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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between personality traits and both job and career satisfaction among salespeople. The authors also wished to examine the extent to which biologically based personality traits provided insights into job and career satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used latent profile analysis (LPA) to assess a sample of 299 salespeople along the dimensions of emotional stability, extraversion, work drive, teamwork orientation, customer service orientation, optimism and both job and career satisfaction. Findings – The findings revealed two distinct groups, and these groups were markedly different along the biologically based traits of optimism, extraversion, emotional stability and along both job and career satisfaction. The differences across these groups were especially pronounced for career satisfaction. Practical implications – Our findings suggest that firms might wish to devote limited resources to improving the skill sets of salespeople with the “right” disposition, rather than attempting to train candidates to cope with the emotional and visceral aspects of sales. Originality/value – The relationship between biologically based traits and job/career satisfaction has not yet been examined. Moreover, the use of LPA provides interesting insights that regression or structural equation modeling-based approaches would not.

Evaluating the performance of salespeople is more important today than ever before because of substantial changes in technology, team selling, services selling, and perspectives on evaluations. Therefore, in this study, we collected data from sales managers in a wide variety of industries to assess the effect of these changes on the evaluation bases managers use. Findings indicate the importance of relationships and salesperson efficiency on the value of salespeople to the firm, the effect of a growing service sector, and the effect of team selling on performance and evaluation. Finally, we discuss the increased role of customer evaluations and provide implications and suggestions for further research.

Service firms must remember that the way they treat their employees is exactly how those employees will, in turn, treat customers. As such, taking good care of frontline personnel should be a top management concern. One way that service employees can be shown they are valued members of the organization entails the implementation of thoughtful and organized career development programs, initiatives which help increase employees’ job satisfaction and feelings of empowerment in their customer-facing roles. Before they can become enthusiastic about meeting the needs of their customers, employees have to feel that their own needs are being met within the organization. In this regard, firm investment in frontline employee career development programs will be money well spent: they are capable of reducing employee turnover and increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. This article provides a conceptual model of career development which should prove useful to service managers in evaluating their own career development efforts. Also presented herein is a framework for tying together many disparate areas of career development that have heretofore been handled separately in the services literature.

This paper explores the paradox of why the US serves as a principal supporter of the World Trade Organization (WTO), but withdrew from the obligatory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and strongly opposed creation of the International Criminal Court. After surveying the 171 cases before the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) from 1995–2005, in which the US was a party, the paradox can be explained by the findings that: (1) the overwhelming number of cases to which the US was party reached mutually acceptable settlements; (2) even though the US and the European Union (EU) dominate the WTO, the DSU serves as a mechanism to resolve otherwise possibly intractable trade conflicts between the two; (3) where the US lost before the WTO, domestic policies, not trade, were the driving forces; and (4) membership to the WTO is essential for any nation if it is not to subject both its imports and its exports to significant handicaps. The US also retains a gate-keeping function within the WTO f...

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to explore career development programs for the sales force including benefits, implementation and managerial implications.Design/methodology/approachCareer development programs are viewed through a conceptual model consisting of assessment, direction and development.FindingsThis paper provides a comprehensive list of the benefits of a career development program for sales forces.Practical implicationsThe conceptual model can serve as a checklist for sales managers to evaluate, add to or modify their programs. The conceptual model also provides a framework for tying together many disparate areas of career development that have been handled separately or ignored in the sales management literature.Originality/valueThis paper provides a comprehensive conceptual model of career development that has not been present in the sales management literature. This should be useful to sales managers in evaluating their own career development efforts. The framework should also be useful to sales management scholars who teach and do research in this area.

Although a strong culture has been widely acknowledged as a defining characteristic of successful firms, past research has failed to examine the influence it exerts on the attitudes and behavior of salespeople. In a two-sample study, we measure culture strength and explore its relationship to value congruity and to three sales force outcomes that define the sales management research tradition: role stress, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Within the contexts of the sales subculture of a Fortune 500 firm (Study 1) and specialized sales organizations (Study 2), the results reveal a compelling portrait of the forces that shape salesperson–culture fit. Specifically, the results of both studies indicate that a strong culture leads to higher levels of value congruity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and lower levels of role stress. Key implications are highlighted for sales managers and for researchers.

The Weitz (1981) model of adaptive selling suggests that situational variables will moderate the relationship between adaptive selling behavior and sales performance. In this paper, a path model is analyzed and supports the positive role of adaptive selling on sales performance under “adaptive” conditions. Surprisingly, there is also a positive relationship in the “nonadaptive” condition. Furthermore, salesperson characteristics such as the ability to monitor the selling situation and modify self-behaviors and strategies within the exchange setting are determined to be related to the intention to sell adaptively in the “adaptive” conditions. Finally, results of this study suggest that selling experience affects sales performance in both “adaptive” and “nonadaptive” situational contexts, but the sources of effects differ.

