信義房屋內部行銷作為與員工心理擁有感表現之探究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 立. 治政碩士論文大 Master’s Thesis. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. y. 信義房屋內部行銷作為與員工心理擁有感表現之探究. n. al. er. io. within Sinyi Realty Incorporation. sit. An Exploratory Study on Internal Marketing and Employee Psychological Ownership. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Student: Chih-Yin Lu 呂至穎 Advisor: Chao-Tung Wen 溫肇東教授中華民國 103 年 10 月 October 2014.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Finally the date that I’m qualified to write the acknowledgement has come! My two-and-a-half-year graduate career is going to come to an end and thesis writing is definitely the most tough but significant part during this period. On summer vacation last year, I started to find my advisor and eventually I was so lucky to be accepted by Professor Wen, Chao-Tung as his seventh student of 2013. We held group meetings once in two weeks and sometimes Professor Wen would even bring us to some nice restaurants to have gorgeous meals and hold the meeting at the same time. It was such an unforgettable memory! Honestly I had changed my research directions 5 times and even doubted at one point whether I can successfully produce thesis in 2014. In the last-half of the second year, I spent most of the time on doing internship. 政治大 April 25 that I officially embark 立 on my thesis writing. By the time I officially finished and national competition so it was hardly to focus on thesis writing. It wasn’t until. ‧ 國. 學. my thesis seven months in total had elapsed like a whirlwind. Firstly, I want to give my special thanks to dear Professor Wen that his words always inspiring and motivate us to think deeply to see if there are other aspects to understand the issue or other. ‧. ways to solve the problems. Needless to say, Professor Wen makes efforts to provide. sit. y. Nat. us with best guidance and resources to tap all the time. Besides, I would like to. io. er. express my thanks to the committee members, Professor Chung, Wei-Wen and Professor Hou, Sheng-Tsung for their abundant and constructive suggestions which. n. al. i Un. v. indeed helped me polish my thesis work. Further, I do appreciate all the respondents. Ch. engchi. from Sinyi Realty who spare their valuable time for working with me to complete all the needed interviews. Frankly, I can’t finish my thesis work without their kindest assistances. Also, I’m truly grateful for my companions that we go through this hard work together, have each other to whine to and share with panic. They are actually the ones that know your pains and don’t grudge giving the support and cheering me on all the time. They are Ruby Liu, Tiffany Lin and Abby Moreno from IMICS, and FangYu, Yen-Ching, Ting-Yi, Wei-Cheng, Chi-Ju and Hsu-Yu from TIM (now TIIPM). It is their company and encouragement that I feel not alone and have the courage to conquer this hard task. Last but not least, I’d like to thank my family and boyfriend Kuan-Hua as well for putting up with my grumpy temper in the last 7 months. Their support always makes me feel secured, blessed and have the audacity to do anything. i.

(3) ABSTRACT Service-oriented companies mostly focus on carrying out external marketing which aims to provide best services to external customers. Traditionally speaking, this way seems to ensure higher revenue for companies. However, they are inclined to overlook the importance of employees who are reckoned as internal customers when applied to internal marketing. Nowadays, it is argued that focusing only on external customers would not ensure prosperity of the company. The application of internal marketing, clearly the opposite concept of external marketing, aims to sell the jobs and the company to its employees. More and more companies, especially serviceoriented ones, acknowledge that the firm itself is supposed to bring satisfaction to its internal customers in accord with organizational objective before delivering satisfaction to external customers since most financial transactions occur between. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. employees and customers. Specifically speaking, behaviors of employees have direct influences on customers and their ensuing consuming perceptions. In this regard, service firms should put much more emphasis on application of internal marketing.. sit. y. Nat. This study chooses Sinyi Realty as the research target in an attempt to explore its practices of internal marketing and ensuing performances of employee psychological ownership. Realty companies in Taiwan intensively compete with each other and thus. n. al. er. io. put more emphasis on external customers. As for Sinyi Realty, a locally-developed and large-scale realty company, its founder and chairman Mr. Chou, Chun-Chi not only focuses on providing best services, but emphasizes sustainable management which is different from making fast money addressed by other realty companies. Besides, it is worth mentioning that it is the only listed realty company in Taiwan and has been awarded by Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility many times. In this regard, this study adopts semi-structured in-depth interview to discover the real situation of internal marketing within the company. Most importantly, this study aims to explore performances of psychological ownership toward the company and the corporate brand among employees of Sinyi Realty. In fact, it follows two questions which are “how much do you feel the company is yours?” and “to what extent do you. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. view the corporate brand as part of extended-self?” According to the case analysis, application of internal marketing found in Sinyi Realty exerts huge influences on employee psychological ownership, and also the impact of other critical factors cannot be underestimated. Based on the facts and discussion above, there are 8 derivative propositions in total that explicitly explain the ii.

(4) relationships between internal marketing and psychological ownership; and other 3 propositions also manifest their close relations with psychological ownership for the organization and the corporate brand. Though these 11 derivative propositions are not discreetly examined by quantitative research method, they indeed present a general situation of Sinyi Realty and provide different research aspects for future study. At last, 4 managerial implications are proposed in expectation of enhancing the degree of psychological ownership among employees of Sinyi Realty by means of improved application of internal marketing.. Keywords: Internal Marketing, Organizational and Brand Communication, Employee Psychological Ownership, Sinyi Realty. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i Un. v.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENT. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................. i ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................................................ iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ............................................................................. vi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background and Research Motives ................................................................. 1 1.2 Research Objectives and Questions ................................................................. 5 1.3 Research Framework ....................................................................................... 6. 政治大. 1.4 Significance of Study ....................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 Literature Review ........................................................................................ 11 2.1 Internal Marketing ......................................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Investment in Employee Development ............................................... 17 2.1.2 Corporate Culture................................................................................ 19 2.1.3 Organizational Communication .......................................................... 21 2.1.4 Brand Communication ........................................................................ 25 2.2 Employee Psychological Ownership ............................................................. 28. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. 2.2.1 Organizational Psychological Ownership and Brand Psychological Ownership .................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3 Research Methodology................................................................................ 34 3.1 Research Methods .......................................................................................... 34 3.2 Research Procedures ...................................................................................... 36 3.3 Respondents and Research Instrument .......................................................... 39 3.3.1 Respondents ........................................................................................ 39 3.3.2 Research Instrument---Interview Design ............................................ 41 Chapter 4 Case Analysis .............................................................................................. 44 4.1 Introduction to Sinyi Realty ........................................................................... 44 4.2 Analysis of Internal Marketing ...................................................................... 47. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 4.2.1 What to Sell......................................................................................... 50 4.2.2 How to Sell ......................................................................................... 66 4.3 Analysis of Employee Psychological Ownership .......................................... 81 4.3.1 Organizational Psychological Ownership ........................................... 82 4.3.2 Brand Psychological Ownership ......................................................... 90 4.4 Relations between Internal Marketing and Employee Psychological iv.

