بررسی تأثیر ادراک کارکنان از بازاریابی داخلی بر هویت سازمانی، رضایت شغلی و رفتارهای مشتری‌مدارانه

Objective: Despite the growing attention to internal marketing, a theoretical gap remains in understanding how it influences employees’ behavioral outcomes through internal mechanisms. This study addresses this gap by examining the mediating role of internal market orientation in the relationship between internal marketing programs (empowerment, transparent communication, and participation in decision-making) and their outcomes, including organizational identity, job satisfaction, and customer-oriented behaviors. The novelty of this research lies in proposing a comprehensive and context-specific model that explains how internal marketing initiatives shape employees’ psychological and behavioral responses in service organizations.

Method: The research adopts an applied, descriptive-correlational design, employing structural equation modeling with a partial least squares (PLS-SEM 3) approach to test hypotheses. Data were collected via a five-point Likert scale questionnaire from 414 employees of Bank Mellat in Tehran, including frontline and staff personnel critical to customer interactions. The main constructs included the experience of internal marketing programs (encompassing empowerment, formalization of communication, and participation in decision-making), internal market orientation (comprising internal information generation, internal communication, and internal responsiveness), organizational identification, job satisfaction, and customer-oriented behaviors. Instrument reliability was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha (above 0.7) and composite reliability (CR above 0.6), while convergent validity was established through average variance extracted (AVE above 0.5). The overall Goodness-of-Fit (GoF), was 0.55, indicating a good/strong overall model fit.

Findings: Structural equation modeling results revealed that the experience of internal marketing programs has a significant positive impact on internal market orientation (β=0.623, t=20.61) and job satisfaction (β=0.178, t=2.76), but its direct effect on organizational identification was not significant (β=0.045, t=1.47). Internal market orientation demonstrated a strong and significant influence on organizational identification (β=0.854, t=32.64) and job satisfaction (β=0.371, t=6.18), underscoring its pivotal role in translating internal marketing efforts into psychological and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, both organizational identification (β=0.701, t=19.73) and job satisfaction (β=0.185, t=3.96) exhibited significant positive effects on customer-oriented behaviors, aligning with high-quality service delivery and responsiveness to customer needs. Communality (CV Com) and redundancy (CV Red) indices confirmed the satisfactory quality of the measurement and structural models. These findings indicate that internal marketing programs indirectly enhance organizational identification and customer-oriented behaviors through internal market orientation, with job satisfaction serving as a key mediator.

Conclusion: This study provides robust evidence that internal marketing programs indirectly enhance organizational identification and job satisfaction through internal market orientation, which in turn fosters customer-oriented behaviors among Bank Mellat employees. The findings highlight the critical importance of investing in internal marketing initiatives, such as transparent communication, relevant training, fair reward systems, and managerial support, to create a supportive and customer-centric internal environment. The lack of a direct effect of internal marketing on organizational identification suggests complexities in this relationship, necessitating further exploration of moderating factors such as organizational culture or the perceived authenticity of initiatives. Practically, the results recommend that Bank Mellat managers focus on designing effective internal marketing programs to strengthen internal market orientation, thereby enhancing employee satisfaction, engagement, and customer-centric performance. Future research should employ longitudinal designs and multi-source data to further validate causal relationships and enhance the generalizability of findings across different contexts. Additionally, exploring additional mediating and moderating variables, such as empowerment or leadership styles, could provide deeper insights into these dynamics.