Leadership Practices in Sales Managers Associated

with the Self-Efficacy, Role Clarity, and Job

Satisfaction of Individual Industrial Salespeople
Mary E. Shoemaker
This study examines the use of Kouzes and Posner's (1987) model of leadership practices by first line
sales managers. This research explores key salesperson job perceptions of self-efficacy, role clarity,
and job satisfaction in a sample of industrialfieldsalespeople. Regression results indicate that all five
practices are significantly associated with job satisfaction. Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling
Others to Acty Modeling the Way, and Encouraging the Heart are also associated with role clarity. No
significant relationship with any leadership practices and self-efficacy were found.
The role of the sales manager is evolving to fit the
realities of the next century. The primary function
of the sales manager is being redefined by the increasing use of new technology (Cravens 1995), sales
force automation (McMahon 1994), and the greater
emphasis on empowerment (Anderson 1996), team
selling, reengineering, quality management, customer focus (Wotruba 1996), and relationship and
solution selling (Keenan 1994). At some companies,
sales administration, communication, call reports,
support, forecasts and even training are now electronic (Campanelli 1994; Columbo 1994), To be valuable in the new environment, sales managers must
shift to new activities such as developing their people
to manage themselves, empowering their salespeople, and envisioning and facilitating the entire
marketing process (Anderson 1996; Keenan 1994),
This new role requires a sales manager with leadership skills. Successful sales managers in the future will emphasize leadership behaviors over administrative and supervisory skills. Traditionally,
sales managers have relied heavily onfinancialcompensation to motivate salespeople, often substituting money for real leadership (Rosenbloom and
Anderson 1994), Cravens et al. (1993b) found that
behavior-based control systems were equally or more
important than compensation-based control systems
for sales.

Mary E. Shoemaker ( Ph.D., Drexel University) is an Assistant

Professor of Management, School of Business Administration,
Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. Professor
Shoemaker's research interests are in sales management, leadership, business-to-buBinesa marketing and sales force automation.
The author thanks Rolph Anderson, Joseph Seltzer, Marvin
Jolson, Cynthia Saltzman, the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their help on this research.

This study investigates the leadership practices

of sales managers and their impact on key job perceptions of salespeople. These perceptions, job satisfaction, role clarity, and self-efficacy, are all desired end values, as well as antecedents to performance and turnover.

Conceptual Background
Leadership that influences followers to perform
at the highest levels, transcending self-interest, has
been identified primarily as transformational leadership (Bass 1985; Burns 1978; Kouzes and Posner
1987; Podsakoff et al. 1990). Similar concepts are
transformative leadership (Bennis 1985),
superleadership (Manz and Sims 1989), empowerment (Conger 1989; Vogt and Murrell 1990) and
charismatic leadership (House 1977) among others.
Transformational leadership needs to be further
examined in a sales management setting (Jolson et
al, 1993), Dubinsky et al, (1995) found, in an empirical test of the Bass model, while transformational behaviors augmented the effects of transactional leadership behaviors in two salesperson work
outcomes, that transactional behaviors may have
more effect on salesperson responses. Similarly,
Russ et al. (1996) found transactional leadership
explained significant variance in salesperson performance, but transformational leadership did not.
Also using the Bass model. Comer et al. (1995) examined female sales managers' leadership styles.
Their findings suggest that transactional behaviors are more effective in sales managers. These

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management,

Volume XIX, Number 4 (Fall 1999, Pages 1-19).

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales

extant studies suggest transformational style as

described by the Bass model may be less effective
for sales managers than transactional behaviors.

The Leadership Practices Model

(Kouzes and Posner 1987)
Kouzes and Posner created their model based on
the concept that leaders could be identified by their
ability '*to get extraordinary things done in organizations" and that certain practices were common to
successful leaders, Kouzes and Posner explored what
individuals did when those individuals personally
felt they experienced leading, not managing, an organization. The five practices that emerged accounted for more than 80 percent of the behaviors
and strategies described by the respondents (Posner
and Kouzes 1990). Conger and Kanungo (1987) hypothesize that leadership behaviors are an interrelated constellation of components. Kouzes and
Posner's model reflects this hypothesis because leaders do not select and implement a single supervisory practice; leaders continuously use all or most
of the practices. Fields and Harold (1997) concluded
that the transformational/transactional distinction
overlays the five leadership practices identified by
Kouzes and Posner (1987).
The five practices used by leaders identified by
Kouzes and Posner are:
Challenging the Process^This practice involves
1) seeking new solutions to problems,
sefirching for opportunities, 2) encouraging innovation, and taking risks.
Inspiring a Shared VisionThis practice
involves 1) creating and communicating a vision of the future and 2) enlisting others to share that vision.
Enabling Others to ActThis practice involves
1) fostering collaboration and cooperation within a group and 2) strengthening
others' capabilities to perform.
Modeling the WayThis practice involves 1)
setting an example, behaving in ways
consistent with stated values and 2)
planning small wins, enabling followers to experience tangible success.
Encouraging the Heart^This practice involves
1) rect^nizing contributions, holding and
communicating high expectations, linking performance and rewards, and 2) celebrating accomplishments.

