Employees commitment to brands in the service sector: Luxury hotel chains in Thailand

Received (in revised form): 21st November, 2007

NARUMON KIMPAKORN
obtained her PhD and is a university lecturer of Chiangmai University, Thailand. She teaches marketing management, service quality management and marketing research. Her le of study and research interest includes services marketing and management, and service branding.

GERARD TOCQUER
obtained his PhD from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France. He teaches service design, as well as strategic brand management. His research interests include service innovation as well as the design of customers experiences in services. He is the co-author of several books on service marketing and tourism marketing.

Keywords

Abstract

In the past, many service brands have applied a consumer-goods approach to branding to respond employee commitment; to a more competitive environment. This approach emphasises the role of advertising in building a service branding; internal branding; internal marketing strong brand, but underestimates the role played by employees in developing the brand during their interactions with customers. More recently, the development of models that provide an understanding of the process of building a powerful service brand has emphasised the role of employees and their contribution to enhance brand equity. The role of employees in building the brand and making the brand come alive is seen as essential. Employees must be committed to demonstrating the brand values (as expressed by top management) each time a customer interacts with the brand. The present research explores employees brand commitment in the hotel industry in a highly competitive market (the 5-star hotel category in Bangkok). Employees brand commitment is dened as the extent to which employees experience a sense of identication and involvement with the brand values of the company they work for. The dimensions of employer brand (the organisations image as seen through the eyes of associates and potential hires) are used as independent variables for explaining the level of employees commitment to their companys brand.

Journal of Brand Management (2009) 16, 532544. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550140; published online 5 December 2008

INTRODUCTION
Narumon Kimpakorn Faculty of Business Administration Chiangmai University 239 Huaw Kaew Road Meuang District Chiang Mai Province 50200, Thailand Tel: + 66 53 942134 ext. 110 Fax: + 66 53 892692 E-mail: narumon@ba.cmu.ac.th

Today, the proliferation of brands, the fragmentation of media, the poverty of customer attention and the specicities of services have increased the complexity of differentiating service brands, with the risk that many services become mere commodities. The old formula consisting of using traditional consumer goods
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branding tools to leverage the service brand seems to have serious limitations. In the experience economy,1 each point of contact between the brand and its customers is an opportunity to communicate brand values and to enhance the brand. Many scholars and consultants have emphasised the specic role of employees
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in building the service brand and making the brand come alive. They have illustrated how employees can enhance positively the perceptions that consumers have of the service brand and how a powerful service brand is formed not only through the support of traditional marketing activities but also by the staff activities during service encounter.212 The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of employees commitment to their companys brand and to examine the factors that inuence this commitment. To explore these factors, we examine the relations between the brand as perceived by employees and the ability of employees to support the brand and become brand ambassadors. The coherence between identity and image is a fundamental condition for building a powerful brand.1316 The brand must be true to its identity or, in other words, it should not have any gap between brand identity and brand image. To ensure that the brand is true, it is critical that employees not only understand the brand values, as expressed by top management, but also practice these values during service encounter. In the absence of employees commitment, the brand values cannot be aligned with the customer experience and therefore each touch point between the brand and its customers is characterised by a lack of consistency. This present research was conducted in the context of the highly competitive hotel industry in Thailand, and specically in the 5-star hotel category. The research questions are as follows: Are there differences between hotels regarding their employees commitment to the brand to support and promote their brands? What are the dimensions of the employer brand?

How does the employer brand as perceived by employees explain their commitment to the brand?

LITERATURE REVIEW Employees brand commitment

If employees represent a source of brand equity for services, their commitment in supporting the brand should be a priority for top management.17 Employee commitment to the organisation has been covered comprehensively in the management literature.1824 In the literature, commitment is usually dened as employee effort, measured by job performance and the frequency with which employees consider leaving the organisation. Most research on employee commitment emphasises the affective dimension, that is, the extent to which employees experience a sense of identication and involvement with an organisation. Some scholars like Iverson and Mcleod,25 Heffner and Rentsch26 for example dene employee commitment to organisational values as a willingness to exert additional efforts to achieve the goals of the organisation. In the present research, employees brand commitment is dened as the degree to which employees identify and are involved with their service brand, are willing to exert additional efforts to achieve the goals of the brand and are interested in remaining with the service organisation.

