THE MEDIATING ROLE OF JOB SATISFACTION IN THE EFFECT OF INTERNAL MARKETING PRACTICES ON CUSTOMER-ORIENTED BEHAVIORS: A STUDY ON EMPLOYEES INTERACTING WITH CUSTOMERS

Abstract

The concept of internal marketing, which developed from the service marketing literature, is based on the idea that external customer satisfaction will be achieved by seeing employees as internal customers and meeting their wishes and needs. It is thought that while it is an element that allows the job satisfaction of the employees, it also causes the employees to make more efforts to increase the level of service they provide to the customers. In this research, the relationships between internal marketing practices, employees’ job satisfaction and customer-oriented behaviors are investigated. In addition, the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between internal marketing practices and customer-oriented behaviors is tried to be revealed. In this context, data were collected through structured questionnaire technique from 317 employees working in various institutions operating in Turkey by interacting directly with customers. In the analysis of the research data, confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were used within of structural equation modeling. Within the tested direct effects, internal marketing is effective on the job satisfaction and customer-oriented behaviors of the employees. In addition, job satisfaction of the employees influences their customer-oriented behaviors. Finally, through the bootstrap (resampling) method, it was found that job satisfaction has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between internal marketing and customer-oriented behaviors. It is anticipated that the findings obtained from the research will contribute to the literature and practice.