Management

First-line sales managers are an appropriate

group to use in studying the Leadership Practices
model as the model fits the environment and emphasis of a sales manager well. Their subordinates
are boundary spanners, often isolated from their
peers, who operate under inherently transactional
and highly uncertain conditions (Walker, Churchill,
and Ford 1975),

Challenging the Process

Challenging the Process, for example, is conceptually similar to Bass's Intellectual Stimulation;
both consider new ways of looking at old problems.
The Intellectual Stimulation concept stresses the
use of intelligence to overcome obstacles (Bass 1997),
while the first dimension of Challenging the Process emphasizes implementing new approaches and
taking risks. Boundary spanners often are change
agents (Leifer and Delbecq 1978),
The second dimension of Challenging the Process
encourages people to risk failure, which is inherent
in overcoming call reluctance, continually seeking
new relationships, and trying new selling skills.
This practice includes fostering hardiness, which
allows salespeople to deal with rejection, lost orders, and dissatisfied customers.

Inspiring a Shared Vision

Inspiring a Shared Vision is about 1) creating
and communicating a vision and 2) enlisting others
in reaching the vision. Bass's Charisma suggests
that Charismatic leaders have unusual vision that
stems from their belief in the rightness and importance of their mission. Leaders use their superior
intellectual abilities in Intellectual Stimulation to
create an innovative vision. Corcoran et al. (1995)
identifies "strategist" as a key role for top performing sales managers. Quality sales training, led by
management, sells the vision of the organization
and teaches sales people how to implement that
vision (Cortada 1993). Inspiring a Shared Vision
extends vision creation to include selling the vision
and gaining commitment to the vision.

Enabling Others to Act

The practice of Enabling Others to Act has no
direct parallel in the Bass model, yet is especially
relevant for sales managers. The first dimension of
Enabling Others to Act is fostering collaboration,

Fall 1999
which is especially important for the highly independent salesperson. A sales manager must create
a sense of teamwork, whether that is linking the
salesperson to the organization (Lysonski and
Johnson 1983) or laying the foundation for team
selling (Cespedes 1992). Recently, many selling situations tend to require cooperation, not competition,
among salespeople (Cravens 1995; Wotruba 1996),
The second dimension is strengthening others,
which relates to the needs of the boundary spanning, possibly isolated salesperson. Boundary-spanners lack formal authority in their situations and
frequently use information and expertise to gain
pwwer (Leifer and Delbecq 1978). A salesperson uses
shared information to enhance his or her expert
status with the customer. Maximizing salesperson
discretion and autonomy can increase the
salesperson's value to his/her customer. A salesperson who is poorly informed and not permitted to
make decisions has low credibility with the customer. Wotruba (1996) indicates that empowerment
is particularly appropriate for positions involving
customer interaction.

Modeling the Way

Modeling the Way has two dimensions: 1) setting
the example, which is most similar to Bass's Individualized Consideration and 2) planning small
wins, which parallels some of Bass's Contingent
Reward. Setting the example, or role modeling, is
part of the mentoring process where the manager
provides an example to follow (Ragins 1997). Role
modeling in sales often occurs when the sales manager accompanies a sales person on a sales call. The
sales manager models selling skills and customer
relationship building skills. Role modeling is more
important for development of interpersonal skills
than technical skills (Kram 1985),
When the sales manager breaks "getting the sale"
into a sales process from call planning to after-sale
service the manager enables the salesperson to plan
small wins. Account assignments become hard-torevoke choices. These actions are the focus of Modeling the Way.

Encouraging the Heart

The first dimension of Encouraging the Heart is
similar to Bass's Contingent Rewards; both emphasize Unking rewards with perfonnance and setting
goals. Kouzes and Posner extend the concept with
the second dimension of celebrating accomplish-

ments. Sales forces often have very visible Winner's

Circles or President's Clubs, etc., for celebrating
and rewarding high sales perfonnance (Jackson and
Tax 1995). As salespeople may crave a variety of
rewards. Encouraging the Heart includes intrinsic
rewards and creating social support networks as
well.