(6) Ownership & Derivative Propositions ................................................................. 95 Chapter 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 110 5.1 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 110 5.2 Managerial Implications .............................................................................. 113 5.3 Suggestions for Future Study ....................................................................... 119 References .................................................................................................................. 122 Appendix A: Previous Designed Questions ............................................................... 135 Questions Regarding Internal Marketing ........................................................... 135 Questions Regarding Employee Psychological Ownership ............................... 138 Appendix B: Interview Guide .................................................................................... 141 (English Version) ............................................................................................... 141 (Chinese Version) ............................................................................................... 142. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i Un. v.

(7) LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. Figure 1. Research Framework of Present Study………………………………….......7 Figure 2. Research Procedures of Present Study……………………………………..38 Figure 3. Key Findings about Relation between Internal Marketing and Employee Psychological Ownership……………………………………………….....96. 政治大. Table 1. Semi-structured In-depth Interviews………………………………………..40. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vi. i Un. v.

(8) 1. Chapter 1 Introduction. 1.1 Background and Research Motives In Taiwan, there are so many realty incorporations that it seems to have become a saturated market. In other words, it is the situation of “supply over demand”. Under. 政治大. this circumstance, every realty incorporation is trying their best to appeal the external. 立. ‧ 國. 學. customers as to take up market share as much as possible. Most of the related companies put an emphasis on offering the best services to external customers by. ‧. means of external marketing; however, internal customers, who are the so-called. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. employees and actually the ones that are in the front line interacting with the external. i Un. v. customers, usually receive less attention and treatments from the company. But. Ch. engchi. speaking of Sinyi Realty Incorporation (Sinyi Realty) would bring us different perspectives. Aside from its recognized honors and awards in terms of corporate governance, brand and outside services for more than two decades, it also performances well on the part of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Most importantly, it thinks highly of the people-oriented spirit as the essence of the company. In this study, we focus more on organizational commitment out of CSR categories and more specifically, we want to figure out how Sinyi Realty treats its.

(9) 2 internal customers (employees) and further retains them for a long time. Besides, the way it communicates with its employees refers to the application of internal marketing which aims to internally market both the job and the corporate to its employees (Sasser and Arbeit, 1976). Further, at the same time, we would also adopt employee’s perspectives to find out how they consider the practices of internal marketing, which refers to the state of employee psychological ownership. On this. 政治大. basis, we aim to explore the application of internal marketing and the performances of. 立. employee psychological ownership rooted in Sinyi Realty.. ‧ 國. 學. According to Gronroos (1984), in order to thoroughly achieve the goal of service. ‧. marketing, it’s necessary to take internal marketing, external marketing and. y. Nat. er. io. sit. interactive marketing into account simultaneously. Apart from putting emphasis on external marketing strategies, employers or managers are supposed to value the. al. n. iv n C U that when employees feel hmarketing. importance and influence of internal e n g c hIt isi argued themselves being treated as internal customers and perceive investment in their development by the corporate, they would be more likely to contribute themselves to the corporate success and brand-image improvement (Winter, 1985; Berry and Parasuraman, 1991; Green, Walls and Schrest, 1994; Chiang, 2009). More explicitly, when employers actively interact with employees and further create reciprocal relationship with them, employees would be more willing to actively interact with.

(10) 3 external customers and voluntarily pursue the corporate’s success (George, 1990; Bak, Vogt, George, and Greentree, 1994). In short, effective implementation of internal marketing would meet the needs of employees and motivate them to become more customer-conscious, which ultimately leads to customer satisfaction and fulfilment of corporate’s objective. On the other hand, we are also supposed to stress the significance of employee. 政治大. psychological ownership. After implementing the strategies of internal marketing,. 立. how do the employees feel and evaluate the efforts practiced by the corporate? There. ‧ 國. 學. are many empirical evidences indicating that psychological ownership for the. ‧. corporate and its brand is regarded as decisive role in producing favorable work-. y. Nat. er. io. sit. related attitudes and behaviors among employees (Vandewalle, Van Dyne, and Kostova, 1995; Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, and Sowa, 1986; Podsakoff,. al. n. iv n C h e nPierce, MacKenzie, Paine, and Bachrach, 2000; i U and Dirks, 2001; Van Dyne g c hKostova and Pierce, 2004; Avey, Avolio, Crossley, and Luthans, 2009; Chiang, 2009). Besides, employees who possessively have feelings of ownership for the corporate or its brand would have great likelihood to obtain positive attitude, a sense of responsibility and identification with the corporate’s culture and value (Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004). To some degree, employee psychological ownership can be seen as an indicator that whether the practice of internal marketing is effective throughout the corporate..

(11) 4 Accordingly, this study would adopt both primary research and secondary analysis as to explore the practices of internal marketing, and then interview with several employees to figure out the development of employee psychological ownership within Sinyi Realty. In most of previous related studies, they aim to verify the relations of internal marketing and employee psychological ownership respectively with other variables. 政治大. found in the corporate. Thus, it is widely recognized that positive relations exist. 立. among corporate’s culture, corporate’s investment in employees, employee. ‧ 國. 學. psychological ownership for the corporate and its brand, and ensuing altruistic. ‧. behaviors (Podsakoff et al., 2000; Hatch and Schulz, 2003; Van Dyne and Pierce,. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 2004; Mayhew, Ashkanasy, Bramble, and Gardner, 2007). However, there are less qualitative studies focusing on exploring and analyzing the practices of internal. al. n. iv n C h e n gpsychological marketing and the performance of employee c h i U ownership within certain corporate at the same time, let alone the case study of Sinyi Realty. In addition, among other realty’s companies of Taiwan, Sinyi Realty is well known as having conspicuous influences on the realty’s market in Taiwan, and as one of the benchmark company specific to service-oriented realty industry. In this regard, deeply exploring the components and practices of internal marketing and examining the performance of.

(12) 5 employee psychological ownership within Sinyi Realty can manifest the research value of this study.. 1.2 Research Objectives and Questions According to the research motives discussed above, this study aims to meet following research objectives: (1) By reviewing the related theories and based on the 4 components of internal. 政治大. marketing proposed by this study, we would like to explore the practices of. 立. ‧ 國. 學. internal marketing established in Sinyi Realty.. (2) In terms of the effects of internal marketing, we would like to investigate the. ‧. ensuing performances of employee psychological ownership for the corporate. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. and its brand.. i Un. v. (3) Based on the facts and evidences from interview materials, this study aims to. Ch. engchi. explore the relationships between practices of internal marketing and performances of employee psychological ownership.. According to the research objectives, there are also three research questions pertaining to this study: (1) What impacts do the practices of internal marketing have on psychological ownership for the company and corporate brand among employees?.

(13) 6 (2) How do employees express their feelings of ownership for the company and corporate brand in practice? (3) Are there any other factor that brings influence on performances of employee psychological ownership as well?. 1.3 Research Framework This study proposes the framework discussed below. According to figure 1,. 政治大. research framework is divided into two parts and has one causal relation between. 立. ‧ 國. 學. internal marketing and employee psychological ownership. Firstly, this study focuses on the implementation of internal marketing occurred in Sinyi Realty and specific to. ‧. internal customers (Sasser and Arbeit, 1976) who are the so-called employees. Based. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. on the literature review, internal marketing consists of 4 dimensions, including. i Un. v. investment in employee development, corporate culture, organizational. Ch. engchi. communication and brand communication. Among these 4 dimensions, the two prior dimensions could be seen as products that are prepared to sell, and the other two as marketing strategies whereby the employers could be more capable of selling out the products to the internal customers. In this regard, we would like to figure out how Sinyi Realty carries out the practices of internal marketing and what the respondents’ reflections are on the effect of internal marketing..

