4.4. Marketing assessment of the business
The type of management prevailing within the organisation
would not qualify it as a market-driven organisation simply because it does not
use its market knowledge to determine the corporate strategy of the
organization. The fact the latter organization does not possess a customer
focus, together with awareness of competitors, and understanding of the market,
simply corroborates this latter fact. Instead, the organisational type of
management reflects a lack of instruments and tools for the effective
accessibility of market advantages. And therefore relies on a conventional/
traditional type of management which does not secure the company a competitive
advantage (Avila, Ramon, Raghu, and Tadepalli, 1999). Consequently, the
implications that can be drawn from this latter situation are namely: the
neglecting of major opportunities that have critical implications for strategy
implementation. The role as well the relevance of marketing in today's
organisations of whichever size is critical for enabling companies to partaking
in markets and competitive advantages. Therefore, Shuller (1996) elaborated a
linkage between market-driven companies and human resource management, the
rationale of this linkage provides key managers with a basis for predicting,
studying, refining, and modifying both strategies and practices in specific
circumstances. Used together, market-driven and human resource strategies can
be described under two major headings (1) Market-Driven strategies and Needed
Role Behaviours and (2) Market-Driven strategies and integration.
The rationale utilised is based on what is needed form
employees apart form specific technical skills, knowledges, and abilities
required to preform a specific task. Based on a extensive review of the
literature, several role behaviours are thought to be instrumental in the
implementation of the competitive strategies. Table 1 shows numerous dimensions
along which employees' role behaviours can vary. The dimensions shown are the
ones for which there are likely to be major differences across strategies. This
can be illustrated by describing the various Market-Driven strategy and their
necessary organisational conditions in more detail along with the needed
behaviours from the employees
Table 1. Employee role behaviours for Market-Driven
strategies
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1. Highly repetitive, predictable behaviour
2. Very short term focus
3. Highly cooperative, interdependent behaviour
4. Very low concern of quality
5. Very low concern of quantity
6. Very low risk taking
7. Very low concern of process
8. High preference to avoid responsibility
9. Very inflexible to change
10. Very comfortable with stability
11. Narrow skill application
12. Low job(firm) involvement
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1. Highly creative. Innovative behaviour
2. Very long term behaviour
3. Highly independent, autonomous behaviour
4. Very high concern of quality
5. Very high concern of quantity
6. Very high risk taking
7. Very high concern of results
8. High preference to assume responsibility
9. Very flexible to change
10. Very tolerant of ambiguity and unpredictability
11. Broad skill application
12. High job(firm) involvement
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Source: adapted from Schuler (1988)
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