Internal marketing practices,genuine emotions and their effects on hotel employees’ customer-oriented behaviors

Drawing on social exchange and conservation of resources theories, this study investigates genuine emotions as a mediator of the effects of internal marketing practices on customer-oriented behaviors. Data collected from customer-contact employees in the four- and five-star hotels in Antalya, one of the most popular tourism destinations in Turkey, were used to assess the aforesaid relationships. The results from structural equation modeling reveal that management’s simultaneous emphasis on internal communication, training, and internal market research as the indicators of internal marketing practices fosters customer-contact employees’ genuine emotions displayed in service encounters. Such internal marketing practices as well as genuine emotions boost employees’ customer-oriented behaviors, as manifested by enjoyment and needs. As hypothesized, genuine emotions partly mediate the effects of internal marketing practices on customer-oriented behaviors. Theoretical and management implications associated with the abovementioned results are discussed.