Internal Communication in the Macau Gaming Industry: Effects of Internal Market Orientation on Organizational Performance

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1 Internal Communication in the Macau Gaming Industry: Effects of Internal Market Orientation on Organizational Performance Ernest Franklin Martin Jr. City University of Macau Virginia Commonwealth University Wai-Ming To Macao Polytechnic Institute Abstract Internal marketing has been discussed in the management and academic literature for more than three decades. Internal Market Orientation (IMO) represents the adaptation of market orientation to the context of employer-employee communication. IMO, if developed, may increase the effectiveness of a market-oriented company's response to external market conditions because it allows the company's management to better align external market objectives with internal capabilities. Utilizing IMO theory and previously tested instruments, this study examines the effect of IMO on organizational performance among the Macau casino operating companies, including employee job satisfaction and perceived customer satisfaction. Moreover, external measures, such as more positive media reputation coverage and position change in market share, support the perceptions. Using responses from a sample of 220 employees from the gaming industry, the underlying structure of the IMO items is shown (factor analysis) and a path analysis disclosed the relationships among variables. The three factor IMO structure is formal and informal internal information generation and dissemination activities and responsiveness to the collected information. The path analysis results show that IMO is positively related to employee job satisfaction while employee job satisfaction is positively related to perceived customer satisfaction. Moreover, external measures, such as positive reputation change in the mass media and positive change in market revenue share are positively associated with perceived customer satisfaction. H1a,b,c: The greater the IMO utilizing formal internal communication (supported)/utilizing informal internal communication (supported)/responsiveness (supported), the more positive the employee job satisfaction. H2a,b,c: The greater the IMO utilizing formal internal communication (supported)/utilizing informal internal communication (not supported)/responsiveness (not supported), the more positive the perceived customer satisfaction. H3: The greater the organization s employee job satisfaction, the higher the perceived customer satisfaction (supported). H4: The greater the organization s level of perceived customer satisfaction, the greater the positive corporate reputation, i.e. positive reputation change, reflected in the mass media (supported).

2 H5: The greater the organization s level of perceived customer satisfaction, the greater the positive market share change (supported). H6: The greater the positive corporate reputation reflected in the mass media, the greater the positive market share change (supported). Findings and implications for casino employer-employee internal communication are discussed.

3 Introduction Effective internal communication plays a crucial role in team building, organizational commitment, and services management (Hiltrop, 1996; Rafiq and Ahmed, 2000; Tansuhaj, Randall and McCullough, 1988). In a service-intensive environment, a manager has to communicate with his/her subordinates frequently in order to align them with the organization s goals and norms, to understand the difficulties they encounter, and to provide feedback and assistance promptly when necessary. The concept of internal marketing was then developed (Berry, 1974). As argued by Berry (1974, 1981) and Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (2002), treating employees well will make employees satisfied, in turn leading to happy customers. Macau was a Portuguese colony and a regional tourist spot a placing having a relaxing environment for visitors enjoying fusion foods and table games. It was returned to mainland China in December In 2002, the Government of Macau SAR decided to liberalize the gaming industry and granted concessionaires to local and multinational casino operating companies. Since then, Macau has developed rapidly and transformed itself to the world gaming center (Lai and To, 2010). In 2010, Macau attracted over 25 million visitors and gross gaming revenue was MOP 190 billion (DSEC, 2011a), equivalent to USD 23.6 billion. The number of casinos increased from 11 in 2002 to 33 to 2010 (DICJ, 2011). Moreover, the number of employees in the gaming industry increased from 19,772 in 2004 to 44,806 in 2010 (DSEC, 2011b). Hence, this paper aims at investigating (i) to what extent Macau casino operating companies use internal marketing to align their employees to their service missions, (ii) whether internal marketing is positively related to employees job satisfaction and is associated with external measures such as reputation and change in market share, and (iii) other structural factors that may affect the market share of each casino operating company. Literature Review and Research Hypotheses Internal communication used to be a top-down management strategy to direct, instruct and control employees in order to achieve the organization s goals (Sampson, 1973 cited in Davis, 2001) to a critical strategic communication function (Downs and Adrian, 2004), especially in service-based economies.. As time evolves, most economies transform themselves from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. According to Spohror, Gregory and Ren (2010), the service sector contributes to over two-thirds of a nation s GDP in developed economies. In Macau, its dominant service industry the gaming industry contributes to over 85 percent of its government revenue. In a casino environment, players bet on their luck at game tables and interact with frontline employees such as hard & soft count clerks, cage cashiers, dealers, pet supervisors, casino floor-persons, etc. frequently. As a result, casino operating companies started deploying a number of management strategies to enhance service quality, reputation, and employee and customer loyalty. Internal marketing as a way to align employees with the organization s goals is one of those strategies. Internal marketing was firstly proposed by Berry (1974). It evolves gradually and treating employees as internal customers becomes a founding stone of internal marketing (Berry, 1981; Rafiq and Ahmed, 2000). Rafiq and Ahmed (2000) reviewed internal marketing concepts, practices and processes. Specifically, they mentioned that internal communication (formal and informal) is important to clarify roles and to strengthen employees feelings toward their own importance in the organization settings. Lings (2004), Lings and Greenley (2005) and Gounaris (2006; 2008) proposed a method to characterize the extent of use of internal marketing