Employer brand
The concept of brand has its roots in the consumer good eld and is often dened with a customer perspective. It is a collection of associations in the mind of a customer; these associations are connected to a brand name or a symbol. The value
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of these associations, their uniqueness and relevance are an indication of the brand power and dene its brand equity. More recently, some authors like Barrow and Mostley,27 Sartain and Shuman28 have investigated the functions of a brand, not in the customers mind, but in those of employees, with the idea that the brand also exists in other stakeholders minds. Ambler and Barrow29 introduced the concept of an employer brand. An employer brand is an organisations image as seen through the eyes of its actual and potential employees and should not be confused with the consumers brand. The authors dened the brand for employees, as a package of functional, economic and psychological benets provided by employment, and identied with the employing organisation. The central concept adopted by these researchers is the need to build an employer brand with the power to attract and retain the best employees. Therefore, the objective of employer branding is to convince employees that their organisation is a good workplace, to retain them and ensure both their understanding of the organisations goals and commitment to them.2932 In turn, these employees will become guardians of the brand image, as the companys culture becomes ingrained in their hearts and minds. They hopefully turn into true believers and advocates of the brand. The key is to ensure that employees think about the brand consciously and actively consider the brands interests and welfare as they make decisions.33,34 The process of employer branding can be viewed as a holistic one, which presents the way in which the organisation develops its employees positive attitude and commitment with the organisation. The literature review on employer brand reveals that both a human resource and a marketing perspective inspire the
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authors. Most articles examine the process of building a strong brand in the mind of employees in order to select and recruit the best talents and obviously to retain them within the organisation.33,3538 It also reveals that very few have so far investigated the way in which employees perceive the brand that they work for. One of these exceptions, Sullivan,31 identies ve factors that inuence employee perceptions of an employer brand, including the organisational culture, management style, quality of current employees, current employment image and impressions of the product. In order to develop a better understanding of the employer brand concept and its dimensions, we conducted a twostep exploratory research project: (1) A set of in-depth interviews was conducted with hotel general managers, marketing and human-resource directors to explore their understanding of the employer brand concept. The results revealed that the concept of employer branding has been applied widely in all organisations. Use of the term employer brand, however, was not common in the organisations. The hotels are more likely to present their understanding of the concept through the practice of human resource management, organisational climate, leadership style, internal organisational communication and external marketing. In luxury hotels, the service culture is fundamental and the appropriate attitude was communicated clearly to every employee in the organisations. We observed that, from the perspective of hotel managers, the factors contributing to the development of employer brands were similar to the set of factors described in the literature cited above. The dimensions, through which the hotel established the brand in the minds of employees, are related to human resource management,
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top management practices and marketing activities. (2) A set of focus groups to explore the dimensions used by hotel employees to perceive the employer brand. The three focus groups were conducted in Thai and all discussions were recorded, with respondent permission. A number of employer brand dimensions were revealed in the interviews. These dimensions were similar to those found in the human resource management and internal marketing literature.37,3942 The ndings indicate that when employees talk about the employer brand, they talk not only about the brand in the context of a place to work but also about the way in which the external customers experience the brand. These focus groups help us to identify the attributes of the employer brand as perceived by employee in the Thai context. We identied four main attributes, including employee experience with the employer brand, how the brand appears to customers, as perceived by employees, employee knowledge of the

brand and employer brand differentiation. These four dimensions (see Figure 1) are used to explain the level of employee brand commitment. A description of the four dimensions is provided below.

