The Effects of Internal Marketing Climate On Hotel Effectiveness and Competitive Excellence

Abstract

Despite the agreement on the importance of internal marketing, the central dogma that it creates value for employees which will incite employees to in turn create value for their organization and customers lacks empirical verification and remains a contentious issue. Two separate multisource-multilevel datasets are used to illuminate the effects of hotel property department-level internal marketing (process-focused) climate on a positive, key organizationally relevant psychological outcome (i.e., perceived organizational support) and a positive, key organizationally relevant behavioral outcome (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior), which in turn engender hotel property department effectiveness and competitive excellence, respectively. Moreover, the results suggest that organizational citizenship behavior is a linchpin in the explication and illustration of the effects of hotel property department/unit internal marketing climate on hotel property department/unit effectiveness and competitive excellence. By doing so, we provide a comprehensive model that underscores the impacts of internal marketing climate on crucial employee, organization/unit, and customer outcomes in the hospitality industry. Implications, limitations of the current inquiry, and avenues for future research are discussed.