4 in organizations. Borrowing ideas from (external) market orientation (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990), they developed instruments to measure internal market orientation (IMO). Ling and Greenley (2005) and Martin and To (2013) found that IMO was significantly related to employees job satisfaction and perceived customer satisfaction in various service contexts. Besides, employees job satisfaction is related to perceived customer satisfaction. Hence, it is proposed that H1a,b,c: The greater the IMO core components such as utilizing formal internal communication/utilizing informal internal communication/responsiveness, the more positive the employee job satisfaction. H2a,b,c: The greater the IMO core components such as utilizing formal internal communication/utilizing informal internal communication/responsiveness, the more positive the perceived customer satisfaction. H3: The greater the organization's employee job satisfaction, the higher the perceived customer satisfaction. Reputation refers to the favorability of a business organization within a social system (Zyglidopoulos, 2003). More specifically, corporate reputation can be used to indicate the overall estimation in which a particular company is held by its various constituents (Fombrun, 1996: p.37). Martin (2010) argues that reputation plays a significant role in shaping the organization s image to the public and is a significant predictor of competitive advantage. Management of reputation becomes a critical function of a manager s job and has to be performed through excellent service delivery. No service manager can create reputation without a group of dedicated and capable employees. Although Macau was seldom mentioned in western media including trade magazines and academic journals, this phenomenon has changed drastically since For example, academic articles using Macau as a research context increased from 68 in 1990 to 215 in 2010, according to Google Scholar. In trade magazines and public media, the number of articles describing Macao surges even rapidly, positive or negative word-of-mouth in the mass media will have a substantial impact on the organization s image and profitability. And reputation must be closely linked to employees perceived customer satisfaction and/or its antecedents, i.e. IMO. Hence, it is posited that: H4: The greater the organization s level of perceived customer satisfaction, the greater the positive corporate reputation, i.e. positive reputation change, reflected in the mass media. In a competitive environment, the strength of an organization is normally reflected by its market share. In Macau, all gaming companies or their parent companies are listed companies in the New York Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Hence, the market share of each casino operating company is known and published in its annual and quarterly reports. Indeed, it is a general belief that market share, or specifically change in market share, is strongly linked to its reputation and perceived customer satisfaction. Hence it is hypothesized that: H5: The greater the organization s level of perceived customer satisfaction, the greater the positive market share change. H6: The greater the positive corporate reputation reflected in the mass media, the greater the positive market share change.

