Need Assignment
After you read the article called “Strategic alignment between relationship marketing and human resource management in financial services organizations” written by Damianos Giannakisa and Michael J. Harkerb
Have to write a paper in which you are assessing your current skills and you develop a plan to improve the skills the article is indicating as very important to be successfully in the financial services industry. You can also use other material to support your paper. Use APA font 12 not less than 8 pages.
Strategic alignment between relationship marketing and human resource management in financial services organizations
Damianos Giannakis a and Michael J. Harker
b *
a Hellenic American University, Athens, Greece;
b Department of Marketing, University of
Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
(Received 28 October 2013; accepted 12 December 2013)
This paper notes the critical importance of financial services firms being able to successfully implement services and relationships orientated marketing strategies. Through summarizing recent literature and outlining strategic practice, the necessity of aligning human resource management (HRM) policies with relationship marketing (RM) to achieve and sustain corporate goals is demonstrated. The results of a set of case studies and managerial interviews with senior retail banking executives from the Greek financial services sector are used to develop a framework by which this might be done. Specifically, the role of the strategically significant Human Capital Chief Enabling Officer as a link between HRM and RM is proposed and defined.
Keywords: relationship marketing; human resource management; strategic alignment; human capital chief enabling officer; financial services; Greece
Introduction
The fundamental understanding of what marketing is, what success looks like and how it
might be achieved is something that has undergone significant change in recent times. The
professional academic body in the USA has gone as far as to make a literal redefinition in
terms of services and relationships (American Marketing Association [AMA], 2004).
Consensus is far from achieved, but what is agreed upon is that the provision of high-
quality services is a basic requirement to ensure survival, let alone dominance in many
sectors (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, 2008b). Financial services organizations such as retail
banks are continuously adopting and adapting relationship marketing (RM) strategies
inside a highly volatile marketing environment in order to build and sustain a competitive
market share, profitable accounts and quality customer portfolios.
This issue is one which has received significant attention in papers previously
published in this journal, with specific attention given to the role technology and
information management systems might play in developing and sustaining a relationally
orientated strategy (Dibb & Meadows, 2004; Ryals & Payne, 2001). More recently, this
journal has also considered the topics of marketing orientation and strategic plan
implementation (Blankson et al., 2013), and very recently the role and significance of line
management in marketing strategy implementation (Ramaseshan, Ishak, & Rabbanee,
2013). This is a line of discussion we wish to maintain, and to extend it further by
considering further the human elements in respect of developing and implementing
relationally orientated strategies and attempting to make a specific contribution in respect
of better structuring management processes.
q 2014 Taylor & Francis
*Corresponding author. Email: michael.harker@strath.ac.uk
Journal of Strategic Marketing, 2014
Vol. 22, No. 5, 396–419, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2013.876082
The key themes of the literature review in this paper are therefore the switch from
product to services/relational orientations and the concept and importance of alignment
within business operations and processes, with special focus on the Strategic Alignment
Model (SAM) presented by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) (see also Henderson,
Venkatraman, & Oldach, 1996) in describing the strategic choices that financial services
line managers face. Attention then turns to extant literature and prior field-research
findings on the strategic alignment of RM and human resource management (HRM)
specifically, as a means of successfully implementing relational corporate-level strategies
where we argue that people within and outside organizations are of critical importance in
relational- and service-oriented and strategizing organizations.
The paper continues by outlining the method and methodology of the primary research
component of this project, namely the development of five in-depth case studies of Greek
retail banks in combination with 20 interviews with senior managers across a range of
business processes and functions (please refer to Appendix 1). The results of the fieldwork
are combined with the emergent ideas and theory from the literature as a means of
reflecting and considering how alignment between marketing and HR might best be
achieved. The specific and original contribution of this paper is the introduction and
definition of a proposed senior management role – that of the Human Capital Chief
Enabling Officer (HCCEO) – which, if adopted appropriately would allow and enhance
alignment between these two critical business functions.
