Relational competence, internal market orientation and employee performance

Market orientation has been validated as a way of improving business performance, however, the lack of internal focus limits the applicability of market orientation to business settings in the 21st century, where services and products co-exist as one offering. The internal focus requires consideration of internal market orientation. This allows for identification of intra-organisational exchanges in working relationships between employees as well as between the organisation's employees and its customers (Harrell and Fors 1992). This may be enabled by an understanding of the interpersonal relationships between employees. Relational competence is introduced as a facilitator of relational behaviour, intra-firm performance, and inter-organisation performance. It is suggested that the interpersonal capability of individual employees and managers is an important antecedent influence on performance both within and beyond the firm. Thus, relational competence is suggested as an enabler in the pursuit of business success, as it sets the landscape in which the firm's employees and customers operate.