Summary of Model
The Kouzes and Posner model permits transactional and transformational behaviors to coexist
within the five practices (Fields and Herold 1997).
Both types of leadership behaviors can occur simultaneously, reinforcing each other. A sales manager
who delivers a commission check "while riding an
elephant" links rewards (the check) with performance transactionally, while visibly celebrating (the
elephant) accomplishments transformationally
(Kouzes and Posner 1987), A salesperson conducts
transactions daily on his or her own behalf, on behalf of the customers, and on behalf of the organization. Sales positions traditionally link performance
and rewards more expressly than other positions.
Transactional behaviors are integral to sales and
saies management. When transactional behaviors
are a relatively independent concept, as in the Bass
model, their prominence in the sales culture may
overemphasize their significance. This may explain
why Dubinsky et al, (1995), using the Bass model,
found stronger relationships between salesperson
job outcomes and transactional leadership behaviors than with transformational leadership behaviors. Figure 1 is a comparison of the key dimensions
of the Kouzes and Posner model and the Bass model.

Critical Salesperson Perceptions

The three perceptual outcomes selected for this
study follow from the Walker, Churchill, and Ford
(1977) and the Bagozzi (1978) models of the antecedents of salesperson behaviors. Walker, Churchill
and Ford (1977) developed a conceptual framework
for understanding the determinants of salesperson
motivation and performance. Empirical tests of this
framework concluded that salesperson behavior is
a "function of the person, the interactions the person has with significant others in his or her role set,
and the situation or environment in which the person must transact" (Bagozzi 1978, p.529). Selling
experience, decision-making participation, closeness of supervision (Teas 1980), consideration, initiation of structure, and feedback (Teas 1983) were

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 1
Leadership Modei Comparison
Kouzes and Posner (1987)

Bass (1985)

Challenging the Process

-Encouraging
subordinates' thinking
and risk taking
-Fostering hardiness

Intellectual Stimulation
-Employing superior's
intellectual capabilities
and risk taking

Inspiring a Shared Vision

-Vision sharing
-Relating vision benefits
to subordinates
-Inspiring a common purpose
-Charisma
Expressing warmth and
aniTTiation

Intellectual Stimulation
-Vision creating
Inspirational Leadership
-Motivational meetings
-i-ioiding pep rallies
Charisma
-inspiring unquestioning
loyaity and devotion

Enabling Others to Act

-Setting cooperative goals
-Reaching integrative solutions
-Building trusting
relationships
-Sharing power and
information
Modeling the Way
-Creating a basic
philosophy
-Sharing values
-Leading by example

-Breaking tasks into

smalj_parts
Encouraging the Heart
-Linking rewards with
performance
-Recognizing contributions
-Coaching
-Celebrating accomplishments
-Creating social networks
_-Being_personally_involved

Individualized Consideration
-Developing subordinates
-Forming one-to-one
relationships
-Delegating
Contingent Reward
-Breaking tasks into
small parts
Contingent Reward
-Unking rewards with
performance
-Setting goals
-Clarifying goais
Individualized Consideration
-Mentoring
Non-Contingent Rewards
-Management by exception
-Negative feedback
-Contingent aversion
reinforcement

FaU 1999

examined as predictors of role ambiguity and job

satisfaction. Kohli (1985) developed a similar model,
extended to include task-specific self-esteem, motivation and supervisory behaviors proposed by Fulk and
Wendler (1982), Further evolution of the model (Kohli
1989) included Stogdill's (1957) leadership behaviors. These empirical tests of the WCF model indicate
that leadership behaviors, task-specific self-esteem,
role perceptions, and job satisfaction are crucial variables in understanding salesperson behavior. This
study merges a leadership/supervisory model not previously examined in the sales literature, with the key
findings of previous tests of the WCF framework.