5 Method This research involves the collection of two types of research data primary data as well as secondary data. We developed a closed-ended, structured questionnaire using items from Lings and Greenley (2005) to measure IMO, employees job satisfaction, and perceived customer satisfaction. We distributed copies of this questionnaire to solicit inputs and opinions from employees in the gaming industry. On the other hand, reputation measures using the items proposed by Fombrun and Shanley (1990) and Fombrun and Van Riel (2003) were obtained from the mass media. Market share change was determined using the annual and quarterly reports of casino operating companies. We distributed 400 questionnaires to employees working in casino operating companies and collected 220 completed questionnaires in four rounds. In order to assess whether nonresponse bias existed, we performed independent t-tests to compare the responses we collected in the first round and the last round, i.e. the first fifty and the last fifty completed questionnaires as suggested by Armstrong and Overton (1977). The results of independent t-tests show that there was no significant difference between these two groups of respondents, meaning that nonresponse bias was not a problem. Results and Analysis Effects of IMO on Organizational Performance Table 1 shows the demographic profile of the 220 respondents. It indicates that 132 of them were female and 88 of them were male. In terms of age, 11 of them were below 20, 148 in the age group between 20 and 29, 46 in the age group between 30 and 39, and 15 aged 40 or above. 127 of the respondents had secondary education, followed by 72 respondents having bachelor s degrees. 112 of the respondents worked as frontline service employees, followed by 58 supporting staff and 50 administrative staff respectively. Most of the respondents (153) had worked for casino operating companies less than two years, 57 between two and four years, and only 10 more than four years. 112 of the respondents were employees of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau S.A. () or Galaxy Entertainment Ltd. the regional casino operating companies and 108 respondents were employees of Las Vegas Sands () or Wynn two Las Vegas-based casino operating companies. Table 1. Demographic profile of the respondents N % N % Gender Age Female Male < and above Position Years with the company Frontline Supporting Administration < 2 years 2 to <4 years 4 years or Education Primary Secondary Bachelor Masters Group Regional Las Vegas-based In fact, the demographic profile of respondents was closely resembled to the results of the

6 Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages Gaming Sector (DSEC, 2011b). The Survey indicated that 24,811 (52 percent) out of the total 47,321 employees in the gaming sector were female as at the end of June Moreover 20,247 (57 percent) out of the total 35,623 frontline service employees were female. Besides, it has been well known that majority of the gaming sector s employees were in the age between 20 and 29 and completed secondary school education. Due to the rapid expansion of the gaming sector of Macao, most employees had less than four years experience with casino operating companies and many of them had worked for the companies for less than two years. Table 2 shows that the number of casinos increased from 11 in 2002 to 34 in Tables 3 show the number of game tables and Table 4 shows the number of slot machines for the period of respectively. All of these illustrated how fast the Macau s gaming sector has expanded in the past ten years. In order to provide excellent services to Macau s visitors, casino operating companies have to deploy various management strategies to enhance their images to external customers as well as internal customers, i.e. employees. Table 2. The number of casinos from 2002 to 2011(3 rd quarter) Galaxy Wynn MGM Total Note: (i) figures were obtained from the Macao Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ, 2011). Table 3. The number of game tables from 2002 to 2011(3 rd quarter) Galaxy Wynn MGM Total Notes: (i) the numbers of game tables were obtained from annual reports of casino operating companies. (ii) some total figures are different from the ones published by Macao Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau because some companies presented the average game tables in their annual reports.

7 Table 4. The number of slot machines from 2002 to 2011(3 rd quarter) Galaxy Wynn MGM Total Notes: (i) the numbers of slot machines were obtained from annual reports of casino operating companies. (ii) some total figures are different from the ones published by Macao Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau because some companies presented the average slot machines in their annual reports. We then categorized the collected data into two groups Las Vegas-based casino operating companies and the regional casino operating companies. We determined the average summed scores of IMO components including formal internal communication, informal internal communication, and responsiveness, employees job satisfaction, and perceived customer satisfaction. External measures including reputation and market share change were obtained from the mass media and companies annual reports. Reputation was determined based on the frequency counts of six drivers with twenty underlying attributes using the corpus of news, reports, and stories relating to each casino operating company for the whole year of A database LexisNexis was used as it has a wide coverage of English mass media. The six drivers are (i) products and services, (ii) financial performance, (iii) workplace environment, (iv) vision and leadership, (v) social responsibility, and (vi) emotional appeal (Fombrun and Van Riel, 2003). Table 5 shows the similarity/difference of employees perceptions and external measures among two groups of casino operating companies. Table 5. The average summed scores of IMO components and other measures Las Vegas-based Regional t-test for equality of means : p-value IMO Formal internal communication Informal internal communication Responsiveness Employees job satisfaction Perceived customer satisfaction 4.40 (0.12) 4.23 (0.11) 4.28 (0.13) 4.17 (0.11) 4.67 (0.10) 4.23 (0.10) 4.04 (0.10) 4.17 (0.13) 4.03 (0.09) 4.17 (0.09) <0.001*** External measures: Reputation mean value Reputation change mean value Market share change mean value % % N.A. N.A. Notes: (i) the values in bracket are standard errors. (ii) *** represents a very significant difference between groups because of p< Table 5 shows that the Las Vegas-based casino operating companies and the regional

