Relationship between internal marketing practices, training, coworker support, emotional satisfaction and service employee commitment

Service employee commitment is an interesting topic because servicing has been an intangible product which has its own unique characteristics. Therefore, commitment is very important as an indication for the organisational success. However, factors concerning service employee commitment have been scarcely investigated especially within the area of government sector. Thus, this study aims to examine the interaction effects of internal marketing practices (internal communication and internal market research), training and co-worker support on service employee commitment and thus provide additional insights into the literature in the area of public sector. It also examines the mediating effect of emotional satisfaction on the relationship between internal marketing practices (internal communication and internal market research), training, and co-worker support with service employee commitment. The study employs Social Exchange Theory as the guidance theory and a supporting theory namely Human
Capital Theory. Cross sectional survey was employed and questionnaires were administered to collect data from the government servants in Malaysia. Out of 500 questionnaires were distributed through a self-administered approach, 454 usable responses were used for the analysis. Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modelling was advocated and the result provides an empirical evidence of the significant effect of internal communication, training and co-worker support on the service employee commitment. More important, this study reveals that emotional satisfaction is a significant mediator on the relationship of internal communication, internal market research, co-worker support and service employee commitment and hence supporting the theoretical premises. The study concludes with the theoretical contributions, managerial implications on service employee commitment, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.