Ethical leadership in the salesforce: effects on salesperson customer orientation, commitment to customer value and job stress

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to attempts to better understand the role of ethical leadership in the business-to-business customer value creation process. Drawing on job demands-resources theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demeroutiet al., 2001), this paper develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among ethical leadership, customer orientation, commitment to providing superior customer value and job stress in the salesforce.Design/methodology/approachThe sample includes 408 business-to-business salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to test the study’s hypotheses.FindingsFindings suggest that ethical leadership directly and indirectly (via customer orientation) influences commitment to providing superior customer value. Furthermore, both ethical leadership and salesperson commitment to providing value directly influence salesperson job stress.Originality/valueThis paper develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among constructs not previously examined, as they relate to business customer value creation.