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Abstract:
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Developing an understanding of factors that explain the job-related outcomes of salespeople is important to sales management. As such, considerable attention has been paid to expanding our knowledge of these phenomena. Although much progress has been made, the empirical evidence remains largely weak, inconsistent, and/or incomplete. In particular, models investigating the impact of human characteristics (i.e., leader, group, and person) on outcomes such as role stress, motivation, and performance have been problematic. This study helps clarify prior research by investigating the moderating effect of organizational control.
Two basic systems were used in the analysis: Behavior- Based and Outcome-Based. Organizational theory maintains that behavior-based control systems are characterized by relatively high levels of formal direction, monitoring, and evaluation of sales behaviors. Conversely, outcome-based control systems are theorized to place less emphasis on controlling sales behaviors and more emphasis on controlling actual outcomes. Additionally, salespeople operating under a behavior-based control system are theorized to be rewarded with a higher proportion of salary to total compensation, while salespeople operating under an outcome-based control system are theorized to be rewarded with a higher proportion of incentives such as commissions and/or bonuses. The scale developed for this study suggests that reward orientation may be an independent dimension of organizational control.
Subsequent analyses suggests that organizational control can have a moderating effect. For example, the Type A Behavior Pattern was found to be more strongly associated with motivation under behavior-based control than under outcome-based control. This suggests that the social comparisons implicit under a behavior-based control system may serve to trigger motivational arousal in Type A individuals. The results also suggest that role ambiguity and motivation are more strongly associated with performance under behavior-based control than under outcome-based control. Other relationships were found to be stronger under outcome-based control. For example, the impact of locus of control and experience on role ambiguity was found to be stronger under outcome-based control than under behavior-based control. In essence, role ambiguity increased under outcome-based control. Although contrary to expectations, the results suggest that organizational control does not moderate the relationship between initiating structure and any of the outcome variables. The lack of a significant moderating relationship is inconsistent with prior organizational control theory and associated theories in the area of substitutes for leadership. |