From product to service-centricity
The evolution – some might say revolution – in marketing theory in the last 25 years has
taken it a long way away from its origins (Harker & Egan, 2006). Key figures in the early
development of marketing (Alderson, 1957; McGarry, 1950; McKitterick, 1957) created
‘lists’ of variables deduced from econometric, profit-optimizing equations. This was
labelled as the ‘functionalist school’ of marketing (McGarry, 1950). Herein lie the origins
of the in/famous marketing mix (Borden, 1964) – an abbreviated/truncated subset of
4 variables (McCarthy, 1960) from 12 identified as being strongly correlated with
profitability – product, price, branding, distribution, fact finding and analysis, personal
selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling. For
many years, the primacy of this simple framework was unquestioned, but by the beginning
of the 1990s this was no longer true (Waterschoot & Van den Bulte, 1992). This concern
stemmed from the fact that whilst the original microeconomic variables, derived through
empirical induction, had solid theoretical foundations – in terms of economic theory at
least – the marketing mix had only second-order links to these foundations. Furthermore,
many businesses were operating in situations and markets with characteristics significantly
different from those of North American consumer goods markets – Europe or Asia,
industrial or services markets (Elg & Johansson, 1996). Transactional marketing was
failing to satisfy modern marketing conditions. This issue was and continues to be
exacerbated by the transition of developed economies to being service-based. When
marketing a service, it has long been argued that the objectives should be not just to only
attract, but also to then keep and maintain the customer – to develop a long-term
relationship with them (Bitner, Booms, & Mohr, 1994; Cravens & Piercy, 1994; Grönroos,
1991; Gummesson, 1987). When selling a physical product, the costs of production can be
offset by the purchase. With a service, the majority of costs are often incurred whilst
‘setting-up’ the service (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991; Booms & Bitner, 1981), for example
accountancy and banking. The implication of this is that a longer-term strategy, in
Journal of Strategic Marketing 397
conjunction with placing significant emphasis on customer retention would yield
dividends (Berry, 1995; Grönroos, 1990; Parasuraman, Berry, & Zeithaml 1991; Payne &
Richard, 1993).
For these reasons and others, in 2007 the AMA produced a customer-centric definition
of marketing where the discipline was defined as follows: ‘Marketing is the activity, set of
institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large’. In their
academic work, Vargo and Lusch (2004, 2006, 2008a; Vargo, 2009) – who are key
movers in the AMA – described the derivation of this definition, defending it [primarily]
on the basis that a service- rather than product-focused definition was a more natural and
accurate reflection of the primacy of service concepts in contemporary marketing practice.
Vargo and Lusch (2004, 2008b) suggest that marketing is evolving into a new dominant
logic – one in which relationships and services hold primacy over products. Is a service
part of a relationship, or is a relationship perhaps part of a service? Regardless, both
current services marketing and RM literatures make the case that the people responsible
for service provision and/or customer contact are of very significant importance in respect
to successful implementation of marketing strategy and therefore to the success of the
organization as a whole. The people they meet are critical in the mind of the consumer
when they are assessing the ability of the company to serve them well. People working for
the organization are the ones the customer trusts or does not trust, people in
the organization give good customer service and do the job properly or they do not. It is the
people – not the abstract concept/entity/branding of the firm – who truly learn about the
customers and whom the customers learn about the firm through, it is the people from
whom the customer expects (and sometimes gives to) loyalty, trust and commitment.
To many customers, the firm is its people.
It can be argued, therefore, that a successful service organization must have a focus on
firm–customer relationships and therefore have relationship management at the heart of
tactical marketing processes and strategic corporate philosophy. The implication thereof
is that senior management must give great consideration as to what and who is at the other
end of the relationship to the customer (Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987; Ingram, 1990, 2004;
Levitt, 1983; Swan & Nolan, 1985; Tzokas, Saren, & Kiziridis, 2001). That is, marketing
success will be, to a great extent, the result of successful management of people –
customers outside the business, and front-line staff providing services within. Consider the
implications of Vargo and Lusch’s position. Successful marketing strategy is principally
concerned with developing and retaining competitive advantage through excellent
services marketing. Most fundamentally, excellent services’ marketing is based on
services provision, service provision is based on service providers, and the quality and
ability of service providers is a function of HRM. In short, successful implementation of
marketing requires successful implementation of HR strategies and operational tactics.
