Alcohol Abuse in the Sales Force

Abstract

Much of the literature on the problem of alcohol abuse in the nation and in the work place implies that salespeople should be particularly susceptible to problem drinking. Most discussion of alcohol abuse by salespeople has been anecdotal and speculative in nature, however, and little empirical research has been reported to support the anecdotes and speculations. This study examines the problem of sales force alcohol abuse and reports the findings of a nationwide survey of field sales managers concerning the extent of this problem in the nation's sales forces, the methods of dealing with alcohol-abusing salespeople, and factors related to problem drinking in the sales force. Implications for sales managers, sales management educators and trainers, and researchers in the field of sales and sales management are also discussed.     

Organizational Commitment in the Sales Force

Abstract

Research concerning the determinants of salesperson performance has emphasized expectancy theory. While results of such studies have added greatly to our understanding of sales force behavior, the expectancy theory approach has been questioned concerning its ability to explain consistency in behavior. A potential alternative explanation for behavioral consistency lies in the concept of organizational commitment. This paper explores organizational commitment in a sales setting, discussing research findings from other disciplines and providing a conceptual framework to help guide future research in sales management.     

Congruence in Sales Force Evaluations: Relation to Sales Force Perceptions of Conflict and Ambiguity

Abstract

This research examined the relationship between salespersons' perceptions of role conflict and role ambiquity from various sources and the degree of agreement between salespeople and sales managers on salesperson performance. Three sources of role ambiguity were found to explain the most variance in performance congruence. Implications for management are discussed.     

Cellular Telephones and the National Sales Force

The cellular telephone has become a popular, worldwide business tool. The use of cellular telephones has been purported to increase productivity and boost responsiveness. In this paper, major issues in cellular telephone technology are presented. A case study which examines the process of adoption, implementation, and utilization of cellular telephones in a national sales force is presented. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Effects of Sales Force Automation use on Sales Force Activities and Customer Relationship Management Processes

This study defines a framework for understanding the impact of sales force automation (SFA) on customer relationship management (CRM) processes from the perspective of information systems and motivation theories. Investigating the relationship between these processes, with sales activities as the common link, sheds new light on several crucial issues. To enrich this study, two alternative models that distinguish the efficiency and effectiveness of salespersons’ activities also are formulated. Data from a longitudinal field study demonstrate that different SFA functionalities generate counterintuitive effects on sales activities. The main outcomes of SFA implementation in CRM processes include a mostly negative effect of SFA reporting and conflicting but complementary and globally positive effects of SFA call planning and product configuration.     

Sales Technologies,Sales Force Management,and Online Infomediaries

An information intermediary (or infomediary) is an online firm that plays an important role in the information component of a transaction but not in the logistics component. Infomediary sales channels in which leads that originate online are converted to sales by an offline sales force are particularly important in areas such as automobile retailing, real estate, insurance, mortgages, and many other contexts. This research examines the role of sales technologies and the organization of the sales force in creating value for infomediary sales channels, formally examining channel outcomes using an analytical model and empirically examining channel outcomes using a survey of 678 automobile dealerships. The analyses indicate that adoption of sales technologies for lead management and channel-specific salespeople influence leads purchased (from infomediaries) and infomediary channel sales for the retailer. These findings integrate important technologies from outside the organization (infomediaries) and technologies and management structures inside the organization (sales technologies for lead management and channel-specific salespeople) into an understanding of retailer use of infomediary channels. These findings also suggest that it is in the best interest of infomediaries to offer sales technology and services to retailers, bundling information products with technologies for channel management.     