(14) 7 As for the other part of this research framework, the performances of employee psychological ownership is based on the application of internal marketing. Specifically, we would like to put emphasis on the transformation of psychological ownership directed at employees during their employment in Sinyi Realty. Besides, when it comes to psychological ownership specific to employees, the one that mostly taken into account is organizational psychological ownership. However in this study,. 政治大. apart from organizational psychological ownership, we would also explore the. 立. performances of brand psychological ownership among employees. As a benchmark. ‧ 國. 學. company offering realty’s services, Sinyi Realty has become a brand not only to the. ‧. external customers, but to the internal customers as well. Therefore, the role of brand. y. Nat. psychological ownership found in service companies.. n. al. Ch. engchi. Figure 1. Research Framework of Present Study. er. io. sit. psychological ownership manifests its importance when referring to employee. i Un. v.

(15) 8. 1.4 Significance of Study This study aims to explore the practices of internal marketing and performances of employee psychological ownership within Sinyi Realty. As mentioned above, Sinyi Realty is widely recognized as a benchmark company in terms of realty field. Founded in 1987, its growth has been nonstop and it finally has become a well-known. 政治大. realty brand in public. Until now, there are over 4,000 employees working for Sinyi. 立. Realty. In 2013, it had been chosen to be the first place of Excellence of Corporate. ‧ 國. 學. Social Responsibility under the category of median-sized enterprises. According to. ‧. the chairman Mr. Chou, Chun-Chi, Sinyi Realty would make efforts to provide the. y. Nat. io. sit. best services and reach the objective of sustainable operation in the long run. Further,. al. er. it’s worth mentioning that whether the best services are made almost relies on its. n. iv n C U how does Sinyi Realty h e n g On employees, especially those in the front-line. c hthisi basis, keep satisfying its external customers on one hand, and effectively communicate and interact with its internal customers on the other? It is argued that well-functioned internal exchange relationship and interaction within an organization is the key to the corporate’s success in the external market (George, 1990; Bak et al., 1994). As a result, exploring and analyzing the current situation of implementing internal marketing within Sinyi Realty can be seen as useful and practical reference for other.

(16) 9 service-oriented companies when applying internal marketing. In most qualitative studies regarding internal marketing, those focus on illustrating the practices of organizational communication would rarely put emphasis on brand communication at the same time. When the corporate has to interact with external customers, establishing and building the brand image toward the public is an integral part of operating successful corporate. Thus, it is argued that well-arranged. 政治大. internal brand communication would not only improve employee’s brand knowledge. 立. and spirit, but also motivate them to produce favorable work attitudes and behaviors. ‧ 國. 學. toward the corporate’s brand. (Harris and de Chernatony, 2001; Hatch and Schulz,. ‧. 2003; Burmann and Zeplin, 2005). Accordingly, exploring both organizational. y. Nat. er. io. sit. communication and brand communication strategies is more likely to have a holistic view of practicing internal marketing within certain corporate. In addition to stressing. al. n. iv n C the role of internal communication,hit’s ealso n gnecessary c h i Uto emphasize psychological ownership from the perspective of employees. In general, the concept of. organizational psychological ownership has been widely discussed and recognized as a critical indicator of positive work-related attitudes and behaviors (Podsakoff et al., 2000; Pierce et al., 2001; Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004). Nevertheless, in terms of brand psychological ownership, there are much more less studies on this topic, let alone found in the qualitative researches. As demonstrated by Chiang (2009), employees.

(17) 10 who possess feelings of ownership for the corporate’s brand would be more likely to have positive attitude toward the brand, identify corporate’s brand image with their self-image extension, and voluntarily defend the corporate’s brand. Accordingly, taking both organizational and brand psychological ownership into account would be essential as to have a deeper and comprehensive understanding of employee psychological ownership for the corporate as a whole.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(18) 11. Chapter 2 Literature Review. 2.1 Internal Marketing Traditionally speaking, service-oriented corporates always regard the customers as the imperative for sales success, which at the same time enhances the importance. 政治大. of external marketing strategies. However, countless examples have been showing. 立. ‧ 國. 學. that focusing on the external customers would not ensure prosperity of the corporates. According to Sasser and Arbeit (1976), the service sector must acknowledge its most. ‧. critical productive resources coming from the employees which are the keys to. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. success. Moreover, the concept of selling jobs (products) to employees (customers). i Un. v. had also been addressed (Sasser and Arbeit, 1976; Berry, 1981). Service firms have. Ch. engchi. much more chances to interact with so-called customers in external market, and most financial transactions occur between employees and customers. Accordingly, behaviors of employees (quality of services) have direct influences on interactions with customers and ensuing consuming perception derived from customers. Here we can see the necessity of employee’s excellent performances to the success in external market; in other words, the success to external market bases on the effective implementation of internal marketing designed for the employees (Amstrong and.

(19) 12 Kotler, 1991) that would encourage them to feel like improving their working performances. Apparently, customer satisfaction is mostly driven from those employees who has been through the application of internal marketing (Tansuhaj, Randall & McCullough, 1988). Found in the internal market, employees who are deemed as internal customers are the primary characters in the process of internal marketing. Before delivering. 政治大. satisfaction to external customers, the firm itself is supposed to bring satisfaction to its. 立. internal customers in advance in accord with organizational objective (Berry, 1981;. ‧ 國. 學. Hsiao, 1997). Once the internal marketing plan, which aims to develop products and. ‧. finally sell to internal customers, has been established, the firm is much more likely to. y. Nat. er. io. sit. attract, motivate and even retain those internal customers whose needs have been satisfied and at last ends up becoming customer-conscious employees (Gronroos,. al. n. iv n C h Piercy 1985; Berry and Parasuraman, 1991; i U 1991; Cahill, 1996; Pfeffer e n gand c hMorgan, and Veiga, 1999). Aside from selling jobs as part of internal marketing, the concept of promoting and marketing organization’s mission and vision toward the employees (Gronroos, 1981; Chang, 2004) is as important as career development. Accordingly, both of the “products” (human resources management and organizational dynamics) are imperatives for achieving effective internal marketing plan (Conduit and Mavondo, 2001) within a service-oriented organization..

(20) 13 Service-oriented corporates have most relevance to the idea of internal marketing because their employees are required to deliver excellent services to the external customers, which leads to satisfaction among the customers and effective external marketing as well (Foreman and Money, 1995). To those service firms, the employees are supposed to undergo the training process and also be motivated as to dedicate themselves to offering best services to the customers (Amstrong and Kotler, 1991).. 政治大. George and Gronroos (1991) describe that not only do the employees who are directly. 立. exposed to external customers receive the training and experience related activities,. ‧ 國. 學. but the rest of employees within the service firm has to have the same experiences. ‧. made by internal marketing. Further, for the sake of effectively managing different. y. Nat. er. io. sit. functional departments within one service corporate, employees at all levels are supposed to learn and identify operation and core values embedded in the corporate. al. n. iv n C h e n the through internal marketing, which ensures performances done by hi U g cservice-oriented customer-conscious employees (George, 1990). Besides, Gummesson (1987) brings up the concept of “part-time marketer” that every employee aside from those in the front-line is indirectly taking the role of marketer when interacting with external customers. Consequently, the internal marketing plan is essential for employees to equip themselves with customer-and-service consciousness. Within the organization which carries out the internal marketing plan, countless.

