The role of internal marketing practices in developing a positive approach towards lean production

The main purpose of this thesis study is to determine the perceptions of the employees in manufacturing enterprises towards internal marketing and lean production practices in the business they work, to examine the possible relationships between these perceptions and to examine the role of perceived internal marketing practices in the development of successful lean applications from the employees‟ point of view. In addition, as a second purpose in the study, the relations between the perceptions of the employees towards both lean production practices and internal marketing practices in the enterprise, and the levels of job satisfaction and corporate commitment were also discussed. For this purpose, in the study, using the quantitative research approach, relational research type and field study research design were used. A total of 400 participant data were collected from employees in private sector manufacturing enterprises that include lean production practices in their enterprises operating in Aksaray, by means of convenience sampling method, with a questionnaire created from scales whose validity and reliability have been tested before in the literature. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlation Analysis. Descriptive analysis results; It has been emphasized that the general perceptions of the participants towards lean production and their perceptions of the technical aspects of lean production practices in the company they work for are relatively more positive, whereas their perceptions of the „human‟ element-related issues follow a relatively negative course. Similarly, it was determined that the perceptions of the participants regarding the sub-components of internal marketing practices in the company they work for, such as senior management guidance, unit manager guidance, communication and information sharing, intangible or social benefits, and tangible benefits were either relatively negative or below the average. Results obtained from Pearson correlation analysis; It has been revealed that there are large-level positive and significant relationships between the perception of top management guidance, unit manager perception, communication and information sharing, and the perception of lean manufacturing practices, which are the sub-dimensions of internal marketing practices in the company where the participants work. Similarly, it has been determined that there are medium-sized positive and significant relationships between the perception of abstract and social benefit and the perception of tangible benefit, which are the sub-dimensions of internal marketing practices in the company they work, and their perception of lean production practices. In addition, large and medium-level positive relationships were found between the participants' job satisfaction, organizational commitment and general lean production perceptions in the company they work for, and their perceptions of lean manufacturing practices in the company they work for. These results, pointing out that the internal marketing approach can provide positive effects in terms of successful lean applications, can be said to contain remarkable clues in terms of laying the groundwork for both conceptual literature and practice and future research.