Role of internal marketing perception on customer orientation and mediating effect of job satisfaction among private bank employees in India

This study aims at investigating the effect of internal marketing perception on customer oriented behavior of private bank employees considering the mediating role of job satisfaction. To carry out the study the researcher used a descriptive study on sample of 165 private bank employees using stratified random sampling. Internal marketing perception was measured using Liao et al’s scale using internal communications, supervisory leadership, intangible benefits, compensation and upward communication as dimensions whereas Customer orientation was measured using Saxe and Weitz SOCO scale and job satisfaction was measured using 15 item scale used by Warr et al. Reliability analysis was done to test the suitability of tools used. Correlation analyses and mediation analysis were done to test the relationship between the variables. Individual dimensions were also correlated to the dependent variable to find out the most and least correlated. Analyses showed positive correlations between internal marketing , job satisfaction and customer orientation. Mediation analysis proved that job satisfaction significantly mediates the relationship between internal marketing and customer orientation. Introduction: Internal marketing is a means of involving employees at all levels in effective marketing programmes by enabling them to understand their roles within the marketing process. Key components of internal marketing includes functioning as a continual internal up skilling process ,alignment of organizations purpose with employee behavior , motivation, reframing and empowerment of employee attitude, inside out management approach and retaining a positive customer experience throughout the business objective. Job satisfaction is defined as contentment arising out of interplays of employees positive and negative feelings towards his or her work. Job satisfaction or employee satisfaction has been defined in many different ways. Some believe it is simply how content an individual is with his or her job, in other words, whether or not they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature of work or supervision. It is very important for an organization to keep the employees satisfied in order to better serve the customers. Job satisfaction plays a key role in business success. Customer orientation is a contemporary marketing philosophy that guides the managers to carry out marketing efforts in such a manner that it leads to maximum customer satisfaction. Customer orientation emphasizes on understanding consumer’s real needs and satisfying them better in the competition. The major part of a business cycle of any business is the end customer. Satisfying the customer and delighting them is of primary importance to any business. Service industry is one of the biggest industries which face major challenges in better serving their customers. This study aims at analyzing the impact that internal marketing has on customer orientation of bank employees with job satisfaction as a mediator. Review of literature: Definitions: The history of internal marketing begins around 1980s and started with Sasser and Arbeit (1976) defining internal marketing as “viewing their job offerings as products and their employees as customers forces managers to devote the same care to their jobs as they devote to the purchasers of