Relationship management in the sales organization: an examination of leadership style and cultural orientation in sales manager and salesperson dyads

Brent A. Smith

doi:10.17918/etd-274

The sales organization is uniquely distinct from other organizations within the firm. Its members bear the firm's most direct relationship to commercial goals, such as revenues, profits, and market share. While organizational research has advanced our understanding of how structure, culture, and leadership operate towards the realization of those goals at the corporate level (Ouchi 1985), substantive gaps exist in our comprehension of those same factors directly within the sales organization. In particular, the extant literature generally fails to address to these factors in the context of sales manager-salesperson relationship dyads. Given that sales managers function as leaders of salespersons, the firm's primary representatives to customers, more research should be devoted towards learning how to they can optimize relationships with their subordinates. Amidst a recent wave of pressures, such as workplace diversity, job turnover, and global competition for talented salespersons, today's sales managers have been especially compelled to discern effective means to improve their interactions with their salespersons. The research reflected in this dissertation builds on current knowledge and addresses critical voids within the sales management literature pertaining to structure, culture, and leadership within sales manager-salesperson dyads. Underlying the general scope of the research is the notion that "Culture is a fundamental aspect of marketing phenomena, with increasing relevance in the global era" (Penaloza and Gilly 1999). This dissertation embodies a careful and pioneering synthesis of thought from the organizational sciences, management, marketing, and sales literatures. The research empirically investigates the role of culture and leadership in affecting relationships between sales managers and salespersons. A few critical research questions are examined in this dissertation: (1) Do individual differences based on culture have an impact on sales manager and salesperson relationships? (2) Does leadership have an impact on sales manager and salesperson relationships? (3) Does leadership affect the influence of individual cultural differences on sales manager and salesperson relationships? This dissertation advances the extant literature by presenting a model that uniquely considers the concept of culture in a three-fold manner, namely (1) within a single country, (2) within the sales organization, and (3) at the individual level within sales manager and salesperson relationship dyads. While dyadic research in sales management has generally focused on external salesperson and customer relationships, more complementary knowledge is needed in the area of internal sales manager and salesperson relationships (Yammarino 1997). This research model addresses past suggestions for new contributions that build on the importance of culture within the sales organization and enhance our understanding of interpersonal relationship between sales managers and salespersons (Jackson, Tax, and Barnes 1994). Additionally, this dissertation investigates the conceptual assertions of leadership's role in affecting relationships and behaviors at the dyadic and individual level (Yammarino 1997).

Relationship management in the sales organization: an examination of leadership style and cultural orientation in sales manager and salesperson dyads

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Relationship management in the sales organization: an examination of leadership style and cultural orientation in sales manager and salesperson dyads

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