The concept of alignment in business
We now move on to outline the concept of alignment in a business process context.
In recent years, Labovitz and Rosansky (1997, p. 5) defined alignment ‘as both a noun and
a verb – a state of being and a set of actions . . . alignment . . . refers to the integration of
key systems and processes and responses to changes in the external environment’. Often
the concept of alignment when used in business literature is a reference to strategic fit
(Smaczny, 2001), strategic match (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 1998) or simply
the interface between two things (van der Zee & de Jong, 1999). In fact, Beal and
D. Giannakis and M.J. Harker398
Yasai-Ardekani (2000, p. 735) identified alignment as ‘moderation, mediation, profile
deviation, gestalts, covariation, and matching’. In recent years, the term ‘alignment’ has
grown in use – especially in HRM literature – as a descriptive idiom to symbolize a range
of management-driven processes towards the accomplishment of strategic goals. This is an
arrangement of groups or forces in relation to one another (Short, 2008, 2009). However,
what this particular definition fails to capture is the magic of alignment. These are all the
extraordinary things that can be achieved when teams start to share the same sense of
purpose. It is the degree of mutual support arising when team members buy into a common
set of assumptions, the shared commitment derived from striving to achieve shared goals;
the elegance that is the by-product of a team balanced in skills and competences (Burdett,
1994). The strategic RM and HRM alignment framework, as it later appears in this paper,
has as its basis a bank’s organizational ability and adaptability to accomplish a ‘strategic
fit’ and ‘functional integration’ (Henderson et al., 1996; Venkatraman & Camillus, 1984)
in two different chronological stages. In this context, the strategic alignment framework
capitalizes on the SAM (as shown in Figure 1) of Henderson and Venkatraman (1993;
Henderson et al., 1996) in describing the strategic choices that managers face when
aligning the corporate business strategy and a business activity – in this case, RM.
Henderson and Venkatraman (1993), in their academic work, developed the SAM to
describe the strategic choices that line managers face when aligning the corporate business
strategy and a function. The basic assumption of the SAM is line management’s ability to
Figure 1. Strategic alignment model of Henderson and Venkatraman. Source: Henderson and Venkatraman (1993).
Journal of Strategic Marketing 399
achieve a strategic fit and functional integration (Venkatraman & Camillus, 1984) between
the models domains, and thereby have an impact on overall business success (Henderson
et al., 1996). SAM can be of value in guiding strategy formulation and implementation
since it helps to prioritize decisions and resource allocation, thus ultimately achieving
strategic alignment (Henderson et al., 1996). SAM conceptually represents the framework
for the HRM and RM strategic alignment framework in a retail financial services context.
Given the SAM, the strategy of a financial services firm is to be viewed in terms of its
strategic positioning in its chosen marketplaces, and confined to external considerations
(Henderson & Venkatraman, 1993). More explicitly, the business scope (see SAM) sets
out the external boundaries of the organization, product and market sectors and segments
to be addressed, the geographical limits and any other relevant constraints on the domain
of operations of the organization. Corporate business governance defines the ways and
means of addressing the chosen business areas (McDonald, 1994). The distinctive
competencies relate to some organizational capabilities that make the business scope and
governance real, actual, and reflect the strengths of the organization as perceived by
external markets – the customers (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993). These authors also
consider the essential capabilities that the organization must have, or have access to, but
not the particular skills of individual employees. This last part (e.g. the impact of specific
skills and competencies of the relational sales-reps towards RM strategy implementation)
deserves our research attention since the co-creation of service represents a significant
value-adding process (Grönroos & Ravald, 2011; Vargo & Lusch, 2004) and reflects on
the sustainability of a competitive advantage of a financial services firm.