The employer brand as experienced by employees

When employees think about the employer brand, they rst consider the way in which they experience the brand in their daily work. Their experiences are inuenced largely by the company management style, human resource management practices and cross-functional coordination. This experience as employees shapes their perceptions and behaviour.37,41

Customer brand as perceived by employees

Employee perceptions of the external company image inuence both employee actions4345 and the level of employee commitment to the company objectives.46

The employer brand as experienced by employees

The employer brand and its competitors

Employer Brand

Customer brand (as perceived by employees)

Employees brand knowledge (brand identity)

Figure 1

Dimensions of the employer brand as perceived by employees

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Moreover, when employees nd the customer brand image to be positive, they are more likely to identify with the brand.47 As members of the company, the employee perceptions are inuenced by what they think external actors think of them as a brand. It is important to note, however, that employee perceptions of the customers brand image are not necessarily the same as the image that the customers actually have of the company.43,44

needs and expectations and employee understanding of their responsibility to deliver the brand promise. Brand identity (vision, values and positioning), as stated by top management, is a useful framework for ensuring that most employees share a common understanding of the brand. When brand values are well communicated and assimilated by employees, employees can then show their commitment to the brand by aligning their behaviour according to the values.34,50,51

The employer brand and its competitors

In the hotel industry, there is erce competition on the labour market. Employees are often lured by benets packages offered by new hotels. The main purpose of employer branding is to create a perception in the mind of employees that the brand is unique relative to its competitors and that the company is a good place to work. The distinctiveness of the brand allows the employer to acquire distinctive human capital and ensure that it supports the brand values. Symbolic benets of the employer brand, such as innovativeness or prestige, can be useful for developing a favourable employer brand image. This is the case, because, within the same industry, jobrelated factors are often similar and it is therefore difcult for the employers to differentiate themselves as employers from their competitors.48 The concept of identity can help the company to establish some real differentiation from its competitors in employees minds.49

HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Based on our literature analysis and exploratory research, we formulated the following hypotheses: H1: Hotels can be differentiated through employees commitment to the brand. There is a relationship between employees brand knowledge and employees brand commitment. There is a relationship between customers brand image as perceived by employees and employees brand commitment. There is a relationship between the perception by employees of the employer brand relative to its competitors and employees brand commitment. There is a relationship between employer brand as experienced by employees and employees brand commitment.

H2:

H3:

H4:

H5:

Employees brand knowledge

The nal dimension identied through the qualitative research is the brand knowledge provided to employees. Such brand knowledge has three dimensions: brand meaning, knowledge of customer
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Figure 2 depicts a structural model tested in this study that proposes a link between the employer brand dimensions and employees brand commitment.
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Employees brand knowledge

H2 Hotels differences

Customer brand as perceived by employees

H1 H3 Employee brand commitment

The employer brand and its competitors

H4

H5 The employer brand as experienced by employees

Figure 2 A structural model proposing a link between employer brand dimensions and employee brand commitment

METHODOLOGY
In this study, the target population comprised leading luxury hotel employees. The survey was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand, with a focus on 5-star hotels. Over the last ten years, the hotel industry in Thailand has experienced very substantial growth and most global luxury hotels brands are competing intensely for both customers and employees. In order to encourage the participation of these hotels in the survey, a letter was rst sent to the general manager of each hotel chain general, explaining the objectives of the research and asking them as to whether they would like to participate in the study. Five hotels nally agreed to participate. A covering letter emphasising the anonymity and condentiality of the study and a questionnaire were then distributed to the employees. A total of 320 questionnaires were returned and checked by the researchers to ensure that the questionnaires were valid and usable; 280 were used for data analysis.

MEASUREMENT AND SCALE RELIABILITY

The measures were adapted from previous studies in HR management and marketing,

as well as interviews with luxury hotel employees and some business professionals from relevant groups. These included service brand specialists and human resource management academics who were knowledgeable about the issues dealt with in the study. In addition, the opinions of academics were used to establish content validity. Participants indicated their response on a ve-point Likert-type scale with the anchors (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was attempted to reduce the number of items for each variable. The results indicated that the items in each variable are loaded into its variable at 0.67 or higher. Furthermore, an Alpha (Cronbach), a model of internal consistency, based on the average inter-item correlation, was used to analyse the reliability of all items. The results showed that the items measuring in each dimension after performing the factor analysis had an Alpha equal to or above 0.8. The items used for measuring both employees brand commitment and the employer brand dimensions were generated from the literature analysis and
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exploratory research with hotel managers and employees to ensure that they t with the Thai context (see the appendix).