Self-Efficacy
Self-efTicacy, part of Bandura's (1977) Social
Learning Theory, refers to a person's belief in his or
her own capability to perform a specific task. A
person's self-efficacy influences a person's choice of
activities, avoiding tasks judged too difficult and
embracing activities deemed manageable. Barling
and Beattie (1983) found self-efficacy to be significantly correlated with sales foree performance. A
parallel concept to self-efficacy found in the sales
management literature is task-specific self-esteem.
Task-specific self-esteem has been shown to have
significant positive influence on performance
(Bagozzi 1978). Self-efUcacy has been found to affect several outcomes of interest to sales managers:
performance (Harrison et al. 1997; Kirkpatrick and
Locke 1996; Lee and Gillen 1989), negotiation outcomes (Brett et al. 1996), organizational commitment (Werbel et al. 1996), and burnout (Cordes and
Dougherty 1993). Self-efficacy has been identified
as a key topic for improving theoretical frameworks
in sales research (Bush and Grant 1994).

Role Clarity
Role clarity is defined as the degree to which a
salesperson is certain about how he or she is expected to do the job. In their meta-analysis of the
determinants of salesforce performance, Churchill,
Ford, Hartley and Walker (1985) found role perceptions better predictors of performance than any other
predictors. Sales supervisory behavior is related to
sales force perceptions of role clarity (Teas 1983).
Role ambiguity, the opposite of role clarity, has
been found to have a significant negative effect on
satisfaction with the work itself (Behrman and
Perreault 1984; Fry et al. 1986; Johnston,
Parasuraman and Futrell 1989; Teas 1980),

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is one of the most widely studied
constructs in the sales management literature and
is well documented as a key job outcome for salespeople (Bagozzi 1978, 1980a,b; Behrmann and
Perreault 1984; Churchill, Ford and Walker 1974,
1976; Jaworski and Kohli 1991; Kohli 1985).
Transformational leadership behaviors have been
found to affect follower's job satisfaction (Podsakoff
et al. 1990), while Teas (1983) found traditional
leader behavior to be a significant predictor of sales
force job satisfaction.

Hypotheses
Challenging the Process
In Challenging the Process, the key behaviors are
initiating and fostering change and confronting and
changing the status quo. The process of innovation,
of bringing new ideas, methods, or solutions into
use, requires leadership (Kanter 1983). Change reduces a person's understanding of how to do his or
her job because old routines and procedures are no
longer available. Leaders who encourage followers
to try different ways of doing things create ambiguity (Podsakoff et al, 1990),
Hla: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Challenging the Process by the sales
managers is negatively related to salesperson role clarity.
Challenging the Process also includes the specific behavior of providing followers with a challenge that they
find intrinsically motivating. EnoDuraging people to risk
failure gives people an opportunity to grow within
their jobs, Berlew (1974) describes similar opportunities
as the basis for meaning and satisfaction in work.
Hlb: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Challenging the Process by the sales
managers is positively related to salesperson job satisfaction.

Inspiring a Shared Vision

A well articulated vision conveyed so that followers can accept and understand that vision as their
own will enable followers to determine their own
role in achieving that vision. Ideally, sales training
communicates strategic visions to sales team members about their roles (Corcoran et al. 1995).

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Figure 2
Hypothesized Modei of Perceived Transformational Leadership Practices of Saies Managers and Their
Association with the Self-Efficacy, Roie Clarity, and Job Satisfaction of Saiespeopie

Chaiienging the Process

Self-Efficacy

Inspiring a Shared Vision

Enabling Others to Act

Role Clarity

Modeling the Way

Job Satisfaction

Encouraging the Heart

FaU 1999

H2a: A salesperson's perception of a sales

manager's use of the leadership practice Inspiring a Shared Vision is positively related to salesperson roie clarity.
The communication of a vision frequently generates some of Berlew's (1974) value laden opportunities which have been shown to produce higher job
satisfaction. Employees of managers who effectively
communicate their vision report significantly higher
levels of job satisfaction (Kouzes and Posner 1987).
H2b: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice
Inspiring a Shared Vision is positively
related to salesperson job satisfaction.

Enabling Others to Act

Enabling Others to Act emphasizes providing
people with the resources needed to use discretion:
the training, materials, money, time, people, and
information (Kouzes and Posner 1987). This affects
the salesperson's belief that he or she can perform
tasks effectively. Task-specific self-esteem may be
enhanced by greater participation in decision making (Teas 1980).
H3a: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Enabling Others to Act is positively
related to salesperson self-efficacy.
The use of Enabling Others to Act should result in
an individual salesperson's knowing more about
his or her own work and other people's work. Greater
salesperson participation is directly associated with
greater role clarity for salespeople (Teas, Wacker
and Hughes 1979). Greater communication and
trust reduces uncertainty in relationships (Morgan
and Hunt 1994).
H3b: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Enabling Others to Act is positively
related to salesperson role clarity.
Job Satisfaction has been found to be affected by
influence over standards, locus of control (Behrman
and Perreault 1984), and participation in organizational decision making (Driscoll 1978), all similar
to Enabling Others to Act's sharing power and information. Allowing salespeople to manage themselves (Sauers, Hunt and Bass 1990) and have
greater flexibility and control over their job assignments (Crawford and Nonis 1996) enhances job satisfaction. Cooperative relationships are similar to
the integration required that Behrman and
Perreault (1984) found influenced job satisfaction.