8 casino operating companies have utilized internal marketing strategies to align employees with the organization s goals and missions. It is because employees in both groups had relatively high average summed scores in the areas of formal internal communication ( out of a 5-point Likert scale) and informal internal communication ( out of a 5-point Likert scale). Moreover, the average summed score for responsiveness was also high ( out of a 5- point Likert scale). As there was no significant difference on IMO components between the two groups of respondents, we conducted a factor analysis to re-confirm the factor structure of IMO. The analysis was performed by first determining the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Barlett s test of sphericity. The KMO value was 0.91 and the Barlett s test of sphericity was significant as p<0.001, indicating the dataset to be suitable for factor analysis. We then performed a principal components analysis with oblimin rotation. The output of principal components analysis confirmed that IMO has a three-factor structure as expected. The reliability of each component was checked using the Cronbach s alpha measure. The Cronbach s alpha values of the three components: formal internal communication, informal internal communication, and responsiveness were 0.91, 0.90, and 0.88 respectively. All the values were higher than 0.7 a threshold suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) for internal reliability. The Cronbach s alpha values of employees job satisfaction and perceived customer satisfaction were 0.88 and 0.90 respectively. To test Hypotheses H1a,b,c, H2a,b,c, and H3, we conducted a path analysis using SPSS17.0 and AMOS A number of fit measures were used to assess the goodness-of-fit of the proposed theoretical model. That included the ratio of 2 to degree-of-freedom (df), the goodness of fit index (GFI), the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), the comparative fit index (CFI), the norm fit index (NFI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). According to Hair et al. (2005), these measures should be <3.0 for 2/df, >0.92 for GFI, AGFI, CFI, and NFI, and <0.08 for RMSEA. Table 6 shows the calculated measures for the same path model applied to the two-separate groups of employees; one group working for Las Vegas-based casino operating companies and another group working for the regional casino operating companies. The results indicate that the proposed path model was applicable to both groups of employees. It should be noted that some common insignificant paths were eliminated in the path models (as shown in Figures 1 and 2). Interestingly, both models indicate that the direct effects of informal communication and responsiveness on perceived customer satisfaction were not significant. Hence, H1a,b,c were generally supported. H2a were supported but H2b,c were not supported, and H3 was supported. Table 6. The goodness-of-fit measures for the proposed path model (see Figures 1&2) Goodness-of-fit measures Model 1 Las Vegas Group Model 2 Regional Group 2/df GFI AGFI CFI NFI RMSEA Criteria (see Hair et al., 2005) <3.0 >0.92 >0.92 >0.92 >0.92 <0.08

9 Figure 1. Path model of IMO, employees job satisfaction, and perceived customer satisfaction. (Las Vegas-based casino operating companies) Figure 2. Path model of IMO, employees job satisfaction, and perceived customer satisfaction. (Regional casino operating companies) Bivariate correlations were performed between employees job satisfaction, perceived customer satisfaction, reputation, reputation change, and market share change. The results are shown in Table 7.

10 Table 7. Bivariate correlations between employees job satisfaction, perceived customer satisfaction and external measures. Employees job satisfaction Perceived customer satisfaction Reputation External measures Reputation change Market share change Perceived customer satisfaction 0.548** * 0.207** 0.204** Reputation * ** * Reputation change 0.207** ** 0.672** Market share change 0.204** * 0.672** Notes: (i) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. (ii) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level. Table 7 shows that external measures such as reputation change and market share change were significantly associated with perceived customer satisfaction, thus supporting Hypotheses 4 and 5, as shown in bold in the table. It also indicates that market share change was strongly, significantly, positively correlated with reputation change (r=0.672, p<0.01), implying that Hypothesis 6 was supported, as shown in bold in Table 7. In fact, reputation change and market share change were not significantly correlated with employees job satisfaction but perceived customer satisfaction was significantly, positively with employees job satisfaction. Hence, our proposed theoretical model illustrates that reputation change and market share change are related to customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction can only be achieved when service employees are happy in their jobs put forward by Berry (1974, 1981) and Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (2002). In this connection, management commitment to service quality (Cheung and To, 2010) and the implementation of effective IMO (Martin, 2010; Martin and To, 2013) shall produce synergistic effects on service delivery through a chain of reactions. Table 8 shows bivariate relationships between reputation, market share, the number of casino tables, and the number of slot machines for the year It illustrates that reputation and market share were strongly, significantly associated with the number of casino tables and the number of slot machines. Table 8. Bivariate correlations between employees job satisfaction, perceived customer satisfaction and external measures. Reputation Market share Number of casino tables Number of slot machines Market share 0.959** 0.918** 0.953** Number of casino tables Number of slot machines (i) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level ** 0.967** 0.918** 0.953**