We argue that alignment is greatly important in formulating RM strategies as well as in
their implementation, and that RM and HRM might be considered as adjacent paths to a
common destination (e.g. value development) and that explanations and understanding of
human actions, interactions, hierarchy, power, negotiation, learning and development will
be of increasing relevance and significance in marketing management. We now explore
why an RM-focused financial services firm should strategically align RM and HRM.
There is limited extant literature (Chimhanzi, 2004; Chimhanzi & Morgan, 2005;
Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Piercy, 1997a, 1997b) on the empirical implementation of RM
strategies, and this paucity is extended to examinations of the RM–HRM cross-functional
interface. This rather limited research exposure is indicative of the challenges presented in
exploring RM and HRM alignment in practice – especially in the financial services
business. To strategically impact upon firm performance requires aligning the HR system
(internal fit) with strategic goals (external fit). This alignment should establish a closer
relationship between HRM and other key functions – including, of course, marketing.
Legge (1995a, p. 35, 1995b, pp. 66–67) suggests that ‘effective HRM is seen necessarily
to involve a focus upon fostering employee motivation, commitment and development’.
This is a business approach acknowledging the importance of HRM to the aims of a
relational-oriented business, whilst reflecting attempts by management to create a work
environment that emphasizes employee development through practices such as training,
participation and communication, and the importance of having innovative, flexible,
committed employees who are valued resources (Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn Mills, &
Walton, 1984a, 1984b; Boxall, 1992; Boxall & Purcell, 2003; Boxall, Purcell, & Wright,
2007; Guest, 1987, 1997, 2000).
In a relational-oriented financial services firm, it becomes important for HR [as a
management team] to carefully monitor key personnel issues such as the selection and
recruitment of sales-reps, training them and developing their skills, and certainly
periodically evaluating their actual performance based on strategic and hence, on
D. Giannakis and M.J. Harker400
operational objectives. In their academic work, Vargo and Lusch (2004, 2006, 2008b;
Vargo, 2009) claimed that a service- rather than product-focused approach to marketing
was a more natural and accurate reflection of the primacy of service concepts in
contemporary marketing practice. These services are provided by people that consumers
engage with, thus making these relationships the context within which services are
provided. This means that high-quality services need high-quality people, and they must
be recruited, developed and maintained by HR. HR and marketing must be aligned.
Relationship quality: financial services
Hennig-Thurau and Klee (1997, p. 751), whilst reflecting on a customer-centric marketing
concept orientation, consider ‘relationship quality as the degree of appropriateness of a
relationship to fulfill the needs of customers’. Academics define relationship quality as a
bundle of intangible values resulting in an expected long-term relationship between
related parties, which cannot be easily duplicated by competitors (Fruchter & Sigue, 2005;
Levitt, 1981; Wong, Hung, & Chow, 2007). Therefore, relationship quality plays a critical
role in the study of long-term relationship maintenance (Finn, 2005).
No doubt, the financial services sector (e.g. retail banking) is a demanding business
sector. Operators within this sector fully recognize that to survive and thrive requires
firm–client relationships to be developed and maintained as a means of competitive
advantage through added value and switching costs. Sale teams are therefore required to
develop a good and sustainable relationship with their clients, thereby maintaining
institutional sustainability – researchers having concluded that it is very often more
expensive to acquire new customers than to keep existing ones (Reichheld & Sasser,
1990). Further, the development of a strong and intimate series of interactions can improve
customer loyalty, which in turn leads to increased profits for the firm (Athanassopoulou,
2006). Trust is now accepted as one of the main factors in influencing a customer to
develop and maintain a relationship with the service provider (Liang & Wang, 2006;
Shekhar & Gupta, 2008). Ndubisi (2007) considers trust to be a key determinant of the
quality of buyer–seller relationships. Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990, p. 70) indicate that
high-relationship quality ‘means that the customer is able to rely on the sales-rep’s integrity
and has confidence in the salesperson’s future performance because the level of past
performance has been consistently satisfactory’. Summarizing the literature on relation-
ship quality in financial services, Rajaobelina and Bergeron (2009) (see Table 1) consider
the impact of a service provider’s level of knowledge and experience with regard to the focal
product or service, concluding that experienced and knowledgeable employees can reduce
customers’ perceived uncertainty and anxiety, which may lead to higher customer
satisfaction and trust.
