Improving health workers’ organisational commitment: Drawing lessons from the interaction between internal marketing and key job characteristics

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study assesses the effect of internal marketing on the organizational commitment of health workers, with the effect of the interaction between internal marketing and each of four job characteristics (i.e. job tenure, education, promotion, and income) on organizational commitment tested.

Design/methodology/approach: A correlational design was applied to test a framework of five (5) main hypotheses using primary data. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from 717 health workers who met some selection criteria. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the hypotheses.

Findings: The two structural CFA models through which the main and interaction effects were tested had a good fit at 5% significance level. More importantly, internal marketing made a significant positive effect on the commitment of health workers. In addition, internal marketing and job promotion made a significant positive interaction effect on commitment, but the interaction of internal marketing with the other job characteristics did not make a significant effect on commitment of health workers.

Originality/value: This study employed primary data in a unique context in which the direct effect of internal marketing and its interaction with the chosen job characteristics on organizational commitment are tested. Apart from its contribution to the expansion of a relatively small empirical literature, this study demonstrates the role of internal marketing in advancing organizational commitment and motivators of health workers.

KEYWORDS:

• Internal marketing
• organizational commitment
• job tenure
• on-the-job education
• job income
• job promotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.