Effect of internal marketing on knowledge sharing and organisational effectiveness in the hotel industry

Abstract

The purpose of this empirical study was to examine and justify the concept that knowledge management needs to be brought into the internal marketing (IM) field, and to investigate how communication media affect knowledge sharing (KS) and organisational effectiveness (OE). This empirical research concerns 499 usable questionnaires from employees of globally managed or franchised hotels in Taiwan. Structural equation modelling results show that the communication media of IM campaigns – conversation – significantly affected KS. This enables front-line employees to provide the right company offerings to external customers at their first encounter. Furthermore, it contributes to the reinforcement of employee competencies and enhances the quality of customer service during the service encounter and, thus, can provide a sustained advantage in market competitiveness and OE.

Keywords:

• internal marketing
• knowledge sharing
• organisational effectiveness
• communication media