Research methodology
This paper has so far conceptually explored the reasons ‘why a relationally oriented bank
should strategically align RM and HRM’, and brought attention to the idea that HRM
policies, practices and procedures can create organizational value generally and boost
RM-oriented sales efforts specifically.
We now turn to the primary research aspect of this project. From an exploratory
research stance, this is a topic dealing with unknown variables and contexts within a social
environment, as is the case for competitive banks. Therefore, the aim of such a qualitative
research approach was to produce insights rather than measure, to explore rather than
Journal of Strategic Marketing 401
pin down. On that basis, it was decided to produce a series of case studies in an attempt to
meet the following research objectives:
(1) Explore the reasons why an RM-focused financial services firm should
strategically align RM and HRM;
(2) Explore the process how and why HRM creates organizational value and boosts
RM performance.
Yin (2003, p. 14) defines case study research methodology as ‘an empirical enquiry
that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident’. Yin’s definition
supports our rationale behind the adoption of the use of five Greek retail banks to develop
cases as the research methodology for the purposes of this paper. Brief outlines of these
banks are available in Appendix 1. Each case incorporated the examination of four
business roles (Triangulation effect) through interviews with senior management, leading
to a total of 20 interviews. The four prescribed business roles were the HR, Marketing and
Sales Directors and a sales-rep in a business-to-consumer (B2C) point-of-sale role. The
breakdown of the 20 interviews by bank and role is given in the table within Appendix 1.
The five finally selected retail banks that took part in the study were competing B2C
retail banks. In the light of this, the investigators decided to incorporate into the cases
topics, facts, figures and issues that represented their growth momentum (e.g. assets under
management, loans and deposits development) over a five-year period and thus examined
performance indicators as well as the level of organizational change and uncertainty in the
firms’ environment. By selecting extreme cases, the aim was to amplify differences that
might exist, thereby making these differences easier to observe and understand for the
reader. The two following stages involved the preparation and the actual data collection
process. In accordance with Yin’s (2003) suggested process, there were two major
data analysis strategies: (1) relying on theoretical propositions where the researchers
followed the theoretical propositions that led to the empirical case study. The original
objectives and design of the case study research method are based on such propositions,
which in process reflect the research questions, reviews of the literature and new insights;
and (2) developing a descriptive framework for organizing the case study. Therefore,
the investigators adhered to the following major principles – stages of multiple case
analyses producing a comparative and contrasting data analysis (see Appendix 1) making
use of all the relevant evidence collated during the field research process.
In this respect, the investigators considered major rival interpretations, and explored
each of them in turn. The analysis addressed the most significant aspect of each case study
out of the sample set – driven by the investigators’ theoretical research objectives. The
analysis drew on the researchers’ prior expert knowledge in the area of the case study, but
in an unbiased and objective manner (Rowley, 2002).
Discussion
Based on the field research findings (see Table 2) and the previously discussed literature,
we now present a systematic RM and HRM strategic alignment framework in support of
implementing and sustaining RM strategy.
Conceptually, this framework develops in two distinct chronological phases. The first
alignment phase calls for functional integration of RM and HRM (see Figure 2) and the
second calls for a systematic interaction between the centrally located HRM, the RM
specialists, line sales, the HCCEO (a critical new HR role to enhance the success of
D. Giannakis and M.J. Harker402
T a b le
1 .
L it e ra tu re
o n re la ti o n sh ip
q u a li ty : c o n c e p ts , a n te c e d e n ts , c o n se q u e n c e s a n d c o n te x ts .
