Compliance versus preference: Understanding salesperson response to contests

Bringing meaning to the sales job: The effect of ethical climate and customer demandingness

“…They argue that this relationship occurs because challenge stressors motivate employees to perform at higher levels. This is consistent with findings in sales contest research which shows that perceived contest difficulty is related to effort (Poujol, Fournier, & Tanner, 2011). Therefore, we hypothesize:…”

The contingent roles of R&D–sales versus R&D–marketing cooperation in new-product development of business-to-business firms

“…Salesperson performance may be easily quantified (e.g., based on sales volume) and is often visibly communicated in a sales department (Krafft 1999). For instance, to foster competition among salespeople, sales managers regularly communicate monthly or even daily rankings of each individual salesperson's performance (Poujol, Fournier, & Tanner 2011). Hence, salespeople are often familiar with performance levels of their colleagues, promoting the establishment of hierarchies in sales department (Ibarra & Andrews 1993), again contributing to a departmental culture of high power distance in sales.…”

Gender and Autonomy-Supportive Contexts: Theoretical Perspectives of Self-Determination and Goal Setting

“…Accordingly, goal difficulty refers to the degree to which the goals assigned by a supervisor are attainable, whereas goal specificity is defined as the extent to which the goals are clearly defined by a supervisor, and goal participation is the degree of involvement of salespeople in setting the goals. Poujol, Fournier, and Tanner Jr (2011) posited that goal acceptance is also independently predictive of effort and performance, but the combination of perceived contest difficulty and acceptance yields the highest levels of effort and performance. In addition, be sure to raise the level of specific goals and secure the commitment to the goals in order to increase performance.…”