H3c: A salesperson's perception of a sales

manager's use of the leadership practice Enabling Others to Act is positively
related to salesperson job satisfaction.

Modeling the Way

Modeling the Way emphasizes shared values
which have been shown to foster feelings of personal effectiveness (Posner, Kouzes and Schmidt
1985). One antecedent to a person's self-efficacy is
Bandura's (1982) vicarious experiences, seeing others complete a task successfully.
H4a: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Modeling the Way is positively related to salesperson self-efficacy.
Modeling the Way occurs also when the leaders
determine their own values and live them, setting
an example of how goals should be achieved. Joint
sales calls and account planning would provide the
salesperson the opportunity to experience the sales
manager's priorities and methods. Closer supervision of salespeople results in decreased role ambiguity (Teas 1980; Walker, Churchill and Ford 1975).
People are more likely to guide their actions by
observing desired behavior than by relying on outcomes to define their roles (Bandura 1977).
H4b: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Modeling the Way is positively related to salesperson role clarity.
Role modeling appears to have an influence on
performance and job satisfaction (Rich 1997). Shared
values result in positive work attitudes (Posner
1992) as value congruence is an antecedent to job
satisfaction (Locke 1976). Enabling Others to Act
was found to be a significant predictor of job satisfaction in a study of hospital managers (McNeeseSmith 1996).
H4c: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Modeling the Way is positively related to salesperson job satisfaction.

Encouraging the Heart

Encouraging the Heart emphasizes developing
high expectations. People tend to respond to others'
expectations about them (Livingston 1969). The behaviors and expectations of leaders have an impact
on a person's self-efficacy (Gist 1987). Bagozzi
(1980a) suggests that in order to influence perfor-

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

mance, management should enhance task-specific

self-esteem by consistently providing positive reinforcement through persona! recognition, monetary
rewards and socially visible acknowledgement of
good perfonnance.
H5a: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Encouraging the Heart is positively
related to salesperson self-efficacy.
Encouraging the Heart also emphasizes linking
rewards with performance. Greater performance
feedback provided to salespeople is directly associated with greater role clarity among salespeople
(Jaworski and Kohli 1991; Teas, Wacker and Hughes
1979). Achievement-oriented supervisory behaviors
which include 1) expecting high levels of performance and 2) expressing confidence that subordinates will meet those goals, are positively related
to role clarity (Kohli 1985).
H5b: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Encouraging the Heart is positively
related to salesperson role clarity.
Perception that performance is linked with rewards has a direct relationship with job satisfaction (Crawford and Nonis 1996; Locke 1976). Encouraging the Heart emphasizes feedback, organizational support, compensation linked with performance, coaching, and personal involvement. Feedback (Jaworski and Kohli 1991; Teas and Horrell
1981), perceived organizational support, compensation (Babakus et al. 1996), individualized support (Podsakoff et al. 1990), and contingent rewards
(Podsakoff, Todor and Skov) have been found to
positively affect job satisfaction.
H5c: A salesperson's perception of a sales
manager's use of the leadership practice Encouraging the Heart is positively
related to salesperson job satisfaction.

Research Method
Sample and Data Collection
Survey questionnaires were mailed to 277 U.S.
electrical/ electronic control component salespeople
from a single manufacturer. A cover letter promised confidentiality and a stamped self addressed
return envelope was included. Responses were received from 168 salespeople, representing all sales
managers and most sales locations. Of those, ten
were unusable. This provided a response rate of 57
percent. The sample is predominately white, 94 per-

cent male, and 96 percent college educated, with 10

percent possessing a master's degree, representative of industrial sales forces (Lucas 1996; Marchetti
1996)in the U.S. The sample was highly experienced with low turnover and paid by a combination
of salary and commission. These salespeople perform technical or consultative selling, representative of industrial markets, requiring significant technical knowledge of products and customer operations.