A u th o rs
R e la ti o n sh ip
q u a li ty
A n te c e d e n ts
C o n se q u e n c e s
C o n te x t
C ro sb y , E v a n s, a n d
C o w le s (1 9 9 0 )
T ru st , sa ti sf a c ti o n
S im
il a ri ty , e x p e rt is e , re la ti o n a l
se ll in g
N o n e
W h o le
L if e In su ra n c e
p o li c y h o ld e rs
in U S A
M o rg a n a n d H u n t
(1 9 9 4 )
C o m m it m e n t, tr u st
In te r- fi rm
re la ti o n sh ip s, e ff e c ti v e
c o m m u n ic a ti o n , sh a re d v a lu e s
In te r- fi rm
tr u st , c o o p e ra ti o n
R e la ti o n sh ip
q u a li ty
st a n d a rd s
im p ro v e m e n t
W ra y , P a lm
e r, a n d
B e jo u (1 9 9 4 )
T ru st , sa ti sf a c ti o n
E th ic s, e x p e rt is e , re la ti o n sh ip
d u ra ti o n , se ll in g o ri e n ta ti o n ,
c u st o m e r o ri e n ta ti o n
N o n e
F in a n c ia l se rv ic e s
S m it h (1 9 9 8 )
T ru st , c o m m it m e n t,
sa ti sf a c ti o n
R e la ti o n sh ip
d u ra ti o n
N o n e
3 6 6 m e m b e rs
o f p u rc h a si n g
m a n a g e m e n t A ss o c ia ti o n o f
C a n a d a
K im
, L e e , a n d Y o o
(2 0 0 6 )
T ru st , sa ti sf a c ti o n
C u st o m e r o ri e n ta ti o n ,
c o m m u n ic a ti o n , re la ti o n sh ip
b e n e fi ts
C o m m it m e n t, lo y a lt y , w o rd
o f m o u th
8 8 7 d in n e r p a tr o n s a t 2 1 lu x u ry
re st a u ra n ts in
K o re a
M a c in to sh
(2 0 0 7 )
T ru st , sa ti sf a c ti o n
C u st o m e r o ri e n ta ti o n , e x p e rt is e
W o rd
o f m o u th , lo y a lt y
2 2 0 C a n a d ia n b u si n e ss
tr a v e ll e rs
W o n g , H u n g , a n d
C h o w
(2 0 0 7 )
T ru st , sa ti sf a c ti o n
In fo rm
a ti o n sh a ri n g
W il li n g n e ss
to re fe r, a n ti c ip a ti o n
o f fu tu re
in te ra c ti o n
2 0 7 c o n su m e rs
o f fi n a n c ia l
se rv ic e s in
H o n g K o n g
C h e n g , C h e n , a n d
C h a n g (2 0 0 8 )
T ru st , sa ti sf a c ti o n
C u st o m e r o ri e n ta ti o n , e x p e rt is e ,
in te rp e rs o n a l re la ti o n sh ip
C o m m it m e n t, lo y a lt y
A ir li n e re la ti o n sh ip
q u a li ty
Journal of Strategic Marketing 403
T a b le
2 .
D a ta
a n a ly si s: k e y fi n d in g s.
