Belén Bande Vilela

Impression management tactics and affective context: influence on sales performance appraisal

Purpose – Despite the recognition that the subordinates influence is a particularly noteworthy feature of the social context with considerable potential to affect the performance evaluation process, there are almost no studies that consider this influence in a selling context. Attempting to contribute to address these needs, the model presented here depicts a number of social and situational factors influencing supervisors rating of salespersons performance, primarily operating through affective processes.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 122 salespeople and their immediate managers from 35 firms pertaining to nine different industries.Findings – SEM results indicated that supervisor‐focused impression management was positively related to the supervisors liking of the salesperson. Consistent as well with prior research is the positive influence of supervisors affect towards salesperson on the supervisors ratings of sales performance, both directly and indirectly, through the eff...