Sales Management’s Influence on Employment and Training in Developing an Ethical Sales Force

Abstract

Because it is believed sales performance can be enhanced through ethical behaviors, increasingly, emphasis is being placed on understanding unethical behaviors among key customer-contact employees and the environment in which these sales professionals engage clients. In this context, understanding how the direct supervision of the sales force (sales managers) can shape the ethical behavior of salespeople may be a critical controllable key to understanding unethical sales behaviors that offers upper management strategic opportunities to enrich customer relationships. In this framework of understanding unethical sales behaviors, 240 sales managers were surveyed to determine their impact on unethical sales behaviors. The results indicate that although the overall ethical climate influences ethical attitudes of sales managers, importantly, these managerial attitudes impact ethical training and hiring evaluations of the sales force. Further, the positive relationship found between the ethical attitudes of sales managers and their hiring evaluation criteria affects unethical sales force behaviors. Detailed implications of the results are presented in the study.