(21) 14 internal exchanges occurred among the employees and between the organization and its employees as well. Effectively dealing with those internal exchanges would be the imperative for generating successful external exchanges (George, 1990). Through internal marketing and following internal exchanges, the organizational resources would be gradually rearranged and best allocated within the organization, which is highly related to effective internal exchanges created for all the internal stakeholders. 政治大. (Bak et al., 1994). As long as the internal exchanges are well managed, the. 立. expectation and finally achieves organizational objective.. 學. ‧ 國. performance of exchanges with external markets would meet or go beyond. ‧. The practice of internal marketing is executed within the organization and its. y. Nat. er. io. sit. outcome and performance definitely have huge impact on either the organization itself or all the internal stakeholders. This fact can be seen in support of the argument that. al. n. iv n C U htoethoroughly employees at all levels are supposed the organizational n g c h iunderstand operation and objective, acknowledge the importance of the roles they take and. appreciate the values of internal marketing plan (Winter, 1985; George and Gronroos, 1991; George, 1990), with which the employees are much more capable of delivering services with the ingrained spirit of the organization’s core values (Johnson, Scheuing & Gaida, 1986). Since all the employees (internal customers) working in certain organization primarily consist of the internal market, the organization must make.

(22) 15 efforts to effectively communicate with its employees through internal marketing (Flipo, 1986). In addition, the organization also needs to communicate its mission and vision to their internal customers with the intention of equipping them with explicit organizational core value when interacting with external market (Johnson et al., 1986). In this regard, well-arranged organizational communication is the key to the success of internal marketing.. 政治大. In the area of competitive service market, corporate’s brand takes an essential. 立. role in achieving the success in the external market (Berry, 2000; Lovelock and. ‧ 國. 學. Wright, 2002). Mitchell (2002) once said that the corporate works hard to tell their. ‧. external customers why it is out of the ordinary, but do its employees know about this. y. Nat. io. sit. brand message as well? Further, if the employees receive external brand messages. al. er. different from what they’ve learned in the organization, there would be the emergence. n. iv n C U confuse them and end up h e n g which of cognitive inconsistence among employees c h i may. threatening the corporate’s brand (Mitchell, 2002). Accordingly, it’s necessary for the corporate to get its employees accurately informed regarding brand knowledge, and further identify brand’s position and value (Berry, 2000; Mangini, 2002; Huang and Huang, 2009). Berry and Parasuraman (1991) were the first scholars discussing the causal relation between internal marketing and internal branding. They observe the fact that the corporate could make the employees understand the brand’s value.

(23) 16 through the application of internal marketing as to achieve the expectation of internal branding. As a result, each corporate must aim to actively and effectively communicate its brand characteristic and value to its employees as to ensure that their attitudes and behaviors are consistent with brand values. In this regard, brand communication is the indispensable component of successfully carrying out internal marketing.. 政治大. Based on the fact discussed above, internal marketing is a marketing-like activity. 立. that aims to sell the job and the organization itself to its internal customers who are. ‧ 國. 學. employees actually (Berry, 1981; Gronroos, 1981). Further, to let internal marketing. ‧. exert its influence on internal customers in an attempt to develop customer-conscious. y. Nat. er. io. sit. employees and create an organizational environment in support of such implementation, strategic organizational and brand communication can be seen as. al. n. iv n C h e ninternal imperatives for effectively implementing i U (Gronroos, 1985; g c hmarketing. Johnson and Seymour, 1985; Winter, 1985). Accordingly, in the following section, we would turn to focusing on the products (investment in employee development and corporate’s core value and culture) and the marketing strategies (organizational communication and brand communication) designed for the internal customers and found in the essences of internal marketing..

(24) 17. 2.1.1 Investment in Employee Development. Two types of employee-organization relationships (Tsui, Pearce, Porter & Tripoli, 1997; Aryee, Budhwar & Chen, 2002) had been identified that involve balanced relationship between employers and employees. The first one, which has been termed as quasi-spot-contract (Tsui et al., 1995), may be easily found in the past or in specific industries where it is regarded as pure economic exchange. Not. 政治大. surprisingly, these employers don’t expect a long-term employment relationship and. 立. ‧ 國. 學. only offer economic inducements to the employees in exchange of well-specified contributions. Though this relationship/exchange type might be appropriate for some. ‧. jobs, neither employer nor employee would do more beyond the specified activities.. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. As such, narrow and close-ended obligations are the main characteristics found in the quasi-spot-contract relationship.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. The other type of employment relationship, in contrast, includes both economic and social exchange which entails unspecified and open-ended obligations on both the employers and employees (Blau, 1986; Tsui et al., 1997). In this exchange relationship, an employer would like to firstly provide more inducements and treatments to its employees, with the expectation that what they invest in employees are needed to be reciprocated to certain extent in the near future. The concept of social exchange highlights the importance of mutual and mature relationship between the.

(25) 18 organization and its employees (Blau, 1964; Eisenberger et al., 1986) where the treatments given by an employer is go beyond the monetary rewards. Once the employees recognize and perceive the existence of and their involvement in the investment in employee development (Eisenberger et al., 1986; Lee and Bruvold, 2003), the employees show great disposition to job satisfaction, intent to stay with the organization and further organizational citizenship behavior (Wayne, Shore & Liden,. 政治大. 1997; Podsakoff et al., 2000; Lee and Bruvold, 2003; Van Dyne et al., 2004). As such,. 立. it has been generally noted that positive social exchange is reliant on voluntary. ‧ 國. 學. actions and can result in mutual benefits and trust among employers and employees. ‧. (Blau, 1964; Pearce and Peters, 1985; Tsui et al., 1997; Aryee et al., 2002). On this. y. Nat. er. io. sit. basis, working environment to be provided with high quality exchange relationships can be well established, in which employees would reciprocate in a positive, mutual. al. n. iv n C U and investment provided h eto n and beneficial way with the intention respondh g c toitreatment by the organization (Settoon, Bennett & Liden, 1996; Chen and Klimoski, 2003). Accordingly, the fact that organizational investment in employee development would motivate employees to reciprocate through desirable work-related attitude and altruistic behaviors has been generally accepted (Graen and Cashman, 1975; Haas and Deseran, 1981; Wayne et al., 1997; Flynn, 2005). Discovered from proved findings, investment in employee development, which can be seen as part of “soft” and “high.