RESULTS Sample prole

The data were obtained from 280 questionnaires completed by employees with a range of levels and functions, all of whom work for one of ve luxury 5-star hotels. Most respondents (84.2 per cent) were in the 2040 age range and only about 15.8 per cent were between 40 and 60 years old or above. More than half (67.7 per cent) of the employees had worked at their particular hotel for more than two years. A total of 52.8 per cent were well educated (Bachelors degree or higher). This high level of education is usual for 5-star hotels with international guests. Nearly half (46.8 per cent) of the employees interviewed had worked as front-line staff; the other group of employees were in the back ofce. This nature of work is the characteristic of the hotel industry.

commitment to their brand, a univariate analysis of variance was conducted. The result (see Table 1) revealed a signicant difference between hotels with respect to their employees brand commitment (Fvalue = 20.620, sig. = 0.000). These results support H1. In order to analyse the relationships between employees brand commitment and the dimensions of the employer brand, we consider employees brand commitment as the dependent variable and the dimensions of employer branding as the independent variables. All the constructs in this study were measured from the employee perspective. The means, standard deviations and correlations for the constructs are shown in Table 2. As expected, the antecedents are related to brand commitment. There are signicant positive relationships between brand

Table 1 ANOVA table on employees brand commitment Independent variable Intercept Hotel brand Error d.f. Mean square 4,037.211 9.512 0.461 F Sig.

The difference in brand commitment according to hotel brand

In order to test the hypothesis on the different levels of hotel employees
Table 2

1 4 275

8751.536 20.620

0.000 0.000

R2 = 0.231 (Adjusted R2 = 0.220). Dependent variable: Employees commitment to the brand.

Mean, standard deviation and correlations for all variables Mean SD 0.7688 0.5754 0.6876 0.7507 0.7688 Y 1.000 0.577** 0.704** 0.639** 0.816** X1 X2 X3 X4

Y X1 X2 X3 X4

3.9652 4.3152 4.0839 4.0893 3.6416

1.000 0.690** 0.634** 0.557**

1.000 0.792** 0.709**

1.000 0.630**

1.000

Note: X1 means employees brand knowledge; X2 means customer brand as perceived by employees; X3 means the employer brand and its competitors; X4 means the employer brand as experienced by employees; Y means Employee commitment to the brand. **p < 0.01.

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commitment and the dimensions of employer brand, that is, employees brand knowledge (r = 0.577, p < 0.01), customer brand as perceived by employees (r = 0.704, p < 0.01), the employer brand and its competitors (r = 0.639, p < 0.01) and the employer brand as experienced by employees (r = 0.816, p < 0.01). Brand commitment was signicantly positively related to employees brand knowledge, customer brand as perceived by employees, the employer brand and its competitors and the brand as experienced by employees. In order to test the hypotheses, multiple regression analyses were conducted. In order to test the hypotheses for the variables explaining employee brand commitment, multiple regression analyses were conducted, in which the measure of brand commitment regressed simultaneously on the four antecedent variables. As shown in Table 3, the results indicated that the antecedent variables explain a signicant amount of the variance in brand commitment (R2 = 0.705). With respect to the study hypotheses, customer brand as perceived by employees ( = 0.143, p < 0.05) and the employer brand as experienced by employees ( = 0.615, p < 0.01) were significant predictors of employees brand commitTable 3 Relations between employer brand dimensions and employees brand commitment Employee commitment to the brand t Employees brand knowledge Customers brand as perceived by employees The employer brand and its competitors Employer brand as experienced by employees 0.080 0.143 1.717 2.251 Sig 0.087 0.025