11 Revenue in bilion MOP Structural Factors Affecting Market Share The preceding section illustrates how internal marketing affects employees job satisfaction and perceived customer satisfaction, in turn resulting in positive reputation in the mass media and market share change at certain point of time. However, one shall bear in mind that some other factors will also affect market share change, or more specifically market share, in an expanding market such as the Macau gaming industry. Indeed, the Macau gaming industry has a phenomenal growth in the past ten years as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Gross gaming revenue and tax revenue from gaming during the period (DSEC, 2011a) Year Gross gaming revenue Tax revenue from gaming Figure 3 shows that Macau s gross gaming revenue increased from MOP 22.8 billion (USD 2.8 billion) in 2002 to MOP 190 billion (USD 23.6 billion) in During the same period of time, tax revenue from gaming increased from MOP 7.8 billion (USD 1 billion) to MOP 68.8 billion (USD 8.6 billion). In terms of share of tax revenue from gaming in public revenue, the proportion increased from 51 percent to 77.7 percent. Table 2 (in the preceding section) shows the number of casinos from 2002 to 2011 (3 rd quarter). By dividing the number of casinos under a casino operating company by the total number of casinos in each year, we determined the percentage out of the total number of casinos owned by each casino operating companies. Figure 4 shows the percentage as a function of year and casino operating company.

12 Percentage of the total number of casinos Figure 4. Percentage of the total number of casinos owned by each casino operating company Galaxy Wynn MGM Year Table 9 shows the market share of casino operating companies from 2002 to 2011 (3 rd quarter). It should be noted that all figures were obtained from the annual reports and press releases of each casino operating company. Besides, the figures for 2011 were estimates and have yet to take into consideration of the effect due to the recent opening of Galaxy Macau in Cotai on May 15, 2011 on the market share. Table 9. Market shares of casino operating companies from 2002 to 2011(3 rd quarter) Galaxy Wynn MGM Notes: (i) the figures were obtained from annual reports of casino operating companies. (ii) the 2011 figures were obtained from press releases as the annual reports will not be available until Feb-April Figure 5 shows the market share of each casino operating company based on its gaming revenue. It shows that is still the market leader, (or Las Vegas Sands) once in par with but its market share gradually erodes by the expansion of other casino operating companies such as Wynn and. Again, it is expected that Galaxy Entertainment would have

13 Market share in percentage a rapid growth in 2011 and 2012 because of the opening of Galaxy Macau in Cotai. Figure 5. Market share in percentage of each casino operating company from 2002 to Galaxy Wynn MGM Year By comparing Figures 4 and 5, one can observe that market share of each casino operating company is related to the number of casinos it owned. However, casino size varies significantly. For example, Jimei (Grand Lapa) Casino in Taipa has 15 table games and 59 slot machines while Macau has 870 game tables and 3,400 slot machines. Hence, it shall be informative if the percentages of game tables and slot machines are presented (as shown in Figures 6 and 7).

14 Slot machines in percentage Game tables in percentage Figure 6. Game tables in percentage of each casino operating company from 2002 to Galaxy Wynn MGM Year Figure 7. Slot machines in percentage of each casino operating company from 2002 to Galaxy Wynn MGM Year By comparing Figures 6, 7 and 4 with Figure 5, one can observe that the number of game tables has the most significant effect on market share. That is perfectly understandable because

