The Work and Family Balance and Extended Internal Market Orientation
(A2019-9032)

AUTHORS

xini hu, canterbury christ church university; Qionglei Yu, University of Kent

KEYWORDS

Extended Internal Market Orientation; Employee outcomes; Work-Family Balance

ABSTRACT

The serious labour shortage and the response to market pressure have been significant incentives for Chinese manufacturers to consider how to help migrant workers to have a balance between their work and families. For this reason, this study applies the internal market orientation as a tool to solve these problems, which firstly contributes to existing theory by establishing an extended internal market orientation framework, which not only addresses employees’ needs at work but also their needs in family life. Second, this conceptual framework contributes to the literature by indicating the significance of the mediated role of work-family balance between extended internal market orientation and various consequences. The face-to-face interviews which revealed the employee happiness, continuance commitment and affective commitment were the most direct employees’ outcomes are applied to explore and develop this realistic framework. Last, instead of applying SET, this study applies the border theory and the theory of work and family enrichment into internal marketing field for the first time.