The Role of Relationship Marketing on Employee Job Satisfaction: The Case of Abay Bank in Dessie Region of Ethiopia

Employee job satisfaction is an important but mostly neglected element in the process of relationship marketing and employee and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of relationship marketing variables in realizing employee job satisfaction. The main objective of the study is to examine Abay bank employees’ job satisfaction with regard to their work and customer satisfaction while using the service of the bank in Dessie region in Ethiopia. Descriptive survey method was employed for the study. Both primary and secondary data have been used to address the research objective. Primary data has been collected using structured questionnaire from randomly selected eight branches in Dessie region of Abay bank. Available sampling for customers and census for employees has been employed to collect data. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive data analysis. The result of the analysis reveals that employees are empowered to suggest ideas that may improve service delivery process and if the idea is valid and credible, it will be enacted to improve the service delivery process. The finding also disclosed that employees perform their job in a team spirit, sharing essential information needed to facilitate the service delivery to customers. The bank has the culture of supporting its staff in times of need. It also has its own system of recognition and reward for best achieving employees. Lastly, the majority of the employees are contented by the work they are carrying out at the bank. However, a bit more than half of the respondents do not have intention to leave the bank in the near future. The findings clearly points out that the bank has properly executed relationship marketing to sustain its employees and customers satisfaction.