15 Reputation in percentage gaming revenue is proportional to the number of game tables. However, a detailed inspection of Figures 5 and 6 reveals that Wynn has the highest ratio of market share to the number of game tables, probably due to its outstanding reputation for looking after its high rollers in the most professional and luxurious way. Besides, employee development has been considered as one of the cornerstones of Wynn in Macau. Media Reputation its Change We repeated the process of counting the frequency of six drivers with twenty underlying attributes using the corpus of news, reports, and stories relating to each casino operating company for the period of The overall reputation of each of six casino operating companies as a function of time, i.e. year, was then obtained. Table 10 shows that the total frequency counts of the overall positive reputations increased rapidly from 2002 to Since then, the coverage on Macau casinos in the mass media has reduced steadily probably due to the global economic crisis. Figure 8 shows the positive coverage, i.e. the overall positive reputation in percentage, of casino operating companies. Table 10. Frequency counts of the overall positive reputation from 2002 to 2011(3 rd quarter) Galaxy Wynn MGM Figure 8. Overall reputation in percentage of each casino operating company from 2002 to Galaxy Wynn MGM Year

16 Discussion and Conclusion In the fast growing gaming sector in Macau during the past ten years, the casino operating companies have competed on all fronts for external customers to increase their share of revenue. In the service environment, internal customers -- casino employees -- are critical in shaping the experience of external customers. In short, employee attitudes and behaviors can enhance value to the organization. Previous research proposes that internal marketing, with practices and processes of formal and informal internal communication, is important in strengthening employees' feelings toward their own importance in the organizational settings. In the study, we proposed that internal market orientation (IMO) would affect employee job satisfaction, perceived customer satisfaction, positive reputation change and positive market share change. Half of the gaming operating companies come from the Asian region with the others have their base in Las Vegas. Country-of-origin does not have a significant impact of IMO management practices. The overall mean values of IMO formal internal communication, informal internal communication and responsiveness were not significantly different between Las Vegas-based gaming companies and the regional companies, indicating that these two groups of companies have adopted similar approaches. With no significant difference on IMO components between the two groups of respondents, we conducted a factor analysis to re-confirm the factor structure of IMO. The factor analysis re-confirmed the three factors of formal and informal internal communication as well as responsiveness. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a path analyses. The results indicated that the proposed path model was applicable to both groups of employees. In general, informal internal communication had the strongest effect on employee satisfaction. With slight differences in the direct effects regional and Las Vegas operating companies, the path generally supports the hypotheses H1a,b,c that the greater the IMO utilizing formal internal communication (regional only), informal communication and responsiveness (Las Vegas only), the more positive employees' job satisfaction. With the exception of the direct effect of formal internal communication on perceived customer satisfaction (H2a) IMO practice has an indirect effect on customer satisfaction via job satisfaction from the employees perspective. That is to say that employee job satisfaction directly affects perceived customer satisfaction (H3). We utilized external measures to test the other hypotheses, including market share (and market share change) from secondary reports from operating company annual reports and government sources and media reputation by counting positive words from a lexicon constructed to represent six dimensions composed of 20 attributes of positive corporate reputation. Bivatiate correlations support that the greater the level of perceived customer satisfaction, the greater the positive corporate reputation change reflected in the mass media (H4). Additionally, the greater the level of perceived customer satisfaction, the greater the positive market share change (H5). And, very importantly, change in the media reputation is significantly linked to market share change (H6). Having tested how internal marketing affects employees job satisfaction and perceived customer satisfaction, in turn resulting in positive reputation in the mass media and market share change at certain point of time, we also looked at some other factors affecting market share change, or more specifically market share, in an expanding market such as the Macau gaming

17 industry. We found a significant correlation among casino operating company market share, reputation, number of casino tables and number of slot machines. Implications In service operations such as casinos, with close employee-customer interaction, internal marketing practices for effective management starts with both informal and formal methods. Informal internal marketing practice include activities such as notifying what employees are feeling, finding out what the employees want from the company, and providing feedback on issues which affect the working environment. In short, informal marketing practice is to be tuned in to employee needs and keep employees in the loop about things which affect them. Formal internal marketing practices includes activities such as regular staff appraisals to discuss what employees want and annual surveys of employees to assess the quality of employment and attitudes toward work. Management must demonstrate commitment through their responsiveness. Casino managers must recognize that front-line employee satisfaction is linked to customer satisfaction, which is linked to positive changes in reputation and market share. By talking to employees informally, as well as formally and regularly, trust and commitment can be established among management teams and frontline employees, resulting in higher level of job satisfaction.

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