An importance-performance approach to evaluating internal marketing in a recreation centre Edouard V. Novatorov* Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A & M University, Texas, USA. e study examined the potential of importance-performance analysis for evaluating employee tisfaction. The technique was originally designed to measure external customer satisfaction. owever, the similarity of several concepts underlying customer-organization and employee- ganization relationships, suggested that the method would be appropriate for use in the context internal marketing. The concept of internal marketing has emerged as an interface between ganizational behaviour and traditional marketing, and job-related attributes developed in the ntext of organizational behaviour by Frederick Herzberg, appeared to be appropriate for this sessment of an organization’s internal marketing. Data were collected from all 56 full–time mployees at a commercial recreation centre using a 16-attribute instrument. Results did not nrm Herzberg’s theory, since the highest valued attributes included both motivation and giene items. Management recommendations for further application and interpretation of portance-performance analysis are developed. INTRODUCTION distinctive feature of effective service anagement is the new relationship which as emerged between employees and organi- tions. Peter Drucker (1992) has pointed ut that: All organizations now say routinely, ‘‘People [employees] are our greatest asset.’’Yet few practice what they preach, let alone truly believe it. Most still believe, though perhaps not consciously, what nineteenth-century employers believed: people need us more than we need them. But, in fact, organizations have to market membership [within the organization] as much as they market products and ser- vices – and perhaps more. They have to attract people, hold people, recognize and reward people, motivate people, and serve and satisfy people (p.100). In response to the shift in management philosophy from concern with nancial capi- tal to human capital (Naisbitt and Aburdene, 1985), service providers have begun to rec- ognize the importance of ‘membership mar- keting’ which is more commonly referred to in the literature as internal marketing or marketing to employees. The internal mar- keting concept has emerged as an interface between traditional marketing concepts and organizational theory, and it encompasses all activities done by an organization to hire, retain, train, and motivate employees to be customer-minded. Nowadays, the internal marketing concept is considered to be a key facet of effective service management (Gron- roos, 1994) and a category of investigation that requires special treatment in any as- sessment of an organization’s marketing ef- fectiveness, such as a marketing audit (Berry et al., 1991). Together with service he author can be contacted at: Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A & M University, llege Station, Texas 77843-2261, USA. anaging Leisure 2 , 1–16 (1997) 60-6719 © 1997 Chapman & Hall