Social anxiety and salesperson performance: The roles of mindful acceptance and perceived sales manager support

Lussier, Bruno; Philp, Matthew; Hartmann, Nathaniel N.; Wieland, Heiko

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.042

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…To reduce the risk of bias, we followed a theoretical sampling procedure to identify sales professionals at different levels across different industries (Tuli et al , 2007). Participants had to have at least two years of sales experience, must be involved in day-to-day selling activities and must have annual sales quotas to qualify for our qualitative study (Lussier et al , 2021b). The interviewees had an average of 7.7 years (minimum 3 years: maximum 13 years) of experience in professional selling.…”

Section: Hypothesis Testing and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both supervisor and family work support positively influenced emotional and cognitive engagement. Salespeople consistently face rejection and failure (Boichuk et al , 2014), have elevated stress and social anxiety levels (Peasley et al , 2020; Jaramillo et al , 2011; Lussier et al , 2021b) and manage increasingly complex customer demands as well as those of business partners (Plouffe et al , 2016; Schmitz et al , 2014). In addition, salespeople already work most of the time away from their supervisor (Fu et al , 2009; Johnson and Sohi, 2014), and this has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the influence of supervisor and family work support on salespeople’s engagement and unethical behaviors

Lyngdoh

Chefor

Lussier

2022

JBIM

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Purpose Salespeople’s unethical behaviors have been the subject of extensive academic research and practitioner outcry. High pressure, complex selling environments and extant methods of monitoring, control and compensation of salespeople have been found to lead to short-term sales behaviors, such as lying, that are detrimental to both customers and firms in the long run. Furthermore, work and family pressures can lead to unethical sales behaviors. However, research on the impact of the social environment on unethical behaviors in sales is scant. This study aims to examine the impact of social factors (e.g. supervisor support and family work support) on salespeople’s unethical behaviors as a social exchange process in an emerging market context where work and family pressures are high. Specifically, the mediating role of emotional and cognitive engagement on the relationship between social support and unethical behaviors is investigated. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study was conducted to examine the relationship between social support (family work support and supervisor support), engagement (emotional and cognitive) and unethical behaviors. Survey data were collected from 496 salespeople from multiple industries in India, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. In addition, post hoc qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 salespeople to corroborate the findings. Findings Supervisor support is positively related to emotional and cognitive engagement and negatively related to unethical behaviors. Contrary to our hypothesis, family work support is positively related to unethical behaviors. However, this relationship becomes negative when the salesperson is emotionally and cognitively engaged with their work. Research limitations/implications This research enhances the understanding of the antecedents of unethical behaviors in sales. Supervisor support, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement reduce unethical behaviors. However, family work support increases unethical behaviors. The relationship between social support (supervisor and family work) and unethical behaviors is mediated by emotional and cognitive engagement. These findings offer sales managers dealing with increasing work and family pressures and the blurring of personal and professional life a way to motivate their sales force to act in a manner that benefits customers and the firm in the long run. Practical implications The findings offer insights on how sales managers and organizations can help design supportive work environments for their salespeople to help reduce unethical behaviors. The findings also highlight the importance of understanding salesperson family values during the hiring process and keeping salespeople engaged, especially while they work from home, are isolated from their work environment and spend more working hours at home with family members. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current research is the first to investigate the impact of family work support on unethical behaviors. This is timely and valuable as the current COVID-19 pandemic has increased the number of salespeople working from home, reduced sales performance and increased anxiety due to economic uncertainty, all of which could encourage unethical sales behaviors. This paper is also the first to investigate the mediating role of engagement on the effects of social support on unethical behaviors.

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Section: Hypothesis Testing and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion Of Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the influence of supervisor and family work support on salespeople’s engagement and unethical behaviors

Lyngdoh

Chefor

Lussier

2022

JBIM

Self Cite

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On average, we found respondents to be quite independent, as our sample was collected in the USA. Average percentage of the sales quota achieved based on the assigned quota was collected to measure sales performance (Lussier et al, 2021;Mulki and Lassk, 2019). Job satisfaction was included in the model as a covariate to control its possible impact on SOCO and value co-creation behavior (Alnakhli et al, 2020;Pettijohn et al, 2007).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salesperson moral identity and value co-creation

