Applying Importance-Performance Analysis for Improving Internal Marketing of Hospital Management in Taiwan

Importance-performance analysis enables management to evaluate and identify the major strengths and weaknesses of a hospital’s key success factors. The author attempts to understand employee expectations and perceptions of hospital internal-marketing and shows the usefulness of the Importance-performance analysis grid in evaluating hospital internal-marketing benefits from employee perspectives in Taiwan. The author identified a list of 18 items from the internal-marketing literature reviews, and each item was rated using a 5-point Likert scale. Responses were obtained from 257 usable questionnaires. The importance-performance grid shows that 4 items fall into the “Keep up the good work” quadrant, 5 items fall into the “Concentrate here” quadrant, 4 items fall into the “Low priority” quadrant, and 5 items fall into the “Possible overkill” quadrant. The findings suggest that an internal-marketing orientation is necessary to better match organizational characteristics and enhance service quality. The results are useful in identifying areas for strategic focus to help hospital managers develop internal-marketing strategies.