Salesperson Work Research Articles

Firm market orientation and salesperson customer orientation: interpersonal and intrapersonal influences on customer service and retention in business-to-business buyer–seller relationships

The authors examine the influence of a firm's market orientation and salesperson customer orientation on buyer–seller relationships. Data from a national manufacturer's sales force and retail trade customers were used to test the influence of sales managers' perceptions on salesperson attitudes toward a firm's market orientation and its salesperson customer orientation. The impact of salesperson attitudes on customers' perceptions of service delivery and their propensity to switch suppliers was also examined. The results suggest that a firm's market orientation positively influences salesperson work attitudes. Sales managers influence salesperson customer orientation through their organizational commitment, and salesperson customer orientation influences industrial customers' switching intentions.

Salesperson Job Involvement: A Modern Perspective a New Scale

Job involvement is a person's psychological identification or commitment to his/her job. Job involvement is an important construct in salesforce performance research because (1) it is a relevant consequence of a salesperson's work environment and internal feelings, (2) it is a relevant antecedent of a number of important sales job outcomes, and (3) it impacts the socialization process for salespeople. Because sales jobs have changed markedly over the past decade, a salesperson's job involvement now tends to be more focused on relationships with clients and less on aspects within an organizational boundary. The most widely used measure of job involvement (Lodahl and Kejner 1965) is not occupation-specific to sales. This article outlines the development of a new scale for relationship-based salesperson job involvement utilizing rigorous assessments of reliability, validity, and dimensionality within a broad sample of practicing salespeople.

Sales Manager Behavior Control Strategy and Its Consequences: The Impact of Gender Differences

Researchers have only recently focused attention on the importance of sales manager gender. Our study examines manager gender differences relative to behavior-based approaches to sales management control, and the consequences in salesperson attitudes, job stress, and work outcomes. Findings suggest that female field sales managers employ higher levels of behavior- control than males. Teams led by female managers display different and favorable attitudes, stress characteristics and work outcomes to those managed by male executives.

Supervisory Orientations and Salesperson Work Outcomes: The Moderating Effect of Salesperson Location

Although a growing number of companies have salespeople stationed at a site other than their supervisors' (i.e., are remotely located), relatively little attention has been paid in the literature to the differences between managing co-and remote located salespeople. Accordingly, we test the moderating effect of salesperson location on the relationships between three supervisory orientations—output, activity, and capability—and salesperson satisfaction with supervisor and performance.The results show that salesperson location moderates the relationship between supervisory activity orientation and satisfaction such that activity orientation has a positive effect on the satisfaction of remote located salespeople, but a negative effect on the satisfaction of co-located salespeople. We find that end-results orientation is positively related to the satisfaction of co-located salespeople but not of remote located salespeople. Finally, supervisory capability orientation is positively linked to the performance of co-located salespeople but not of remote located salespeople. The results provide guidance for sales managers about how to structure their interactions with remote and proximally close salespeople.

Impact of Personality on Sales Manager Leadership Style

ABSTRACT Much research in sales management has examined the impact sales manager leadership styles have on salesperson work outcomes. What has not been investigated is what factors may lead an individual to adopt one leadership approach over an alternate. Theorists in organizational behavior posit that personality characteristics may be predictive of the leadership style an individual employs. This paper reports the results of a study that explored whether two key personality variables-extraversion and neuroticism-are related to three prominent leadership styles-laissez-faire, transaction-al, and charismatic. The findings support the overriding hypothesis that the two personality variables are strongly related to and account for a substantial portion of the variance in the three leadership styles. Implications for sales management practice and research are provided.

Closeness of supervision and salesperson work outcomes: An alternate perspective

Researchers in sales management have given considerable attention to the influence that closeness of supervision has on sales personnel. Findings from previous investigations, however, tend to be inconsistent and inconclusive regarding the relationship between closeness of supervision and salesperson work outcomes. A possible reason for the incompatible findings may be that prior research generally has focused on the perceived level of supervisory closeness, not the nature of that closeness. This paper reports results of a study that explored both the level and nature of closeness of sales supervision. Operationalization was based on the degree of active involvement sales managers have with their salespeople expressed in terms of differing leadership styles. Findings reveal that highly active involvement with salespeople generally has a more favorable impact on work outcomes of sales subordinates than inactive or moderately active involvement. Managerial and research implications of the results also are offered.

Influence of Role Stress on Industrial Salespeople's Work Outcomes in the United States, Japan and Korea

Role theory espouses, and extensive empirical research has found, that role stress can have deleterious effect on work outcomes of sales personnel. The findings of these investigations, however, are predicated on U.S.-based samples of salespeople. Whether similar results would be obtained with samples of salespersons in other countries has not yet been determined. This paper reports the results of a study that examined the impact of role stress on performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of industrial salespeople from the United States, Japan, and Korea. Tests of cross-national hypotheses indicate general consistency in the findings across the three countries.

Inequities in organizations, salesperson motivation and job satisfaction

This paper examines the effects of perceived inequities involving organizational rewards and favoritism on salesperson work motivation and job satisfaction. A set of hypothesis is proposed on the bases of equity/inequity theory and expectancy-valence theory literature in sales management and organizational psychology. These hypothesis are tested with data collected from a sales population. Findings indicate that salespersons' perceptions of various inequities can produce strong negative influence on their motivation to perform and on job satisfaction. Managerial implications of these findings are also discussed.

The effects on stressful organizational conditions on salesperson work motivation

This paper examines how organizational stress may contribute to intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of salesperson work motivation. Hypotheses generated on the basis of sales management and organizational stress literature are tested using data gathered from an insurance sales population. Results indicate that excessive role stress may produce a significant adverse impact on salespersons' intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation. Research findings are discussed from a managerial perspective.

Relative Importance of Key Job Dimensions and Leadership Behaviors in Motivating Salesperson Work Performance

This article examines the relative importance of key job dimensions and leadership characteristics in enhancing salesperson motivation and work performance. To gain a deeper insight, the relative effects of job dimensions and leadership behavior on intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation of salespersons are examined, with results indicating that key job dimensions are more instrumental in enhancing work motivation, and leadership behavior more influential in effecting extrinsic motivation. A number of major implications based on these findings are discussed.

The Effects on Stressful Organizational Conditions on Salesperson Work Motivation

The Effects on Stressful Organizational Conditions on Salesperson Work Motivation

Relative Importance of Key Job Dimensions and Leadership Behaviors in Motivating Salesperson Work Performance

This article examines the relative importance of key job dimensions and leadership characteristics in enhancing salesperson motivation and work performance. To gain a deeper insight, the relative e...