(26) 19 commitment” Human Resource Management practice (Storey, 1989; Legge, 1995; Gould-Williams and Davies, 2005), indicates that employers have trust in employees and then the latter would be positively encouraged to generate mutual benefits and trust among all people inside the organization (Lin, 2007). Several related HRM and investment in employee development practices are suggested, including (1) greater worker empowerment and involvement in decision making processes; (2) training. 政治大. programs that offer employee opportunities to gain task-related skills and personal. 立. development; (3) team-working activities where ideas are pooled and creative. ‧ 國. 學. solutions encouraged; and (4) provision of adequate reward packages commensurate. ‧. with worker effort (Delery and Doty, 1996; Pfeffer, 1998; Marchington and Grugulis,. y. Nat. n. al. er. io 2.1.2 Corporate Culture. sit. 2000; Gould-Williams and Davies, 2005).. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. When it comes to the operation of corporates, the well-established corporate culture would be considered the most important component of it. As it has been addressed by Peters and Waterman (1982) in their book that any equipment, technique or comprehensive strategy has less influence than the impact of applying corporate culture. As such, corporate culture has been generally seen as the fundamental and useful solution to the latent problems found in the corporate; further, corporate dynamics are highly reliant on its corporate culture in which it can turn the challenges.

(27) 20 facing corporates to the opportunities (Seetoo, 2001). Benchmark corporate comprises several essential factors and one of which is the formation of corporate culture that attracts and even retains excellent employees (Safferstone, 2001), then would end up encouraging employees to identify corporate vision and core value, and thus generate sense of belonging to the corporate (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Masterson and Stamper, 2003). Generally speaking, corporate culture refers to a supporting and. 政治大. complicated system that shares meanings and values among all the members, which. 立. makes the corporate distinct from others and further enhances the degree of. ‧ 國. 學. identification with the corporate by its employees (Tunstall, 1985; Levin, 2000;. ‧. Ostroff, Kinicki & Tamkins, 2003).. Nat. er. io. sit. y. Well-organized and widely recognized corporate culture can be seen as “product” in terms of internal marketing that aims to sell to internal customers within the. al. n. iv n C he organization (Berry, 1981; Gronroos, 1981; n gConduit c h i &UMavondo, 2001). Within the context of corporate culture, those employees who have accepted the “product” would form their organizational and corporate identity (Hatch and Schultz, 1997). The fact of identification with certain corporate culture is not merely limited to the idea of corporate identity, while social identity and organizational identity also make contributions to it. As Cornelissen, Haslam & Balmer (2007) had described “…a social identity can be grounded in organizational group membership and hence be an.

(28) 21 organizational identity, and organizational identity can relate to a corporate entity and inform the perceptions and interaction of its stakeholders and hence be a corporate identity.” Extended from this basis, researches in social identity emphasize that employees who identify with corporate culture would voluntarily generate commitment to the group and organization (Meyer, Becker & Van Dick, 2006; Hirst, Van Dick & Van Knippenberg, 2009). Similarly, having identification with the value. 政治大. and vision of the organization/corporate, employees are more willing to show support. 立. for the organizational objective, which may result in the appearance of altruistic spirit. ‧ 國. 學. and favorable behavior for the organization/corporate (Smidts, Pruyn & Van Riel,. ‧. 2001; Meyer et al., 2006; Hirst et al., 2009). In this regard, corporate has to find ways. y. Nat. er. io. sit. effectively communicating its corporate culture and vision to its employees for the sake of encouraging them to generate sense of belonging to and commit themselves to. al. n. iv n C U h e nwith the corporate based on their identification h icorporate. g cthe 2.1.3 Organizational Communication. Traditionally, two and more than two people can create group communication (Bales & Strodtbeck, 1951). While group communication occurs in the context of organizations, this phenomena can be seen as organizational communication. Combined and based on the definitions suggested by other scholars (Kang and Chuang, 1993; Jones, Watson, Gardner and Gallois, 2004), organizational.

(29) 22 communication is a process that delivers and communicates opinions, facts, values, attitudes and emotions to people in certain organization through appropriate communication channels, with which this process can not only improve understandings and create consensus among the members, but coordinate each one’s efforts and satisfy the needs of the members. According to Scott and Mitchell (1976), organizational communication has its functions, such as representation of emotions,. 政治大. morale encouragement, dissemination of information and mission control; further,. 立. well-arranged organizational communication can be regarded as stimulus for. ‧ 國. 學. enhancing work efficiency. Most importantly, it’s necessary to figure out what are the. ‧. essential components of doing effective organizational communication. Four essences. y. Nat. er. io. sit. include frequency of communication, channels and types for disseminating information, the impact of form and content on strategy use, and flow direction of. al. n. iv n C h eand communication (Harold, 1965; Rogers 1976; Richard, Monge n gAgarwala-Rogers, chi U and Russell, 1977; Krone, Jablin and Putnam, 1987). Together with these four communicative pillars, the emergence of effective organizational communication is expected. As such, applied to the context of corporate, organizational communication is glue that connects all the employees and ends up achieving ultimate goal of the corporate. Based on the perspectives from Shannon and Weaver (1949), a typical model of.

(30) 23 communication comprises five elements, including sender, receiver, message, channel and feedback. At the same time, through the work of encoder and decoder, the communication process is basically completed. However, along the process of communication, there are different kinds of noises facing the sender and receiver. In terms of internal marketing, when the noises occur in the corporate, especially between the employer and its internal customers, then conflict is around the corner.. 政治大. But if the organization (the sender) can make good use of communication mechanism,. 立. its internal customers (the receiver) would be inclined to give positive feedback to. ‧ 國. 學. their employers, which avoids the emergence of communicative crisis and even. ‧. Nat. er. io. sit. 2006; Muffet-Willett and Kruse, 2008).. y. creates opportunity for the relationship between employer and its employee (Yu,. Generally speaking, process of effective organizational communication is full of. al. n. iv n C h be dynamics and interactions that could found inhcertain en g c i U organization or corporate. In terms of communicative channel, there are basically two different types which are formal communication and informal communication (Lee, 1999). The establishment. of formal communication follows the line of authority which corresponds to hierarchy built in the organization; informal communication occurs when information and messages are transmitted in private among organizational members without hierarchy involved. In addition, formal communication includes 4 different types of flow.

(31) 24 direction of information, which are downward communication, upward communication, horizontal communication and diagonal communication, among which impact of different functions and efficacy on organizational communication and operation is conspicuous (Dessler, 1977; Goldhaber, 1979; Davis, 1985). Though formal communication takes larger part of the organizational communication system, the use of informal communication is of importance because it is complementary to. 政治大. formal communication and helps to improve relations between internal members to. 立. create supportive atmosphere in the organization. As for the structure design of. ‧ 國. 學. organizational communication, there are basically three primary types of. ‧. communication structure, which are chain, wheel and all-channel network found in. y. Nat. er. io. sit. the organization (Robbins and Judge, 2001). Each structure has its pros and cons when it applies to different organizations or corporates, and this is also a fact that can. n. al. i n C U h e n gchannels. be understood in the use of communicative chi. v. Accordingly, given of the impact of functions derived from different communicative channels and structures, every organization or corporate is supposed to adopt suitable communication strategies corresponding to the implementation of internal marketing. In other words, based on the external and internal contexts then, it’s necessary for the organization to choose its appropriate communication strategy complex in accord with the objective of internal marketing. In this regard, the whole.

