Internal marketing seeks to enhance employees’ satisfaction as internal customers of the corporation. Therefore, its purpose is continuous improvement in offering the products and services across the corporation. In this regard internal marketing can be considered as an enhancer which creates an attractive workplace for employees. Attractive workplace is defined as creating a climate that gives rise to happiness for employees. And employees’ happiness is finally resulted in their fulfillment. In this study, the effect of internal marketing on employee happiness is investigated.
This survey was conducted using descriptive-field method. It was carried out in University of Isfahan. The statistical population included 910 employees of the university. Field methods and questionnaire were used to gather essential information. Data were gathered through two standard questionnaires of internal marketing (Rafiq & Ahmad) and happiness (Oxford). Reliability of the questionnaire was obtained by means of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient that was equal to 0.97 and 0.95 for internal marketing and happiness respectively. Validity of the questionnaire was confirmed implicitly but face validity was applied for more confidence. SPSS and Amos were used to analyze data descriptively, assess the credibility of the model and test hypotheses. Results indicated that the main hypothesis under the heading "internal marketing affects employee happiness" was confirmed. Also all sub-hypotheses entitled aspects of internal marketing (internal product, pays, place, and internal promotion) have a positive effect on employee happiness.
Vasconcelos, A, F. (2008). “Broadening even more the internal marketing concept”, European Journalof Marketing, Vol. 42 No. 11/12, 2008 pp. 1246-1264
Caruana, A. and Calleya, P. (1998). “The effect of internal marketing on organizational commitmentamong retail bank managers”, The International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 108-16.
Chang, R.Y. and Kelly, P.K. (1994). Satisfying Internal Customers First!, Richard Chang, Irvine, CA.
Piercy, N. and Morgan, N. (1991). “Internal marketing – the missing half of the marketing programme”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 82-93.
Lings, I.N. (1999). “Balancing internal and external market orientations”, The Research Institute Research Paper Series, RP9912, Aston Business School, Aston, October.
Berry, L.L. and Parasuraman, A. (2000). “Services marketing starts from within”, in Varey, R.J. andLewis, B.R. (Eds), Internal Marketing: Directions for Management, Routledge, London, pp. 173-91.
Flipo, J.P. (1986). “Service firms: interdependence of external and internal marketing strategies”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 8, pp. 5-14.
Rafiq, M. and Ahmed, P.K. (1995). Using the 7Ps as a generic marketing mix: an exploratory survey
of UK and European marketing academics, Marketing Intelligence and Planning; Vol. 13, No. 9, pp. 4 – 15.
Gounaris, S. (2008). “The notion of internal market orientation and employee job satisfaction: some preliminary evidence”, Journal of Services Marketing, 22(1):68-90.
Hung JY, Lin TY (2008). The Investigation on the Internal Marketing Practicing of the International Tourism Hotel Chains. J. Int. Manage. Stud. February pp. 170-176.
Sanchez-Hernandez, M.I. (2008). “Internal marketing as a factor of success in new service development: An empirical approach”, International review on public and non profit marketing, 5: 81-82.
Varey, R.J. (2000). “A broader conception of internal marketing: a social constructionist perspective”, in Varey, R.J. and Lewis, B.R. (Eds), Internal Marketing: Directions for Management, Routledge, London, pp.
281-90.
Kale SH (2006). Internal Marketing: An Antidote for Macau’s Labor Shortage. UNLV Gaming Res. Rev. J. 11(1): 1-11.
Gronroos, C. (2001). Service Management and Marketing, 2nd edition, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Mishra S, (2010). Internal marketing - A tool to harness employees’ power in service organizations in India. Int J Bus Manag, 5(1):185-193.
Ahmed PK, Rafiq M (2003). Internal marketing issues and challenges. Eur. J. Market. 37(9): 1177-1186.
Hwang IS, Chi DJ, (2005). Relationships among internal marketing, employee job satisfaction and international hotel performance: An empirical study. Int J Manag, 22(2):285-93.
Roberts-Lombard, M, (2010). African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(4), pp. 362-372.
Herington. C, Johnson. W, Scott. D, (2006). European Business Review Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 364-381.
Veenhoven, (2006). Paper presented at conference on ‘New Directions in the Study of Happiness.
Sheldon, K.N., Lyubomirsky, S. and Schkade, D. (2002). “Pursuing happiness: the architecture of sustainable change”, working paper, University of Texas, Austin, TX.
Frisch, M. B., Clark, M. P., Rouse, S. V., Rudd, M. D., Paweleck, J. K.Greenstone, A., et al. (2004). Predictive and treatment validity of lifesatisfaction and the Quality of Life Inventory. Assessment, 10, 1–13.
Connolly, J.J. and Viswesvaran,C. (2000). ‘The Role of Affectivity in Job Satisfaction:A Meta Analysis’, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 29, pp. 265-281.
Staw, B. M., Sutton, R. I., & Pelled, L. H. (1994). Employee positiveemotion and favorable outcomes at the workplace. Organization Science,5, 51–71.
Copyright: © 2013 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