R e so u rc e s
F ir m
A F ir m
B F ir m
C F ir m
D F ir m
E
S tr a te g ic
o ri e n ta ti o n
S tr o n g sa le s fo c u s w it h
p a ra ll e l R M
p ra c ti c e s
S tr o n g sa le s fo c u s w it h
p a ra ll e l R M
p ra c ti c e s
R e la ti o n a l o ri e n ta ti o n
D e v e lo p in g R M
S tr o n g re la ti o n a l
o ri e n ta ti o n
P e rf o rm
a n c e
m a n a g e m e n t
p ra c ti c e s
F u ll y a p p li c a b le
F u ll y a p p li c a b le
L o w
p ra c ti c e s
L o w
p ra c ti c e s
F u ll y a p p li c a b le
M a rk e ti n g a n d
H R M
st ru c tu re
P ro d u c t m a n a g e m e n t in
d is ti n c t b u si n e ss
u n it s
P ro d u c t m a n a g e m e n t in
d is ti n c t b u si n e ss
u n it s
S tr a te g ic
m a rk e ti n g ,
o p e ra ti o n a l m a rk e ti n g
L in e sa le s
P ro d u c t m a n a g e m e n t in
b u si n e ss
u n it s, st ra te g ic
m a rk e ti n g u n it
C e n tr a l H R M , fu ll
a p p li c a ti o n o f b u si n e ss
p a rt n e r
C e n tr a l H R M , fu ll
a p p li c a ti o n o f b u si n e ss
p a rt n e r
C e n tr a l H R M , L im
it e d ,
h o w e v e r d e v e lo p in g
a p p li c a ti o n o f B u si n e ss
p a rt n e r
C e n tr a l H R M
C e n tr a l H R M
K n o w le d g e
m a n a g e m e n t
Y e s, sa le s- re p s’
(t e c h n ic a l
sk il ls ), so m e lo n g -t e rm
le a rn in g
Y e s, sa le s- re p s’
d e v e lo p m e n t o f te c h n ic a l
sk il ls
Y e s, sa le s- re p s’
(t e c h n ic a l
sk il ls ), e v id e n c e o f
re la ti o n a l c o m p e te n c ie s
Y e s, sa le s- re p s’
d e v e lo p m e n t o f te c h n ic a l
a n d re la ti o n a l sk il ls a n d
c o m p e te n c ie s
Y e s, sa le s- re p s’
d e v e lo p m e n t o f te c h n ic a l
a n d re la ti o n a l sk il ls a n d
c o m p e te n c ie s
L e a rn in g
o rg a n iz a ti o n
Y e s, h ig h -r e g u la to ry
a n d
p ro c e d u ra l e n v ir o n m e n t
Y e s, h ig h -r e g u la to ry
a n d
p ro c e d u ra l e n v ir o n m e n t
Y e s, h ig h -r e g u la to ry
a n d
p ro c e d u ra l e n v ir o n m e n t
Y e s, h ig h -r e g u la to ry
a n d
p ro c e d u ra l e n v ir o n m e n t
Y e s, h ig h -r e g u la to ry
a n d
p ro c e d u ra l e n v ir o n m e n t
M a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s
E v id e n c e o f d e v e lo p in g
m a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s a n d a n a ly si s, lo w
sh a ri n g
E v id e n c e o f d e v e lo p in g
m a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s a n d a n a ly si s
E v id e n c e o f d e v e lo p in g
m a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s a n d a n a ly si s,
p a rt ia l sh a ri n g
L a c k o f a d e q u a te
m a rk e t
in te ll ig e n c e sy st e m s
E x c e ll e n t m a rk e t
in te ll ig e n c e sy st e m s,
in fo rm
a ti o n a n a ly se d a n d
sy st e m a ti c a ll y sh a re d
S a le s- re p s’
re la ti o n sh ip
q u a li ty
to th e b u y e r
S a le s- re p ’s
ro le
id e n ti fi c a ti o n
T e c h n ic a l sp e c ia li st
p ro d u c t/ se rv ic e -f o c u se d
T e c h n ic a l sp e c ia li st
p ro d u c t/ se rv ic e -f o c u se d
S a le s c o n su lt a n t id e n ti ty
(r e la ti o n a l- fo c u se d )
S a le s c o n su lt a n t id e n ti ty
(r e la ti o n a l- fo c u se d )
S a le s c o n su lt a n t id e n ti ty
(r e la ti o n a l- fo c u se d )
C li e n t k n o w le d g e
(B 2 C )
D e v e lo p e d b y th e u se
o f
p e rs o n a l b a n k in g a n d
m a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s
