The Impact of Market Orientation on Boundary-Spanning Employees

Sales positions typically have a higher level of employee turnover; it is not uncommon for companies to experience turnover rates of up to 50 % for new sales people over their first couple years (Futrell and Parasuraman 1984). This results in added costs to the firm in terms of lost productivity and training costs. In order to improve the financial performance of the sales force, sales managers (as well as human resource managers) are in search of ways to reduce employee turnover. Market orientation has typically been studied as an indicator of a firm’s commitment external customer relationships (Narver and Slater 1990; Kohli and Jaworski 1990) and has been repeatedly shown to have positive consequences as measured by metrics focused on external constituencies. However, market orientation has not been studied in terms of its impact on internal organizational relationships with the exception of Lings and Greenley (2009). This research proposes that market orientation should positively impact the internal marketing of an organization which will have a positive impact on boundary spanning employees. Drawing on job-demands resources theory (Demerouti et al. 2001) and theory of conservation of resources (Hobfoll 1988), this study develops a model which posits that increased market orientation has positive internal consequences in terms of reduced role stressors (both conflict and ambiguity), increased job satisfaction, and reduced turnover intentions for sales people who serve as the customer facing contact point. Also, this study proposes and investigates grit, defined as dedication in enduring long-term goals (Duckworth et al. 2007), as a moderator of the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions.