The Adoption of Marketing by the English Clearing Banks.

The decision of the clearing banks to introduce an apparently new managerial discipline called marketing into their operations may come to be regarded by future business historians as an important turning point in the development of personal banking in England. The purpose of article is to examine the organizational consequences, associated problems and levels of satisfaction with the introduction of marketing as perceived by the senior management of the English clearing banks. This article is interested primarily in two possible influences on an individual's perception of the effects of introducing marketing into the bank. One is the bank itself, as manifested in such things as its objectives, corporate style, commitment, market situation and approach to innovation. The other is the individual's level of responsibility within the bank's organizational hierarchy. The study does not concern itself with the influence of personality variables. While these will affect any one individual's perceptions, it is assumed that when the research findings are aggregated for one bank or one level of responsibility the sample will contain a reasonable cross section of personality types. Further it is assumed that these personality types will not cluster by bank or level of responsibility but will be homogeneously distributed across all banks.