From internal marketing to the retention of education professionals: the moderating role of organizational culture
Joelma Barcellos Santanna, Vitor Azzari, Roberta Rodrigues RigoPurpose
This study investigates how each dimension of internal marketing (training, communication, managerial support, wellness system and compensation) affects job satisfaction and, consequently, the retention of professionals in Brazilian public basic education, while also examining the moderating role of organizational culture in these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 315 public basic education professionals in Brazil. Primary data were collected via a structured self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), encompassing mediation, moderation and predictive power tests.
Findings
Managerial support, communication and the wellness system were positively and significantly associated with job satisfaction, which in turn was strongly associated with retention. Training and compensation yielded no significant effects. Organizational culture moderated only the wellness system and job satisfaction relationship, with a negative coefficient, indicating that when a gap exists between institutional wellness discourse and experienced working conditions, wellness practices may paradoxically undermine satisfaction.
Practical implications
Effective managerial support, transparent communication and contextually grounded wellness practices represent the most actionable levers for improving teacher satisfaction and retention within the Brazilian public school system. Administrators and policymakers should critically assess the alignment between espoused organizational values and actual working conditions before implementing retention-oriented initiatives.
Originality/value
This study advances the internal marketing literature by separately examining each dimension's effect on job satisfaction in Brazilian public basic education and by demonstrating that organizational culture can both amplify and attenuate internal marketing effects, introducing the concept of cultural dissonance as an explanatory mechanism.