D e v e lo p e d b y th e u se
o f
m a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s
L im
it e d c li e n t k n o w le d g e
L im
it e d c li e n t k n o w le d g e
E x c e ll e n t – a d e q u a te
m a rk e t in te ll ig e n c e
sy st e m s in
p la c e
E x p e rt is e
Y e s
Y e s
Y e s
D e v e lo p in g
D e v e lo p in g
D. Giannakis and M.J. Harker404
H R M ’s
ro le
in c re a ti n g o rg a n iz a ti o n a l v a lu e
S a le s- re p s’
re c ru it m e n t a n d
se le c ti o n sy st e m s
A li g n m e n t o f H R M
a n d
sa le s
A li g n m e n t o f H R M
a n d
sa le s
A li g n m e n t o f H R M
a n d
sa le s
A li g n m e n t o f H R M
a n d
sa le s
A li g n m e n t o f H R M
a n d
sa le s
S a le s- re p s tr a in in g
a n d d e v e lo p m e n t
sy st e m s
L e a rn in g is su p p o rt e d
(t e c h n ic a l sk il ls )
L e a rn in g is su p p o rt e d
(t e c h n ic a l sk il ls )
L e a rn in g is su p p o rt e d
(t e c h n ic a l sk il ls )
L e a rn in g e n v ir o n m e n t
(p a ra ll e l te c h n ic a l a n d
re la ti o n a l sk il ls )
L e a rn in g is su p p o rt e d
(p a ra ll e l te c h n ic a l a n d
re la ti o n a l sk il ls )
S a le s- re p s re w a rd
sy st e m s
Y e s, li n e sa le s d e c id e
Y e s, li n e sa le s d e c id e
Y e s, li n e sa le s d e c id e
Y e s, li n e sa le s d e c id e
Y e s, li n e sa le s d e c id e
B u si n e ss
p a rt n e r
st a tu s
H R d o t li n e m a n a g e r
si tt in g in
a ll sa le s
m e e ti n g s, p a rt n e r in
st ra te g y e x e c u ti o n ,
e m p lo y e e c h a m p io n
B u si n e ss
p a rt n e r in te ra c ts
w it h b o th
li n e a n d sa le s-
re p s’
p o rt fo li o /e m p lo y e e
c h a m p io n a n d c h a n g e
a g e n t
P ro fe ss io n a l p a th
a d v is o rs /a d m in is tr a ti v e
e x p e rt a n d e m p lo y e e
c h a m p io n
N /A
c e n tr a l H R M
se rv ic e s
N /A
c e n tr a l H R M
se rv ic e s, d e v e lo p in g
P ra c ti c a l
in te ll ig e n c e
L a rg e ly
e x te n d e d
D e v e lo p in g
D e v e lo p in g
N o n e
N o n e
R e la ti o n sh ip
to li n e
m a n a g e m e n t
D o tt e d to
re ta il li n e
m a n a g e m e n t a n d H R M
B e lo n g s to
a se p a ra te te a m
o f th e c e n tr a l H R M
D ir e c t
T e a m
w o rk
T e a m w o rk
Journal of Strategic Marketing 405
strategic alignment) and the relational sales-reps in a B2C retail context (see Figure 3).
The chronological distance between planning, programming and implementation of the
two distinct RM and HRM alignment phases depends on:
(1) the corporate life cycle;
(2) the stage of maturity of a bank and line management involvement into relational
sales-rep’s HR cycle (recruitment, selection and placement, training and
development, assessment);
(3) the complexity of the structure of internal corporate activities;
(4) the complexity of relevant stakeholders’ roles; and finally
(5) the determination of line management to invest in a customer-centric business
approach.
Drawing on the original strategic alignment framework as a basis (see Figure 1), the
vertical linkage ‘strategic fit’ concerns the external business environment in which a bank
competes and equally the internal environment in which it operates. The horizontal
linkage at the integration phase denotes the RM and HRM interdepartmental integration in
a relational-oriented bank. As a result, integration takes into consideration a relational
strategic orientation, optimum adoption of marketing and HRM infrastructures in
accomplishing best RM strategies.