Belén Bande

Servant leadership and ethics: a dyadic examination of supervisor behaviors and salesperson perceptions

This study uses dyadic data from 145 salespeople paired with their managers to investigate relationships among servant leadership, ethical work climate (EWC), behavior control, trust in supervisor (TS), and salesperson performance. The manuscript tests a conceptual model based on precepts from servant leadership, the services climate concept, and the EWC notion. Research findings show that servant leadership behaviors from management (SLMB) impact salesperson performance through a mediating process that involves servant leadership perceptions from the salesperson (SLSP) and EWC. Results also show that (1) behavioral control moderates the impact of SLMB on SLSP and (2) TS moderates the impact of SLSP on EWC.

Exploring the relationship among servant leadership, intrinsic motivation and performance in an industrial sales setting

Purpose – Although servant leadership (SL) improves the overall effectiveness of individuals and teams, it remains understudied. The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the mediating mechanisms through which perceived SL affects salespersons’ proactive and adaptive behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from 145 industrial salespeople and their supervisors across a variety of businesses and sectors in Spain. Findings – SL enhances salespeople’s adaptivity and proactivity by positively affecting their self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, SL directly shapes the development of adaptive behaviors among salespeople, although this direct influence is not significant when considering proactivity. Additionally, the use of outcome-based control mechanisms enhances the positive effects of SL on salespeople’s intrinsic motivation. Practical implications – The results demonstrate that sales managers can promote more proactive and adaptive behaviors among sales staff by re...

Supervisory servant leadership and employee’s work role performance: A multilevel mediation model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore whether employee’s perceived organizational support and organizational identification (OID) have a mediating role in the relationship between supervisor’s servant leadership and employee’s organization member performance. Design/methodology/approach The sample used in this study consists of 181 salespeople and 83 sales managers. The model entails a cross-level mediation process that was tested using dyadic data and multilevel structural equation modeling. Findings Findings show that sales managers’ servant leadership is directly and positively related to salespeople’s organization member performance. In addition, sales managers’ servant leadership is indirectly related to salespeople’s organization member performance through the salespeople’s perceived organizational support – salespeople’s OID chain. Practical implications In order to increase employee’s organizational member performance, employees with a “we” mentality and who feel the need to serve should be selected for and promoted to supervisors. To enhance employees’ perceived organizational support and OID is also important, as these factors will encourage employees to behave in the best interest of the organization. Originality/value This is the first study to provide evidence for the relationship between servant leadership and organization member performance, as well as the mediating roles of employee’s perceived organizational support and OID on this relationship.

Impression Management Tactics and Performance Ratings: A Moderated-Mediation Framework

ABSTRACT Purpose: The objective of this study is to contribute to the sales management literature by analyzing whether self-monitoring dimensions (the ability to adjust the presentation of one’s self and the sensitivity to the expressive behaviors of others) play a moderating role in the use of impression management—supervisor liking—performance rating nomological network. Methodology/approach: Empirical analysis is based on dyadic data from 122 industrial salespeople and their sales managers in 9 different industries. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the psychometric proprieties of the measurement scales, and conditional process analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Research implications: The results obtained indicate that the use of supervisor-focused impression management tactics is an indirect antecedent of a salesperson’s performance rating through sales manager liking, but not the self-focused tactics. Results also show that a self-monitoring dimension i.e., the ability to adjust the presentation of one’s self, moderates the “impression management—supervisor liking—performance rating” chain. These results provide an increased understanding of the processes involved in sales managers—salespeople’s interactions. Practical implications: The main implication for salespeople is that the use of impression management tactics to influence performance ratings only is effective when they use supervisor-focused tactics because attempts to influence via self-focused tactics will not have any effect. The most important implication for sales managers’ is that not all impression management tactics are successfully executed and that the identification of combinations of impression management tactics and the levels of salespeople’s self-monitoring can positively influence performance appraisals by generating evaluative biases. Given that evaluative biases can produce inequitable behaviors by sales managers in the task assignments and support provided to the salespeople, it is important that sales managers are aware of when they can occur (i.e., when salespeople with a moderate ability to adjust their self-presentation use supervisor-focused tactics). Originality/value/contribution of the article: This article contributes to the existing knowledge by two important means. First, this study proposes a model and presents an empirical test of constructs that mediate (i.e., supervisor liking) and moderate (i.e., self-monitoring dimensions) the “use of impression management tactics—sales manager liking—performance appraisal” relation. This model responds to calls for studies that analyze how impression management tactics are related to performance appraisal and when the relation between the use of these tactics and performance rating occurs. Two, this study uses data from both salespeople and their sales managers, which minimizes any risk of common method variance bias.

How and When Does Emotional Intelligence Influence Salesperson Adaptive and Proactive Performance

Salesperson adaptivity and proactivity are two emergent forms of sales performance that are particularly important when work requirements cannot be clearly anticipated and employees need to address complex situations. This study attempts to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the underlying mechanism that links emotional intelligence (EI), an ability that is considered fundamental in customer interactions, to adaptive and proactive performance. A dyadic sample of industrial salespeople and their immediate supervisors reveals that EI has a positive influence on salesperson adaptivity and proactivity through its effect on their perceived self‐efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Additionally, the indirect effect of self‐efficacy on adaptive and proactive sales performance is found to depend on a salespersons perceived organizational support and ability to bounce back. Certain implications of this study, as well as suggestions for future research, are also addressed.