(32) 25 process of organizational communication would be full of dynamics, in which interactions among all members are intensive and thus the organizational objective is more achievable. In short, effective internal marketing can’t be achieved without applying well-arranged organizational communication.. 2.1.4 Brand Communication. As discussed above, communication plays a crucial and decisive role in. 政治大. effectively managing the operation of organizations. It has been noted that many. 立. ‧ 國. 學. organizational problems could be attributed to insufficient communication between the organization and its employees (Maier, 1967). In terms of internal marketing,. ‧. employers aim to sell the job and the organization to their internal customers in an. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. attempt to lift the extent to which internal customers identify with the organization or. i Un. v. corporate. Based on this argument, corporates are supposed to focus on. Ch. engchi. communicating its brand’s knowledge and value to its employees as to engender congruent brand perception among them (Smidts et al., 2001; Hatch & Schultz, 2003; Chiang, 2009). Specifically, this is the application of brand communication to the management of internal marketing, which is regarded as a key instrument to the success of internal branding (Punjasri and Wilson, 2007). Simply speaking, brand communication is part of the essential function found in the implementation of internal branding (Bergstrom, Blumenthal and Crothers, 2002; Mahnert and Torres,.

(33) 26 2007). In the past, most of the superiors and managers in service-oriented firms focused on selling the brand to the external customers who are seen as the target audiences of marketing campaigns. However, it is employees (internal customers) that deliver corporate’s brand value to external customers, which could be inferred that corporates need to first explain and disseminate essential brand messages to their employees through brand communication consistently. On this basis, Mitchell (2002). 政治大. argues that “it’s a fact of business that if employees don’t care about or understand. 立. their company’s brands, they will ultimately weaken their organizations.”. ‧ 國. 學. Three objectives of internal branding had been identified by Bergstrom et al.. ‧. (2002), which are (1) communicating the brand effectively to the employees; (2). y. Nat. io. sit. convincing them of its relevance and worth; and (3) successfully linking every job in. al. er. the organization to delivery of the “brand essence”. Accordingly, it indicates that these. n. iv n C hquestion three facts all direct to the important i Uthe corporate effectively e n g cthath how communicates its brand value and delivers vital brand messages to its internal. customers. In addition, brand communication has been recognized as the key factor of success and failure in internal branding (Bergstrom et al., 2002; Mahnert and Torres, 2007). Suggested by Bergstrom et al. (2002), four elements of brand communication include leader example, high frequency, multiple channels and environmental management. In this regard, those who are in charge of brand communication within a.

(34) 27 corporate are supposed to actively interact with employees (Harris and de Chernatony, 2001) and then deliver brand values to them, which would encourage employees to have positive attitudes toward the brand (Chiang, 2009). Besides, in order to motivate employees to identify and even internalize corporate’s brand, it’s necessary to take brand communication as a long-term strategy rather than one-time campaign, in the expectation that brand messages would end up being woven into the fabric of the. 政治大. corporate (Bergstrom et al., 2002; Mitchell, 2002). As for communicative channels,. 立. not only are the channels supposed to be diverse and multiple, but the formation of. ‧ 國. 學. two-way communication is considered to be essential in enhancing the consistency of. ‧. brand perceptions among employees (Harris and de Chernatony, 2001) and also. y. Nat. er. io. sit. assessing how accurately the communication has been understood (Robbins, 1991). However, Mitchell (2002) addressed that when new advertisement or brand. al. n. iv n C U who are in charge of the h e ninternally, achievement is going to be disseminated g c h i those brand always tell employees what to do, rather than marketing the brand concept and value to customer-service representatives. Conversely, under the process of brand management, a corporate is supposed to adopt brand communication to implicitly deliver brand-related norm, value and vision to its employees, which would positively engender altruistic spirit toward the brand among employees (Bergstrom et al., 2002; Chiang, 2009). Therefore, brand communication can be recognized as useful and.

(35) 28 decisive strategy in the context of internal marketing.. 2.2 Employee Psychological Ownership Feelings of possession for tangible or intangible objects are ubiquitous, and also refer to extension of self-concept based on the specific target (Furby, 1978). The term “psychological ownership” was first identified by Pierce, Rubenfeld and Morgan. 政治大. (1991) and then explicitly defined as “a state of mind in which individuals feel as. 立. though the target of ownership (material or immaterial) or a piece of it is ‘theirs.’”. ‧ 國. 學. (Pierce, Kostova and Dirks, 2001) Further, Pierce et al. (2001) proposed three facts of. ‧. psychological ownership, including (1) the feeling of ownership is innately human;. y. Nat. er. io. sit. (2) psychological ownership can occur toward both tangible and intangible objects; and (3) psychological ownership has important emotional, attitudinal and behavioral. al. n. iv n C h e n gAccording effects on those that experience ownership. c h i Uto these facts above,. psychological ownership is an attitude comprising of both cognitive and affective constructs (Pierce et al., 2003). Take a normal phrase for example. “This is my computer!” clearly indicates that both cognitive and affective information are found in this phrase based on affective judgment and abstract belief. It is also argued that perceived possessive feelings would engender affect-driven behaviors (Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004). In this regard, psychological ownership is different from other kinds of.

(36) 29 attitudes that only focus on cognitive feelings of possession, in particular those found in the organization or corporate. In terms of psychological ownership, it also emphasizes the emotional attachment to certain target. Most importantly, these two essences embedded in psychological ownership respond to the argument that psychological ownership satisfies three basic human needs: having a place (a sense of belonging), efficacy and effectance, and self-identity (Pierce et al., 2001). When. 政治大. taking the organizational context into account, psychological ownership usually. 立. applies to employees who experience ownership for the organization (Chi and Han,. ‧ 國. 學. 2008), and at the same time asks the question “How much do I feel this organization. ‧. is mine?” (Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004). However, organizational psychological. y. Nat. er. io. sit. ownership is not the only one state of ownership found in an organization or corporate, the other one is possessive feeling toward corporate brand. As such, when. al. n. iv n C employees possess a positive senseh ofe feelings h i Uthe corporate brand, it signals n g ctoward the emergence of brand psychological ownership among employees (Chiang, 2009). Accordingly, based on the above arguments, we would focus on the illustrations of organizational psychological ownership and brand psychological ownership in the following section.. 2.2.1 Organizational Psychological Ownership and Brand Psychological Ownership. Both the emergence of organizational psychological ownership and brand.

(37) 30 psychological ownership occur in the minds of employees within an organization or corporate. In terms of organizational psychological ownership, it is widely confirmed that it positively correlates with work-related attitudes and behaviors (Vandewalle, Van Dyne, and Kostova, 1995; Eisenberger et al., 1986; Podsakoff et al., 2000; Pierce et al., 2001; Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004; Avey et al., 2009). Thus, organizational psychological ownership can be seen as contributor to the relation between the. 政治大. organization and its members. Based on and extended from research on organizational. 立. psychological ownership, brand psychological ownership comparably refers to the. ‧ 國. 學. state of mind in which employees acquire feelings of possession and further. ‧. experience psychological ownership for the corporate brand (Chiang, 2009). Also,. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Chiang addresses that brand psychological ownership would lead to positive brand behaviors, and verifies its mediating role found in the relation between corporate. al. n. iv n C U organizational h eAccordingly, branding and positive brand behaviors. n g c h i both. psychological ownership and brand psychological ownership exert positive influence on work outcomes at individual and organizational level. As discussed above, both organizational and brand psychological ownerships are not only created in the context of organization or corporate, but their effects on the formation of positive work attitudes and behaviors are significant. However, some disparities still exist between them. Firstly, in terms of satisfying basic needs for.

