The roles of internal marketing and person-organization fit in hospitality employees’ life satisfaction: an integration of work and nonwork domains

PurposeIntegrating the Stimulus-Organism-Response model, the spillover theory and the person-organization fit literature, this study investigates how internal marketing spills over its effects from the work domain to nonwork domains.Design/methodology/approachData of 279 hotel employees working in the US were collected from a self-administered survey via Amazon Mechanical Turk.FindingsFindings support the direct effects of internal marketing on job performance and job satisfaction, and of job satisfaction on life satisfaction. Moreover, results show the mediating roles of perceived person-organization fit, highlighting the mechanism by which internal marketing generates its spillover effect from the work domain to the life domain.Originality/valueThis study advances the conversation on employee-organization behaviors by revealing how internal marketing could lead to job satisfaction, job performance and life satisfaction. These insights reflect the true interconnection of human work and life. For hospitality employees’ well-being, this study encourages managers to simultaneously adopt and integrate the five functional activities of internal marketing (i.e. communication, compensation, welfare system, training and management support) in organizational operations.