How sales controls affect job-related outcomes: the role of organizational sales-related psychological climate perceptions

Abstract

In this study, the authors propose a theory that incorporates the mediating effects of three important organizational sales-related psychological climate perceptions (e.g., the organization’s customer orientation, sales innovativeness, and sales supportiveness) to explain how sales force controls affect sales-related outcomes. Based on a survey of 293 salespeople and using path analysis, the authors find that the inclusion of these psychological climate perceptions allows for explanatory improvement in linking sales controls to salesperson job satisfaction and performance. These results complement previous studies in that formal controls were found to affect outcomes directly. However, they also provide important insight into the indirect effects of sales controls—through salespeople’s perceptions of managerial commitment to making the salespeople effective (i.e., the sales-related psychological climate).