Postwar El Salvador and Guatemala have undertaken to reform and democratize the state and to support the rule of law. Each country entered the 1990s hobbled by a legacy of authoritarian rule, while a corrupt and politicized judiciary offered virtually no check on the abuse of power. Because the judiciary has performed poorly as an institution of horizontal accountability, this article examines the performance of a new “accountability agency,” the Human Rights Ombudsman. The article discusses the context in which the office was established and developed in each country, perceptions of its performance, and political responses as the office began to perform its function of holding public officials accountable in their exercise of power. Unfortunately, this new office may fall prey to the same weaknesses that have plagued older institutions in both countries.

Very little research has been done looking at the effects of salespeople’s actions on customer satisfaction with salespeople, their companies, and service encounters. This paper reports results of a role-playing experiment involving 272 individuals that was undertaken to examine these issues. Results indicate several important findings. First, services failure attributed to factors outside the control of salespeople did not affect customer satisfaction with salespeople. However, failures attributed to salespeople’s actions did have a negative effect on customer satisfaction with both salespeople and their companies. Salespeople offering customers compensation for service failure had no effect on customer satisfaction with the salespeople. Customer compensation did have a positive effect on satisfaction with the service encounter and the company. Implications are discussed.

A congruency theory approach is utilized to examine power within the industrial buying center. A mail survey of 204 individual purchasing agents was utilized to explore their bases of power in the purchasing decision process. Findings indicate that the bases of power appear to be independent of dimensions of organization structure. These results have implications for both industrial marketing strategy and industrial marketing research.

Research on democratic transitions in Latin America often ignore the importance of judicial systems — and related institutions — in achieving ‘liberal democracy’ and effectively safeguarding human rights, as contrasted with the restoration of ‘electoral democracy.’ This proves especially problematic in the instances of the former military-dominated authoritarian regimes of Central America. This article examines the efforts at judicial system and related reforms in El Salvador since the 1992 Peace Accords, and relates those reforms to popular perceptions, both of previous institutions and of the institutional reforms and new institutions that have been created as part of the peace-making process. The reported survey research results suggest that the reforms on which liberal democracy in El Salvador depends, while generally viewed positively in the abstract, still rest on shaky foundations.

¿Qué tan informados están los salvadoreños acerca de las reformas posteriores a los acuerdos de paz? ¿Cuánta confianza tienen en las instituciones que fueron creadas o reformadas como parte del proceso de paz? ¿Cuáles son los niveles de apoyo específicos y generales para esas instituciones? ¿Qué variables pueden explicar mejor las diferencias en los niveles de confianza y apoyo? Este artículo se enfoca en la Corte Suprema de Justicia y en la Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos. Este trabajo le debe mucho a los recientes logros de Caldeira y Gibson (1995), en la investigación de la legitimidad de la Corte de Justicia de la Unión Europea. ECA Estudios Centroamericanos, Vol. 54, No. 606, 1999: 319-335.

Recent transitions from authoritarianism to democracy have been front‐page news. Often attention to such transitions has focused on efforts to create and sustain democratic elections and to guarantee open political competition between parties that are committed to majority rule. However, equally important in such transitions is the implementation of the rule of law. This article examines the efforts of one country, El Salvador, to re‐establish the rule of law as part of its passage to liberal democracy. The efforts to implement the Salvadoran peace accords that were signed in January 1992 provide the focus. The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) was created to monitor compliance. One important consequence of the accords was the effort to achieve broad reform of the justice system. Salvador's progress here is evaluated both in respect of the degree of compliance with the accords, and, more importantly, in establishing an independent judiciary that will be capable of protecting human ri...

The concept of culture has been an important subject of managerial interest over the past decade, yet little has been written about how culture can be managed within the industrial salesforce. Describes the key components of a salesforce culture and explains the characteristics of a well‐managed salesforce culture. Finally, develops suggestions for managing the industrial salesforce culture around three strategic factors: planning, implementation and control. Concludes by providing some guidelines for further research in this important area.

Market research firms offer an essential service to their clients by providing information to reduce uncertainty in decision making. Research in the United States has identified techniques used by firms to generate such information. Similar research has provided limited insight to European research firms. However, little attention has been paid to these firms in Japan. Given the similarity of usage of practices between Japanese and U.S. market research firms, U.S. firms may be able to utilize Japanese market research firms to do research in Japan or the Pacific Rim.

A central issue in manufacturer-supplier relationships revolves around mechanisms that regulate or control exchange processes. An experimental test of a model of relational closeness is provided, representing an extension to the basic transaction cost economics framework. The model draws on relational exchange theory in the treatment of governance. Subjects for the experiment were midlevel purchasing personnel, drawn from aerospace, electronics, and defense contracting firms. Findings demonstrate that transaction costs are influenced by dimensions of the exchange, including asset specificity and external uncertainty.In turn, transaction costs are linked to important dimensions of relationalism. Implications for theory and practice are presented.