Chonko

Agnihotri

2022

EJM

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of salesperson moral identity centrality in value co-creation. This study identified and tested an extended identity-based formation process of selling orientation, customer orientation and value co-creation. This was accomplished by examining the role of inclusion of others in the self and circle of moral regard in the mechanism through which moral identity centrality impacts selling orientation, customer orientation and value co-creation, taking into account the contingency role of salesperson self-construal. Design/methodology/approach An extended identity-behavior model grounded in identity theory and the social-cognitive perspective of moral identity centrality was tested. The study used survey data from business-to-business salespeople. Data collected was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The results show that a central moral identity to a salesperson’s self-drives higher expansion of the salesperson’s circle of moral regard. This process facilitates the mechanisms for salesperson moral identity centrality to decrease selling orientation and increase customer orientation and value co-creation, leading to higher sales performance. Independent self-construal is found to deteriorate the positive effects of salesperson moral identity centrality on the inclusion of others in the self, expansion of the circle of moral regard and customer orientation. Research limitations/implications Through the conceptualized and tested framework, the study opens the door for additional research to inspect the role of moral identity centrality in sales. Practical implications Findings have implications for the human resource side of sales organizations in the areas of recruitment, mentoring, coaching and training. Moral identity centrality plays a vital role in the interface between salespeople and customers, leading to improved behavioral and sales outcomes. Sales managers must look for their salespeople’s moral identity centrality to improve morality in the attitudes and decision-making of their salesforce. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to uncover the vital impacts of salesperson moral identity centrality on selling orientation, customer orientation and value co-creation. Through the conceptualized and tested framework, the study opens the door for additional research to inspect the role of moral identity centrality in sales.

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“…Mindfulness has drawn substantial scholarly attention since the proposition of the Mindfulness Theory by Ellen Langer in 1998 (Decuypere et al. , 2021; Lussier et al. , 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turnover intentions of non-family employees in family firms – the influence of leader mindfulness, LMX quality and affective commitment

Razzak

Alam

Riyami

et al. 2023

JFBM

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PurposeLeveraging the mindfulness theory and the social exchange theory, this study examines the influence of perceived leader mindfulness (PLM) on turnover intentions (TOI) of non-family employees (NFEs) working in family firms. The study investigates whether the above relationship is mediated by employee perceptions of leader–member exchange quality (LMX quality) and their affective commitment (AC).Design/methodology/approachA conceptual framework is proposed that hypothesizes inverse relationship between PLM and TOI, which is posited to be mediated by both LMX quality and AC. The hypotheses are tested through survey data collected from 254 NFEs working in various family-owned businesses in Malaysia. The data analyzed through partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results indicate that PLM has a positive influence on both LMX quality and AC. Moreover, PLM has a strong negative affect on TOI. In terms of results of mediation analysis, it appears that two mediation hypotheses out of four are significant, that is mediating effect of AC between PLM and TOI and LMX quality between PLM and AC. However, the mediating role of LMX quality between PLM and TOI and the sequential mediation hypotheses were both non-significant.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study imply is that to ensure retention of qualified and talented NFEs, mindfulness of family firm leaders plays a significant role in ensuring lower TOI. Furthermore, such a goal is better achieved by ensuring that such employees are supported through leadership that leads to their development of better LMX quality and AC towards the organization. The study however is limited, as other potential exogenous variables that may influence TOI were not considered.Practical implicationsLosing employees that join a firm and acquire valuable skills and experience is a significant concern for family firms that are known for discriminating between employees related to the owners and outsiders. This study presents evidence for owners and managers of family firms that by focusing on mindful behavior and working towards developing better LMX quality and AC of NFEs, the organization can reduce TOI of such employees.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the under-researched and fragmented literature on relationships between PLM among NFEs and TOI of such individuals working in family firms. Moreover, this appears to be the first study that investigates mediating roles of and LMX quality and AC among NFEs in the above relationship.

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Social anxiety and salesperson performance: The roles of mindful acceptance and perceived sales manager support

Cited by 21 publications

References 69 publications

Exploring the influence of supervisor and family work support on salespeople’s engagement and unethical behaviors

Exploring the influence of supervisor and family work support on salespeople’s engagement and unethical behaviors

Salesperson moral identity and value co-creation

Turnover intentions of non-family employees in family firms – the influence of leader mindfulness, LMX quality and affective commitment

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