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To satisfy the diverse demands of its customers and improve the quality of the healthcare it provides, healthcare organizations need to engage in both effective and internal marketing of their various services. For this to occur, employees should be viewed as internal customers and various internal marketing activities implemented to satisfy their demands. The purpose of the study was to explore the relations among internal marketing activities, as perceived be employees, organizational support, job satisfaction and role behaviors. A social exchange perspective is adopted in terms of which to examine the relationships between these four concepts. The research comprises a literature review from which eight testable propositions are developed as a guide for future investigations.
Introduction
For the past decade, the healthcare industry has faced dramatic changes in many countries including Taiwan. In particular, the implementation of National Health Insurance has led to difficulties for healthcare organizations on a scale not seen before. A critical task for managers through this period has been to maintain the standard of healthcare by managing resources things to efficiently and effectively. Joseph (1996) has argued that the concept of marketing have been transformed from transaction marketing into relationship marketing. With regard to relationship marketing, Kotier (1991) claimed that internal marketing was more important than external marketing. Internal marketing, he argued, is central to the provision of quality services and a precondition for effective external marketing. In consequence, marketing theory has turned its attention to the development of principles to guide managers in their attempts to manage internal marketing in such a way that it helps the organization reach its objectives. Over the past few years, most research into internal marketing has focused on its relation to and impact on the quality of services (Wu, 2002; Chen, 2001). Aside from exploring the relations among the variables of internal marketing perceptions, organizational support, job satisfaction and role behaviors, it is argued that looking at the phenomena from the perspective of social exchange theory, with special emphasis on the psychological contracts that are involved, will improve our understanding of the dynamics of the processes that occur or take place beyond what has been available before nature of the relations
Literature Review
The basic 'spirit' of internal marketing is derived from...