Suicide and Drug Abuse in the Medical Community

ABSTRACT: In the United States each year the equivalent of an average-size medical school graduating class commits suicide, with the highest incidence occurring in the decade following the completion of training. Of these suicides, 20% to 30% are associated with drug abuse and 40% with alcoholism. Various problem areas are considered. Role strain, leading to excessive drug use in an attempt to increase work efficiency, is coupled with a denial of the physician's own dependency needs and gratification. The problem of identity occurs in relation to the exaggerated sense of duty and obligation the physician feels in attending to the demands of the patients and their families. Medicine as magical thinking is also discussed, revealing the physician's belief in his own immunity, which is strenuously tested when he actually sets up in practice. The community's high regard for the physician further complicates the situation. Too little has been done about working with emotional problems of medical students during their training and after they begin to practice. Unfortunately, physicians feel uncomfortable in turning to colleagues for help; rather, they tend to isolate themselves, resorting to alcohol and drugs. One should question the selection of medical students and their overall training, not only in terms of academic learning but also with more consideration for the stresses and strains of the future career.     

Sales Force Compensation Plans Incorporating Multidimensional Sales Effort and Salesperson Efficiency

Sales force compensation models are often constrained by the assumption that salesperson effort is unidimensional. Some models have extended this scenario to multiple products but retain the “single-effort” assumption. In addition, salesperson efficiency has been ignored. As selling is clearly multidimensional, we present a formulation of an agency model (MIPAM) that incorporates multidimensional sales effort as well as salesperson efficiency. Using the model, we also show that under certain assumptions, we can build the second-order condition of the agent’s maximization into the principalagent problem, instead of assuming it, as has been done in the past.     

An Exploratory Model and Initial Test of the Influence of Firm Level Consulting-Oriented Sales Force Programs on Sales Force Performance

This study investigates several proposed relationships between consulting-oriented sales force programs and long run growth of industrial organizations. To operationalize the proposed model, the work introduces twenty-two new measures of consulting-oriented sales programs. Relationships are tested using a sample of industrial sales managers and corresponding, longitudinal firm performance data. Initial consulting-oriented sales training is the strongest influence on firm performance. Evidence suggests combining this training with consulting-oriented ongoing training, evaluation, and compensation programs.     

Case Studies in the Family Treatment of Drug Abuse

This article, with case illustrations, attempts to demonstrate that drug-abuse behavior can be understood more clearly in the light of family loyalties and unresolved family crises than from the perspective that drug abusers are social deviates.1 Drug abuse is viewed as symptomatic, as a signal that both drug abuser and his or her family are having difficulty in getting past a particular stage in the natural unfolding life cycle of a family. Treatment of drug abuse is seen primarily as helping the family to become "unstuck," thereby freeing the individual's and family's energy for the task of self-development and growth rather than expending it to maintain rigid patterns of interaction in an attempt to prevent change.     

Testing Competing Models of Sales Force Communication

Based upon findings from the organizational communication, management, and marketing literatures, this study evaluates three competing models describing sales force communication. The results of the analysis suggest that the theorized PEO (Sales Manager Communication Practices? Sales Force Communication Environment? Salesperson Communication and Job Outcomes) Model best accounts for the relations between sales manager communication practices and salesperson communication and job outcomes. Specifically, the PEO Model holds that sales manager communication practices are positively associated with salesperson perceptions of communication quality. Communication quality is positively associated with salesperson satisfaction with communication; salesperson communication satisfaction is positively related to salesperson's job satisfaction and organizational commitment. These results and their implications for developing an effective sales force communication environment are detailed.     

Marketing Control and Sales Force Customer Orientation

This study is predicated on the premise that internal sales force control mechanisms are strategic and operational forces that directly affect the behaviors of the sales force and their accompanying orientation toward customers. Sales managers represent a very different component of the sales force than salespeople. Their motivations, interests, role, and methods of operations all represent different approaches than those embraced by their coworkers: salespeople. Yet, although sales managers operate under an outcome-based control system and can be expected, to some degree, to be motivated by selfinterest (Oliver and Anderson 1994), upper management expects managers to be directed by organizational needs. However, in a results-oriented environment, the foundation of many compensation systems, sales quotas can focus sellers and managers in a direction inconsistent with customer-oriented selling (particularly if this behavior is deemed necessary to achieve quota). Based on this premise, this study examines the influence of sales managers’ quotas on their response to salespeople’s unethical behavior and its resulting effect on the customer orientation of the sales force. To fully explore this condition, this study also examines the role of an important formal process control, the ethical climate (e.g., rules and regulations), in influencing customer orientation. Providing important implications to sales organizations, results indicat that sales quotas can negatively affect sales force customer orientation via their effect on sales managers’ responses to salespeople’s selling behaviors. Interestingly, however, the company’s ethical climate was found to positively influence sales force customer orientation.     

Editorial: Drug Abuse and AIDS

Abstract

The present article presents an overview of the behavioral and psychological components which have been found to be associated with Type A behaviors in children and adolescents. Each component is discussed within the context of the assessment device used to measure it. with methodological concerns being addressed whenever appropriate. Using both observational methods and self-report questionnaires. the four major behavioral components of adult Type A behavior; competitive-achievement striving, time urgency, aggressiveness-hostility and impatience have been found in child/adolescent Type A subjects. Type A children have a lower self-esteem, a more external locus of control and higher anxiety level than their non-Type A counterpart. Coping mechanisms for stress and characteristic cognitions may differ in Type A subjects as they progress from childhood through adolescence. Recommendations for future research are presented.     

The Family Dance Around Drug Abuse

The article describes the interactivity of relationships and dynamics of a family with a chemically abusive member.     

Roles of the Drug Abuse Counselor in a Correctional Facility

This article focuses on the variety of roles that counselors working with drug offenders are expected to undertake. The authority, counseling, and intercessor roles are discussed, as well as the unwritten roles that are assumed by drug abuse counselors. Potential role conflicts and their effects, both on drug abuse counselors and on their clients, are addressed.     

Examining the Impact of Servant Leadership on Sales Force Performance

Much has been written about the importance of focusing on customers to drive organizational success. In this paper, aspects of manager–salesperson relationships are examined as drivers of deeper customer focus in salesperson–customer interactions. In particular, managers’ servant leadership, a leadership style emphasizing genuine concern for subordinate welfare, is examined as a catalyst of parallel concern by salespeople for their customers. Salesperson perceptions of managers’ servant leadership empirically relate to salesperson customer orientation, in turn driving adaptive selling behaviors, customer-directed extra-role behaviors, and sales performance outcomes. Other results and implications for management and sales leadership research are presented.     

Prioritizing Sales Force Decision Areas for Productivity Improvements using a Core Sales Response Function

The time and budgets that managers can devote to enhancing sales force productivity are limited, so sales managers must decide where it is worthwhile to invest in productivity improvements—to improve salespeople’s current effort allocation, realign territories, enhance sales force sizing, or provide more training. To prioritize these alternatives, management must assess the outcomes of investments on the basis of a common metric—profit. This paper proposes to estimate a core sales response function that allows for quantifying the profits derived from each possible action and demonstrates the benefits of this approach through an actual case study.     

Corporate Culture and Sales Force Management in Japan and America

Abstract

Managers' personal values are a key aspect of corporate culture. Sales representatives' agreement with their managers' values (hereafter “value congruence”) can be expected to influence sales performance, satisfaction, and propensity to quit. These propositions are investigated in two countries. One hundred seventy-five sales representatives and 93 sales managers from a Japanese firm and 146 sales representatives and 21 sales managers from a comparable American firm participated in the study. A questionnaire was distributed to the managers and representatives. Value congruence was found to be weakly related to performance, but strongly related to satisfaction and propensity to quit for both cultural groups. The Japanese group was found to be higher in value congruence and propensity to quit, but lower in satisfaction. Suggested are implications for future research and for managers.     

The Role of Culture Strength in Shaping Sales Force Outcomes

Although a strong culture has been widely acknowledged as a defining characteristic of successful firms, past research has failed to examine the influence it exerts on the attitudes and behavior of salespeople. In a two-sample study, we measure culture strength and explore its relationship to value congruity and to three sales force outcomes that define the sales management research tradition: role stress, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Within the contexts of the sales subculture of a Fortune 500 firm (Study 1) and specialized sales organizations (Study 2), the results reveal a compelling portrait of the forces that shape salesperson–culture fit. Specifically, the results of both studies indicate that a strong culture leads to higher levels of value congruity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and lower levels of role stress. Key implications are highlighted for sales managers and for researchers.