The relationship between internal branding and affective commitment: A descriptive research from the employee perspective

Internal branding is a process which is aligning employee behavior with brand promise. For this reason, internal branding aims development of behavior that promoting of brand promise by using corporate internal communication and human resources applications. In the successful implementation of internal branding practices, leader perception has an important place. Employees are expected to develop affective commitment on brand and in this way, they are expected to be voluntary supporter defender. In this context, the aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between internal branding and affective commitment from the perspective of employees. Within the scope of the research, the relationship between the internal branding perceptions and affective commitment of a cargo company employee which is operating in Turkey was analyzed by quantitative research method. In the research, internal branding has been handled in terms of internal communication, human resources and leader perception. Findings from the research results show that there is a difference between gender, education, salary and job description variables in the perception of employees towards internal brand. The findings also show that there is a positive relationship between internal branding and affective commitment. Finally, it appears that there is a positive and moderate-level relationship between human resource applications and affective commitment, while there is a positive and high level relationship between internal communication-leader perception and affective commitment. Keywords: Internal Branding, Internal Communication, Human Resource,Leadership, Affective Commitment