William A. Weeks

The Effects of Gender and Career Stage on Ethical Judgment

This article reports the findings of a survey examining if there are gender and career stage differences between male and female practitioners regarding ethical judgment. The results show that, on average, females adopted a more strict ethical stance than their male counterparts on 7 out of 19 vignettes. Males on the other hand, demonstrated a more ethical stance than their female counterparts on 2 out of 19 vignettes. The results furthermore indicate there is a significant difference in ethical judgment across career stages. Overall, it appears that practitioners in later career stages display higher ethical judgment than practitoners in lower career stages. Implications are provided for both practitioners and academicians.

Corporate codes of ethics and sales force behavior: A case study

A growing public concern regarding ethical business conduct has stimulated marketing research in the ethics area. This study is the first empirical research to investigate the relationship between a code of ethics and sales force behavior. The findings present preliminary evidence that a well communicated code of ethics may be related to ethical sales force behavior. Furthermore, it appears that a sales force that is employed in such an environment can be profiled as being relatively high in job performance and receiving equally high satisfaction from their positions. Suggestions are made for future research and recommendations are offered for marketing practitioners.

The Effect of Perceived Ethical Climate on the Search for Sales Force Excellence

This study investigates the relationship of perceived ethical climate to individual commitment to quality, organizational commitment, and performance among business-to-business salespeople from two companies. The results indicate a firm’s ethical climate has an effect on its sales force. Salesperson’s perceptions of a positive organization ethical climate are positively related with their individual commitment to quality and organizational commitment. Although ethical climate does not have a direct effect on performance, it does have an indirect effect on performance when using individual commitment to quality and organizational commitment as intervening variables. Furthermore, the findings suggest an association exists between individual commitment to quality and performance. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Ethics in Salesperson Decision Making: A Synthesis of Research Approaches and an Extension of the Scenario Method

An overview and synthesis of sales force ethics research approaches is presented. Existing approaches are extended by the use of sequenced scenarios which require respondents to multiple scenarios concerning the same ethics issues. Use of scenario sequences allows for changes in “significant others” and in information related to ethics issues. Examination of changes in salesperson decision making can be undertaken with this approach. Suggestions for research using sequenced scenarios and possible covariates are presented.

Organizational Readiness for Change, Individual Fear of Change, and Sales Manager Performance: An Empirical Investigation

Sales organizations are experiencing a period of increasing change in the marketplace. Consequently, firms must strive to develop and implement successful change initiatives. Previous research has had limited success in explaining the factors that are associated with successful versus unsuccessful change initiatives. This study examines perceptions of an organization’s readiness for change and individual fear of change as they relate to individual performance. Three hundred and fortythree sales managers from several industries participated in this study. A significant positive association was found between a sales manager’s perception of his or her organization’s readiness for change and his or her own job performance. When taking into consideration a sales manager’s fear of change, the aforementioned relationship between perceived organizational readiness for change and sales manager job performance is enhanced. Implications for academicians and practitioners are provided along with directions for future research.

Marketing ethics: is there more to it than the utilitarian approach?

Of all the management fields, marketing is probably that which seems the most paradoxical when it comes time to consider its ethical aspect. This paradox stems from the fact that the main objective of marketing is to respond to the needs of consumers. Yet these same consumers often take marketing to task out of a concern for certain of its manifestations, such as advertising or pricing. Since they endeavour to satisfy consumers’ needs, marketing managers often take it for granted that their actions are ethical. Underlying this position is an essentially utilitarian approach to ethics. Attempts to determine to what extent marketing fulfils the basic principles of the utilitarian ethic. Adopting the position that the utilitarian and the deontological approach ‐ a belief that certain things are inherently good to do (also referred as duty‐based ethics) ‐ do not have to be mutually exclusive, proposes a third direction, that is a combination of both of these approaches. Concludes by suggesting the necessity for managers to integrate a deontological dimension in their practices.

Cognitive Moral Development and the Impact of Perceived Organizational Ethical Climate on the Search for Sales Force Excellence: A Cross-Cultural Study

An empirical study using moral ethical development, perceived ethical climate, and outcomes of perceived ethical climate was conducted in Mexico and compared to an existing U.S. sample of salespeople. Across the two national cultures, it appears there is consistency in a positive significant relationship between ethical climate and individual commitment to quality, and organizational commitment and salesperson performance. However, whereas moral ethical development is negatively associated with perceived organizational ethical climate for Mexican salespeople, there is no such relationship for U.S. salespeople. Ethical climate positively influences organizational commitment for the U.S. salespeople but has no influence for Mexican salespeople. Similarly, individual commitment to quality positively affects performance for the U.S. salespeople but has no impact for the Mexican salespeople. Hofstede’s (1983; 1984) cultural dimensions are used to help explain the findings, and implications for practitioners are offered.

Selling and Sales Management in Action: Reward Preferences of Salespeople

Previous research has not addressed to any large extent the relative importance that salespeople attach to various types of motivators. Using a paired-comparison approach with a national sample of salespeople, this study reports their perceived importance for pay raises, promotion opportunities, recognition, incentive awards, and fringe benefits. In addition to determining that pay raises receive the greatest importance, many other interesting findings emerged. The results of this study can be used as one basis for managers in developing or modifying reward plans.

Salespeople's Time Use and Performance

Previous research has found the proportion of time spent with customers is not related to several objective measures of concurrent performance. This article focuses on the results that emerged from a field study that investigated potential associations between time spent calling on accounts and annual sales and subjective sales performance. While time spent calling on potential accounts does not influence either measure of performance, time spent calling on established accounts is associated with subjective sales performance. Ones career stage does not appear to moderate this relationship, although it is an independent predictor of how much time salespeople allocate to established accounts. Suggestions are made for future research and recommendations are offered for marketing practitioners.

Sales Training: Status and Needs

Initial training, continuing education and management development activities continue to receive attention in the industrial sector (Honeycutt and Ford 1991). For example, recent reports indicate that organizations spend upwards of