(38) 31 human (employee), employees with organizational ownership are able to meet the needs of having a sense of place, possessing feelings of efficacy and expressing selfidentity in the organizational setting (Pierce et al., 2001). On the other hand, it is argued that brand psychological ownership is produced in an attempt to satisfy the needs, including a sense of belonging toward the corporate brand, feelings of efficacy and effectance for the corporate brand, and corporate brand image extension (Chiang,. 政治大. 2009). As such, when employees possess feelings of belonging toward corporate. 立. brand, it indicates that employees feel tangible and intangible object (e.g., corporate. ‧ 國. 學. brand) as “Mine” or “Ours” (Pierce et al., 2001). When putting ourselves in the. ‧. context of home, we don’t regard home as an object, but being part of us instead. y. Nat. io. sit. (Heidegger, 1967); similarly, when employees possessively experience ownership for. al. er. the corporate brand and further “live” the brand, they would think the corporate brand. n. iv n C is part of them. In terms of feelingshofeefficacy, h i U have the need to feel n g cemployees. capable of doing things effectively or improving the corporate brand image for the organization. In other words, brand psychological ownership facilitates the feelings of influence over the management of corporate brand. As for corporate brand image extension, it is because employees identify with the brand and think it is “Ours” that they try hard to keep their images consistent with that of corporate brand (Chiang, 2009). In other words, they view tangible and intangible possessions as part of the.

(39) 32 extended self (Furby, 1978; Belk, 1988; Dittmar, 1992). Besides, traits of organizational and brand psychological ownership are also recognized. According to Van Dyne and Pierce (2004), attitudes, self-concept and sense of responsibility are three traits that are closely linked with feelings of possession and ownership. When it comes to brand psychological ownership, there are also three traits proposed by Chiang (2009), including, positive attitude, accountability and identification with the. 政治大. corporate brand. When employees possess feelings of ownership, they feel positively. 立. and act favorably for the target of ownership regardless of tangible or intangible. ‧ 國. 學. (Nuttin, 1987; Van Dyne and Pierce, 2004). In terms of accountability, employees feel. ‧. they are responsible for enhancing or even protecting the corporate brand as if they try. Nat. er. io. sit. y. to defend their own images. It reflects Furby’s argument (1978) that feelings of ownership can trigger a sense of responsibility (accountability) for the entity (the. al. n. iv n C U he corporate brand). Further, employees who ownership for the n possess g c h ipsychological corporate brand would like to identify with the brand’s values and norms addressed by the superiors (Chiang, 2009). Higgins (1997, 1998) suggest that there are two forms of psychological ownership based on the concept of self-regulation system for individuals. One is promotion focus and the other is preventative. Besides, there is no superior psychological ownership than the other because both of them are required to meet.

(40) 33 different needs. However, when it comes to pursuing the goal of best performance practiced by the corporate, most of the employers would like to operate with the promotion focus as to enhance development and improvement. As an employer who promotes promotion-focused approach, he or she is much more inclined to see corporate’s improvement as personal fulfilment (Avey et al., 2009), which indicates that the company would be more willing to adopt internal marketing in an attempt not. 政治大. only to make employees possess psychological ownership for the corporate and its. 立. brand, but to encourage them to act positively and favorably toward the corporate.. ‧ 國. 學. From the perspective of employees, the stronger an employee’s promotive. ‧. psychological ownership for the corporate, the greater the likelihood he or she would. y. Nat. er. io. sit. voluntarily and be willing to transmit the espoused brand messages to the public (Punjaisri and Wilson, 2007; Avey et al., 2009). In the whole picture of an. al. n. iv n C h einternal organization, positive relations among h i U employee psychological n g cmarketing, ownership for the organization and corporate brand (Dirks, Cummings and Pierce, 1996; Chiang, 2009), and the ensuing favorable work attitudes and behaviors have been empirically identified by many scholars mentioned above. Therefore, the focus on creating reciprocal exchange relationship (Chen and Klimoski, 2003; Flynn, 2005) between the company and its employees can be seen as the key to establishing successful organizations..

(41) 34. Chapter 3 Research Methodology. 3.1 Research Methods In this study, we adopt qualitative method to conduct the research. Data collection would be done through primary research whereby this study aims to deeply. 政治大. investigate the practices of internal marketing and the performances of employee. 立. ‧ 國. 學. psychological ownership within Sinyi Realty. In other words, it’s more likely to acquire a greater holistic view and understanding of this case study by means of. ‧. obtaining first-hand materials. In terms of primary research in this study, it refers to. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. in-depth interviews with employees of Sinyi Realty. Specifically, we adopt semi-. i Un. v. structured depth interviews as the primary research method found in the continuum. Ch. engchi. model (Minichiello, Aroni, Timewell, and Alexander, 1995). According to Dunn (2005), semi-structured interview “has some degree of predetermined order but still ensures flexibility in the way issues are addressed by the informant.” Compared to unstructured interviews, researcher in semi-structured interviews would have more control over the topics; on the other hand, structured interviews use closed questions, but there is no fixed range of responses to each question in semi-structured interviews. In addition to open-ended questions that lead.

(42) 35 the semi-structured interview, the other important questions would arise naturally during the interview. In this regard, we would like to use semi-structured depth interviews to further explore the content and context of internal marketing and corresponding employee psychological ownership within Sinyi Realty. Though semistructured depth interview doesn’t offer a route to “the truth” or “standardized answers”, but does offer a route to insights into what respondents do and think. Most. 政治大. importantly, it is argued that semi-structured interview is not only useful for. 立. personal experiences (Longhurst, 2012).. 學. ‧ 國. investigating complex behaviors and emotions, but also collecting a diversity of. ‧. Mostly, researchers would develop open-ended questions for the semi-structured. y. Nat. io. sit. depth interviews. But after consulting with the advisor and the expert, it seems that. al. er. it’s not necessary to design interviewing questions in advance if we aim to dig out the. n. iv n C h e n gthecresearcher uniqueness of the research target; however, h i U is supposed to thoroughly understand the related available literatures and also have a good command of the current situation of this individual case before stepping into the research field. Besides, according to the pretests, making use of designed questions would not be effective in motivating the respondents to tell much more their own stories. On this. basis, the researcher is supposed to develop open-minded attitude toward the research respondents and further explore every piece of clue embedded in the company. After.

(43) 36 all, devil is in the detail. Most importantly, in order not to lose the point and deviate from the research topic, the researcher has to keep the research questions and critical concepts in mind during the process of interviews. In addition, the prior designed open-ended questions (see Appendix A) would be better considered as research references when having interviews with each respondent. Based on literature review, research questions and previous designed questions, an interview guide (see Appendix. 政治大. B) was designed and used in the following conversations. In this regard, though there. 立. are no listed questions one by one presented to the participants, this study is literally. ‧ 國. 學. proceeded by semi-structured depth interviews since the researcher keeps in mind the. ‧. research topics and critical concepts derived from those previous designed questions.. y. Nat. n. er. io. al. sit. 3.2 Research Procedures. i Un. v. Before applying primary research, figuring out the critical insights and concepts. Ch. engchi. deriving from literature review and research questions is the necessity for conducting interviews. Besides, the prior designed interviewing questions could be still used as important references. Keeping critical insights and related research questions in mind, we aim to figure out the practices of internal marketing and the corresponding performances of employee psychological ownership. After being equipped with sufficient background knowledge, confirming the list of interviewees would be the next important step. Since the researcher knows no friend working in Sinyi Realty, it’s.