ment. Conversely, the dimensions that referred to employees brand knowledge ( = 0.080, p>0.05) and the employer brand and its competitors ( = 0.089, p>0.05) were not signicant predictors of employees brand commitment. Therefore, the results only provide support for H3 and H5.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In theoretical terms, researchers have claimed that appropriate human resource management, organisational strategy and leadership and marketing strategies can create a powerful employer brand.35,37,42 Interestingly, the human resource management and marketing factors directly predict enhanced employees brand commitment. The ndings of this study are consistent with the previous empirical studies in demonstrating that employees brand commitment is strongly linked to (1) The employees perception regarding the way in which customers perceive their brand. (2) The way in which the employees experience the employer brand. With regard to factors affecting employees commitment itself, many studies have found that job satisfaction, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards, job characteristics, upward and downward communication, leadership, promotion satisfaction, trust in supervisors and employees perception of organisational values are predictors of commitment.5256 More specically, employees experience with the employer brand seems to be one of the most crucial and effective mechanisms for developing employees brand commitment, thus conrming the ndings of the previous research. These studies reveal that a positive experience with human resource practices in organisations is
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0.089 0.615

1.602 12.985

0.110 0.000

Dependent variable: Brand commitment.

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important for employees to develop affective commitment. This study underscores the importance of human resource management in terms of brand communication and brand knowledge. The ndings also stress the increasing role of service quality as perceived by customers as a motivational tool for employees to support the brand. These results on the role of employees perception of company brand image conrm those of previous researches43,45,46 nding that employee perceptions of company image signicantly inuence employees behaviour. Thus, the study implies that, when seeking to increase employee-brand commitment, a commitment to deliver service quality to external customers should be considered to be a part of employer branding. Surprisingly, because some studies57,58 suggest that brand differentiation is a key to developing a successful brand, our ndings do not indicate a signicant relationship between employees perceptions of the employer brand differentiation and employees brand commitment. We see two possible explanations regarding the lack of a relationship. First, employees do not see any differentiation between hotels management practices and secondly the employer brand differentiation with competitors does exist only at the cognitive level and they do not inuence employees brand commitment signicantly. The importance of the engagement of employees with their company values is supported by many scholars like Zeithaml et al.,59 Dowling,35 Greene et al.,36 Farrant,40 Hartline et al.,60 Balmer,50 Harris and de Chernatony,51 Dunmore,37 Mitchell,38 de Chernatony and Segali-Horn.61 Our ndings, however, do not indicate a strong relationship between employees brand knowledge and employees brand commitment. The idea that for employees to
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become passionate brand advocates, they must understand what the brand is, what their organisations brand stands for and what their role in delivering on the brand promise is incomplete. Employees may understand the brand values and meanings but it is not sufcient for them to be committed and to support the brand.

CONCLUSION. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Managerial implications

In order to increase the level of employees brand commitment, the major strategic and operational emphasis of hotel management should be placed on the functionality of human resource management as well as on sound management practices and marketing of the brand. The most important direct recommendations that emerge from this study are the following: Stay in touch with employees by learning their needs, and ensure that these are met or are exceeded. Offer value-added features and provide consistently high-quality services to customers. Employees are more committed to the brand when the brand is delivery to customers beyond their expectations. Select and train employees so that they are service-oriented and acquire full knowledge and understanding of brand values. In addition, communicate customer satisfaction data to your employees as a feedback system and motivational tool. Do not believe that employees brand commitment is just an internal communication exercise. Your human resources management practices and your ability of delivering a better service than your competitors are essentials.
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
In this research, employer brand theory is used to explore the concept of employees commitment to the brand. The literature on employer brand is quite recent. The positioning of the concept between human resources and marketing certainly explains its lack of clarity. Our research contribution at the theoretical level can be examined at two levels. First, our research reveals the dimensions of the employer brand. Our exploratory research, including a focus group with hotel managers and in-depth interviews with employees, has contributed to narrowing the gap between the academic and the realities of organisations regarding the meanings of the concept. Secondly, by exploring the relationship between the employer brand dimensions and employees commitment to support the brand, we have identied the most signicant factors that explain employees brand commitment. The existing literature on service branding shows that most scholars highlighted the importance of employees and consequently they suggest that communicating the brand values to employees11,62 is critical to building a strong brand. Their recommendations are at the cognitive level and the problem is dened as an internal communication issue. Our study shows that brand knowledge does not affect employees brand commitment. However, what employees experience with the brand is critical. The role of employees in building a powerful brand in services is largely recognised. An effective internal communications programme is certainly essential to build the brand internally but human resources practices and organisation culture are the key to achieving employees commitment.

LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH

The main limitation of this study was that the data were obtained only from hotels in Thailand. In general, the difculty of accessing employees is a major problem with this kind of research but thanks to the support and interests of a few hotel general managers, we overcame some obstacles. The hotel industry is very specic in terms of culture and management practices. Therefore, replicating this study in other service industries and in different environments would help determine the extent to which the results can be generalised. Another limitation of this research is that we explored the relationship between the employer brand and employees commitment; however, the size of our sample did not allow us to analyse existing different employees brand commitment inside hotels, between departments. Since the study underestimates the role of employees brand knowledge (the cognitive dimension) further research needs to be carried out on the emotional bonds between employees and the employer brand as a means to understand the commitment of employees to make the brand alive. In addition, future research that examines the relationship between the employer brand and customer brand equity would promote employer brand-building activities, particularly if a strong link can be validated between the two concepts.
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APPENDIX
See Table A1.
Table A1 Employer brand and employees brand commitment dimensions

Employees brand knowledge 1. I know clearly the goals and policies of this hotel. 2. I know the customers expectations when they stay at this hotel. 3. I understand that my work is important to the success of the hotel. 4. I understand how my behaviour can impact this hotel. 5. I understand how my own work has made a contribution to the hotel brand success. 6. I understand my role in delivering the brand promise. 7. I know the meaning of this hotel brand for customers. 8. I know this hotel is excellent in its service. 9. In know clearly who are the hotel targets customers. Employer brand and its competitors 1. When compare with other hotels, my hotel provides better employees benets. 2. This hotel is convenient for me as a place to work 3. This hotel brand is different for employees when comparing to other hotel brands. Customer brand as perceived by employees 1. I believed that this brand is the best in the hotel industry. 2. This hotel has a good reputation with the customers. 3. Customers perceive the people who work in this hotel are high calibre people. 4. The hotels customers are satised with the quality of service they receive. Employer brand as experienced by employees 1. I am very satised with the managers efforts to plan, coordinate, set goals, and establish routines for giving good service. 2. I am very satised with the hotels recruiting and selection of employees to have the right people for the right job. 3. Management provides excellent incentives and rewards at all levels for service quality, not just productivity. 4. Management in this hotel provides freedom and authority to employees to act independently in order to provide excellent service. 5. Every employee in this hotel receives training that enhances his/her ability to deliver high quality service. 6. This hotel keeps the employees well informed. 7. There is a supportive, open, and approachable management style among line managers in this hotel. 8. Management provides excellent leadership. 9. This hotel never disappoints me. 10. If this hotel makes a claim or promise to me, it is probably true. 11. This hotel is honest and sincere in addressing my concerns. 12. I rely on this hotel to solve employee problems. 13. This hotel is interested in my satisfaction. 14. This hotel would be willing to solve a problem I might have with the work. Employees brand commitment 1. With this hotel, I obtain what I look for in my work life 2. I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to keep working for this hotel brand. 3. I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this hotel brand to be successful. 4. I usually tell my friends that this is a great hotel brand to work for. 5. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this hotel brand. 6. For me this is the best of all possible hotels to work for. 7. It would take very little to cause me to leave this hotel brand. 8. I am extremely glad that I chose to work for this hotel brand over others I was considering. 9. I really care about this hotel brand.

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