Christophe Fournier

The Moderating Role of Ethical Climate on Salesperson Propensity to Leave

Recruiting and retaining high-performing salespeople are two of the most difficult tasks facing sales managers today. Yet researchers have observed inconclusive results for many factors theorized to lead to turnover, raising the question of possible moderating factors. In this paper, we consider ethical climate and the potential for a moderating relationship for ethical climate on factors linked to turnover. Results of a study of 130 salespeople in various industries indicate that ethical climate moderates the influence of performance on intentions to leave, with higher-performing salespeople reporting greater intentions to leave in the lower ethical climate condition. Differences for other variables have implications for previously inconsistent results.

Executives' perspectives of the changing role of the sales profession: views from France, the United States, and Mexico

Purpose – This paper aims to present perceptions of sales executives from three countries regarding expectations for the future of the sales profession and sales position.Design/methodology/approach – Results of a thematic interpretation of in‐depth interviews are presented, using several agenda‐setting articles as a foundation.Findings – Executives struggle with how salespeople should add value, especially in todays multi‐channel environment. Greater professionalization is needed in countries where the state of the profession is less developed. Emergent strategy is practiced but not universally. Sales executives generally believe that little incremental value in technology can be gained, though it is apparent that technology is not being fully utilized. Other findings are also discussed.Research limitations/implications – Researchers should consider classifying sales research by sales strategy rather than industry or country unless those aspects are factors being studied; further, questions such as how ...

Neglected Burnout Dimensions: Effect of Depersonalization and Personal Nonaccomplishment on Organizational Commitment of Salespeople

As boundary spanners, salespeople experience stressful situations on a regular basis. Prolonged exposure to stress is known to lead to burnout. This research focuses on two neglected dimensions of burnout, namely, depersonalization and personal nonaccomplishment, specifically as they relate to salespeople. A sample of 221 French salespeople is used to explore the link between depersonalization and personal nonaccomplishment on a salesperson’s organizational commitment after controlling for emotional exhaustion, role conflict, and role ambiguity. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that role conflict positively influences depersonalization, whereas decision latitude has a negative influence. Decision latitude also negatively influences personal nonaccomplishment and role conflict moderates this relationship. Both depersonalization and personal nonaccomplishment negatively influence organizational commitment. Managerial implications are provided.

Critical Evaluation of Porter et al.'s Organizational Commitment Questionnaire: Implications for Researchers

Organizational commitment is a useful construct for understanding employee behavior. The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Porter et al. 1974) has been used extensively to operationalize this construct, but its dimensionality is unclear. The present work assesses the dimensionality of the OCQ using two sales force samples.

The Impact of Time Congruity on Salesperson’s Role Stress: A Person–Job Fit Approach

One way organizations can sustain a competitive advantage is by better understanding the antecedents of role stress and reducing it for current and future salespeople. This paper introduces how salespeople’s individual time personalities, their job time personalities, and the person–job fit concept can be used to create time congruity and enhance an organization’s recruiting strategies. A general proposition and research methodology are offered for future research. Managerial implications are provided that suggest how management can assess time congruity within their organization and strive to achieve it in the future.

Polychronicity and Scheduling’s Role in Reducing Role Stress and Enhancing Sales Performance

Organizations can pursue a competitive advantage by guarding and enhancing one of its most precious marketplace assets—the sales force. Hiring salespeople who are suited for their role is critical within an increasingly global and competitive environment, and doing so generates dividends for increasing sales force retention, sales productivity, and performance. In addition to effective recruiting, reducing role stress is one way to achieve an acceptable sales force retention rate. Today salespeople must overcome the now frazzled pace of a hypercompetitive selling environment and splice their time effectively across customers and opportunities. This study introduces the impact that polychronicity—an employee’s preference for switching between multiple tasks within the same block of time—has on job performance and the components of role stress, role ambiguity, and role conflict. Findings demonstrate that a polychronic orientation has a positive impact on performance and a negative impact on role ambiguity. A salesperson’s propensity for scheduling and meeting deadlines reveals similar effects and highlights the desirability of hiring salespeople who are both disciplined and adaptive with their time.

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Stereotype for Salespeople Professionalizing the Profession

The purpose of this research is to investigate the image of salespeople and of the selling function as perceived by business students across cultures. Of the several empirical investigations that exist in the sales literature, most are based on a single-country sample. This study extends previous knowledge on single-country perception of salespeople by conducting a quantitative survey of business students in Cameroon, France, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. Substantial differences and similarities are found across countries on salesperson’s image, feelings in the presence of a salesperson, as well as the perception of a career in sales. They all appear to be influenced by cultural values. Several practical strategic implications are suggested, including examining cultural values to identify the origin of negative images, careful gatekeeping to promote professional positions, and supporting mobility of both students and faculty. Finally, limitations to the findings are presented with suggested future research directions.

The salesperson's role clarity and task clarity in direct marketing

Abstract Direct marketing is being used more and more often to support, rather than take the place of, salespeople in the field. However, when new techniques are not properly introduced, many salespeople reject them, either because they fear being replaced by the new methods or because they feel inadequate about their potential effectiveness in the operations launched. The present study shows how certain characteristics of the salesperson and certain organizational measures can increase the salespersons perception of both role clarity (the part played by direct marketing in the company strategy) and task clarity (the direct marketing skills of the sales staff).

An International Study of Culture, Gender, and Moral Ideology on Sales Ethics Evaluations: How Should Educators Respond?:

While international demand for sales positions is growing, negative sales stereotypes, partially fueled by ethical abuses in the sales arena, are prevalent and may dissuade students from pursuing sales careers. To help combat the situation globally, educators must develop and utilize effective sales ethics pedagogies. The first step involves understanding cross-cultural sales ethics perspectives. A convenience sample is drawn from five countries (United States, France, Germany, Indonesia, and New Zealand), and the Personal Selling Ethics Scale (PSE-2) is successfully used to examine culturally specific and gender-based evaluation differences. Gender-based ethical perspectives are of particular interest due to the growing gender diversity within sales professions. The study finds that cultural traditionalism/secularism and individualism/collectivism affect sales ethics evaluations. Likewise, gender and moral ideology affect evaluations. Women are more sensitive to ethical misconduct than men, and absolutist are more sensitive than exceptionists, situationists, and subjectivists. Specific pedagogical recommendations are provided.

A Cross Cultural Investigation of the Stereotype for Salespeople

The purpose of this research is to investigate the image of salespeople and of the selling function as perceived by business students across several cultures. Of the several empirical investigations that exist in the sales literature, most consider samples from a single country. A quantitative survey conducted on students living in five countries (Cameroon, France, Japan Mexico and United States) was implemented. A significant culture effect was observed on salesperson’s image, feelings in presence of a salesperson as well as perception of a career in sales. The implications of the findings are discussed for sales education, hiring practices, and research.