Abstract
D.Phil. (Leadership in Performance and Change)
Many employees do not associate with their company's brand, because there is a gap between what they experience and perceive and what their company conveys about the brand. The external brand suffers as a result. Company leaders who fail to recognise the importance of internal branding and the need to align internal branding with external branding are primarily responsible for this.
An initial literature review of the phenomenon led to the question of how the concrete experiences and views of managers of an organisation with regard to branding can be explored so as to develop a model of the alignment of internal and external branding. The question was answered by means of a study of managers of a South African organisation.
The objectives were to use qualitative research to capture and unravel the experiences and views of the managers, to study the work of prominent scholars in the relevant study field in order to infer theoretical constructs and demarcate research findings that are relevant to understanding the managers' experiences and viewpoints, and finally to develop a model of branding that integrates the everyday experiences and viewpoints of the managers with the scholarly concepts.
I opted for the modernistic qualitative approach, presented my research philosophy (ontology and epistemology) and key scientific beliefs (my position as to the use of literature and theory, and research ethics), and described the key decisions I took during the research process.
The study was conducted in a leading South African motor retail company, which operates countrywide in more than 100 wholly-owned dealerships. Ten leaders of the company were interviewed, mainly during unstructured interviews, and detailed data were obtained. These data were complemented with observations, field notes, unsolicited essays and company documents. I used a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) program, namely Nvivo 9, to assist me in sorting the comprehensive data set. I analysed the data with grounded theory's open, axial and selective coding. Altogether 36 themes regarding the company's branding and brand leadership emerged during open coding. With the aid of axial coding, the 36 open codes were grouped into 15 broad themes in the first round of axial coding, and consolidated into 6 core categories in the second round of axial coding. Having identified categories, properties and themes, I moved on to selective coding so as to find the core construct of the study, namely: the importance of the role of leadership in internal and external branding.
Using Mouton and Marais's (1990) analytical "tools" to illuminate phenomena and Schutz's (1962) first-order and second-order constructs typology, I developed the Leadership and Brand Alignment Model (LBAM). More particularly, I integrated the first-order constructs (the participants' experiences and views) with the second-order constructs derived from theoretical discourse and research findings.
The study contributes to theory by proposing the LBAM. Its methodological contribution lies in the application of grounded theory to create the model, being the first attempt of this nature in this field in South Africa. The successful use of Nvivo 9 instead of Atlas pi paves the way for the use of Nvivo 9 for data ordering and analysis in qualitative and grounded theory research in this country. In terms of a practical contribution, the study reiterates the need for synergy between the human resource department and the marketing department.
The LBAM sheds light on the steps leaders should take to ensure that internal branding takes place in their organisations so as to produce satisfied customers. It also underscores that the responsibility for efficient internal organisational processes rests squarely on the shoulders of a company’s leaders.
It is recommended that the LBAM be verified both in South Africa and abroad, that employees' views on company leaders' branding performance be explored so as to determine the success of branding, and that the relationship between brand performance, company performance and time be subjected to further research to establish how length of time impacts on brand and company performance. The validity of the employee-brand link and the suggestion that a brand is internalised when organisational socialisation establishes a fit between individuals' values and brand values should also be tested by further investigation.