The importance of an internal marketing orientation in social services

The current research takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the role of emotions in the successful delivery of social services. Survey data collected from 533 frontline social service providers were subjected to regression analyses. Findings reveal that emotional intelligence mediates the relationship between emotional labor and job stress, which inturn impacts job performance. The findings suggest that an internal marketing orientation is needed to better match the organization's products (i.e., jobs) with its internal customers (employees), and in-turn improve the quality (job performance) of its offerings to its external customers. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.