The Enemy Within: Examining Salesperson Deviance and its Determinants

Abstract

Until now, sales researchers have not done any empirical work in the area of deviant workplace behavior. This is surprising, given that recent survey data suggest deviant salesperson behavior is running rampant out in the field: 60 percent of sales managers have caught their reps cheating on expense reports, 47 percent suspect their reps have lied on sales calls, and 36 percent believe salesperson behavior has gotten worse in recent years. In an effort to understand workplace deviance in a professional selling context, this paper empirically examines the effect of various organizational/management factors on three types of deviance—organizational, interpersonal, and frontline. Using survey data collected from 160 business-to-business salespeople from multiple companies and multiple industries, we demonstrate that bureaucracy, future orientation, two forms of organizational justice, management role modeling, and intrafirm competition impact the various forms of salesperson deviance as well as citizenship and salesperson service behavior. The research concludes with a consideration of managerial implications and areas for future research.