions about their relationships with their employing firm. The questionnaire was distributed on-line to the employees of a successful Australian service firm, following extensive pre-testing of the questionnaire and a pilot survey. Data obtained from 1097 respondents was used in the research.
Measurement scales exhibiting good psychometric properties for each of the constructs of interest were extracted from the pool of items that had been drawn together for the research, from well-developed literature sourced scales, as well as from the focus group research. Confirmatory factor analysis, together with the examination of inter-correlations and item-total statistics, was used to test the scales.
An expected structural model of firm-employee relationship strength and possible competing models were then tested using EQS software, The expected model was found to provide the best fit to the data.
The results indicated that each of the constructs posited were valid indicators of firm employee relationship strength. High and statistically significant standard coefficients for each of the latent constructs provided evidence of the importance of each element to firm-employee relationship strength. In addition, the link between firm-employee relationship strength and commitment was also supported. As a result, all of the proposed null hypotheses were rejected.
Recommendations for future research are made. These include replication of the research in other settings and testing of the model in respect of other marketing relationships, such as firm-customer relationships and employee-customer relationships.
Details
- Title
- Developing and testing a model of firm-employee relationship strength for use in relationship marketing situations
- Creators
- Carmel Herington
- Contributors
- Don Scott (Supervisor) - Southern Cross UniversityLester Johnson (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University, School of Commerce and Management
- Number of pages
- xxi, 398
- Identifiers
- 991013322327002368
- Copyright
- © Carmel Herington 2003
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
- Resource Type
- Thesis