(44) 37 necessary to ask friends and the teacher for help to introduce appropriate interviewees for this study. Upon finishing one interview, arranging and preliminarily analyzing the interviewing material is better to be done as soon as possible before conducting another interview. By doing this, we could derive some insights and also sort out some doubts for enriching the next coming interview. After collecting all the needed interview materials and going through preliminary. 政治大. analysis of each interview, then the researcher embarks on overall case analysis.. 立. Conducting case analysis is supposed not to be limited to literature review of this. ‧ 國. 學. study. In order to literally and clearly analyze the facts, case analysis has to be simply. ‧. divided into two parts which are internal marketing and employee psychological. y. Nat. er. io. sit. ownership. Therefore, it is possible to include different and unexpected findings instead of following the precise construct of literature review. As for internal. al. n. iv n C marketing, it contains two sections h which e nare h i toUsell” and “how to sell” that g c“what respond to the concept of internally marketing the job and the company to its internal customers. On the other hand, the part of employee psychological ownership consists of organizational and brand psychological ownership. What matters is discovering both disparities and analogies between facts and literatures in the process of case analysis. At last, this study is going to explore the relationships between internal marketing and employee psychological ownership, whereby this study may further.

(45) 38 sort out the derivative propositions. Formation of propositions is expected to help obtain a more explicit overview of company’s general situation in respect of internal marketing and employee psychological ownership. Further, derivative propositions may reveal the current tendency and existing problems as references for the research object. The figure of research procedure is presented below. Besides, interviews were first recorded with a digital audio recorder and then transcribed. Since language use is. 政治大. limited to English, all interviews were finally translated into English.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Figure out related critical concepts primarily derived from literature review, research questions and previous designed questions in an attempt to generate an interview guide. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Confirm the list of interviewees before conducting semi-structured depth interviews. al. n. iv n C U Arrange and preliminarilyhanalyze each before doing the i interview e h n c g next one as to sort out some insights and doubts for the next coming interview. Case Analysis. Derivative Propositions Figure 2. Research Procedures of Present Study.

(46) 39. 3.3 Respondents and Research Instrument. 3.3.1 Respondents. In this study, we aim to conduct semi-structured depth interviews with employees of Sinyi Realty in an attempt to explore the practices of internal marketing and the performances of employee psychological ownership within the company. First. 政治大. of all, who are the employees? Simply speaking, employees of Sinyi Realty are. 立. divided into two parts that some belong to administrative unit and the others are. ‧ 國. 學. attached to sales unit. Further, there are different departments and levels found in each. ‧. unit within Sinyi Realty. In addition, Sinyi Realty invests in many other enterprises. y. Nat. er. io. sit. and businesses that form Sinyi Group. Therefore, this study primarily focuses on employees of Sinyi Realty and also welcome the respondents of other businesses. al. n. iv n C h e nthey invested by Sinyi Realty because mostly h iandUshare resources and g coffer. information with each other. Next, with regard to looking for respondents, we focus on employees who are not new to Sinyi Realty but have worked for several years. This condition would help sort out the appropriate respondents who have taken part in corporate’s internal trainings or activities and also have been through several internal communication processes. Besides, in terms of administrative personnel as respondents, applying this condition would be more likely to find out those who have.

(47) 40 been involved in certain critical events or decision-making processes happened in Sinyi Realty. Since the researcher knows no friend working in Sinyi Realty, it’s necessary to ask friends and the advisor for help to introduce suitable respondents for the interviews. Besides, taken the prior condition into account, the respondents that owned more working experiences at Sinyi Realty are more likely to explicitly outline. 政治大. the practices of internal marketing and express the corresponding psychological. 立. ownership. With the assistance of friends and the advisor, finally there are 11. ‧ 國. 學. confirmed respondents in total that work at different units, departments and levels. ‧. within Sinyi Realty. After asking for the agreements from all the respondents that. Nat. er. io. sit. y. whether they are willing to make their identities public, some of them don’t want to disclose their names and titles. As a result, for the sake of reaching consistency, the. al. n. iv n C personal profiles of all respondentsh would e n be c h i U and their real names would be g concealed displayed in the form of anonymity in this study. The list of all anonymous respondents is presented below.. Table 1 Semi-structured In-depth Interviews Subject ID*. Sex. Position. Interview Date. MH21. M. Realty Agent. July 21, 2014. Second Letter of Last Name H.

(48) 41. FU03. F. MA04A. M. MA04B. Realty Agent. Aug. 3, 2014. U. Manager. Aug. 4, 2014. A. M. Manager. Aug. 4, 2014. A. MI08. M. Store Manager. Aug. 8, 2014. I. MI11A. M. Staff Member. Aug. 11, 2014. I. MI11B. M. Realty Agent. Aug. 11, 2014. I. FH12. F. Aug. 16, 2014. M. Executive. Aug. 29, 2014. Realty Agent. Sep. 1, 2014. y. F. io. sit. ‧ 國. Staff Member (left). Nat. FH01. F. ‧. MA29. 立. 政治大 Manager Aug. 12, 2014. 學. FI16. (left). H I A H. n. al. er. *Subject IDs represent interviewee’s sex-interview date-second letter; e.g. the subject ID for a girl whose second letter of her last name is ”I” and who participated in the interview on Aug. 16 would be “FI16”. Besides, if one subject ID is similar to another, A, B, C… would be added to them as order mechanism to clarify their identities.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 3.3.2 Research Instrument---Interview Design. Generally speaking, in order to smoothly and systematically conduct semistructured depth interviews, it would be better to develop open-ended interviewing questions in advance. Based on several benchmark studies in terms of internal.

(49) 42 marketing including Berry and Parasuraman (1991), Foreman and Money (1995), Kang (2001), and Chiang (2009), 36 interviewing questions pertaining to 4 constructs of internal marketing are created. As for exploring the performances of employee psychological ownership, we refer to several significant studies written by Pierce et al. (2001), Hensen (2004), Avey et al. (2009), Chiang (2009) and Olckers (2013), so other 18 questions are designed as well. However, after discussing with the advisor. 政治大. and further having some pre-interviews to see whether the interviewing designed. 立. questions are useful in conducting the interviews, it can’t seem to thoroughly and. ‧ 國. 學. deeply explore what we pay much attention to and further manifest the uniqueness of. ‧. the individual research target. Therefore, we decide to break down the interviewing. y. Nat. er. io. sit. questions into pieces of related concepts in order to let respondents share much more personal stories and reflections on Sinyi Realty. Based on literature review, research. al. n. iv n C h e n gancinterview questions and previous designed questions, h i U guide (see Appendix B) is. designed in an attempt to properly and deeply discover each individual story and their personal feelings for the company. Most importantly, making good use of the interview guide would be beneficial for making further progress in interviews and collect needed and useful materials from participants. Aside from relying on the interview guide, we must also possess sufficient background knowledge, critical related concepts and an open-minded attitude whenever conducting an interview in.