Measurement Scales
Leader Behavior. Leader behavior is measured
by the 30 item Leadership Practices Inventoiy (LPIObserver) developed by Kouzes and Posner (1987).
It consists of 6 behavior based items for each of the
five practices, summed for a single measure for
each practice. Internal reliabilities for the LPI Observer ranged from .81 to .92 for the five practices.
Kouzes and Posner tested their instrument extensively. Their factor analysis yielded five factors
consistent with a priori expectations (Posner and
Kouzes 1988). Also, the five factors of the LPI explained nearly 55 percent of the variance around
the subordinates' assessments of their managers'
effectiveness. Discriminant analysis indicated the
LPI could group managers into low and high performers. Test-retest reliability was at .93 or above.
Posner and Kouzes (1992) also tested the LPI
Observer's sensitivity to individual differences in
gender, functional field, culture and ethnic background.
This current study employs Kouzes and Posner's
30 items constituting the five leadership dimensions. Thus, six items comprised each leadership
dimension.
Self-Efficacy. In this study, self-efficacy is measured by a slightly modified scale developed by Kohli
(1989). The five dimensions of this scale are 1) sales
objectives, 2) technical knowledge, 3) providing information, 4) controlling expenses and 5) sales presentations. For the Sales Objectives and Sales Presentations measures, Kohli combined the three
Behnnan and Perreault statements that had the
highest factor loadings for those dimensions. Where
appropriate, those statements were disaggregated
to modify this study, creating a nine item scale,
summed for a single self-efficacy measure.
Role Clarity. Role Clarity is measured by the
MULTIRAM scale (Singh and Rhoads 1991a). This
scale specifically addresses the multidimensionality of the components of role ambiguity perceived
by boundary spanners in marketing-oriented posi-

FaU 1999

tions. King and King (1990) suggest that current

role ambiguity measures are inappropriate for
boundary spanners. Scale development primarily
involved salespeople and customer service representatives. MULTIRAM is reported to have acceptable discriminant, convergent, and nomological validity (Singh and Rhoads 1991b).
Singh and Rhoads (1991a) suggest only using facets of their measure that are relevant to the research undertaken. The current study focused on
the following facet-dimensions: Company-flexibility, Company-work, Supervisor-support. Supervisor-demands, Customer-interaction, Customer-objection, and Ethics. These dimensions were chosen
because leadership behavior on the part of the sales
manager is expected to affect whether the roles
sent by the company are clear, whether the supervisor communicates role expectations effectively,
whether the salesperson understands how management prefers the salesperson to respond to roles
sent by customers, and whether the salesperson
knows what ethical conduct is expected. This resulted in a 23 item scale, summed for a single role
clarity measure. The scale was reversed scored for
analysis as the variable being examined was role
clarity, not role ambiguity.
Job Satisfaction. Job satisfaction was measured
by a version of INDSALES, originally developed by
Churchill, Ford and Walker (1974) and designed to
examine the unique environment of industrial salespeople. The original INDSALES scale was reduced
to a 28 item scale by Childers, Churchill, Ford, and
Walker (1980) and Comer, Machleit, and Lagace
(1989). Analysis of the scale by Lagace, Goolsby,
and Gassenheimer (1993) indicates that the scale
has acceptable psychometric properties.
In INDSALES, the seven dimensions of salesperson satisfaction are supervision, job itself, company
policy, promotion, pay, fellow workers, and customers. Measurement ofjob satisfaction by facets showed
larger effects by role perceptions than with global
measurements (Brown and Peterson 1993). For the
purposes of this study, the dimensions of supervision
and the job itself were examined. Specific leadership
behaviors on the part of the sales manager can be
expected to have an effect on how satisfied a salesperson is with how he or she is supervised and on
how a person feels about his or her job. Compensation, promotion and other company policies tend to
come from higher levels of management. This sample
has a flat management structure and few promotion
opportunities. Satisfaction with customers and coworkers is extemal to relationships with sales man-

agers. This study uses the supervision and job dimensions to create an 8 item scale, summed for a
single job satisfaction measure.

Data Analysis
Multicollinearity
The initial correlation matrix (Table 1) suggests
substantial multicollinearity among the five leadership variables. Modeling the Way and Inspiring a
Shared Vision, and Inspiring a Shared Vision and
Challenging the Process have bivariate coefficients
greater than .80, which indicates high
multicollinearity (Berry and Feldman 1985; LewisBeck 1980). The Kouzes and Posner model incorporates the concept that the five practices will be interrelated. A common solution, to delete entire variables, would introduce specification error, a greater
problem than multicollinearity (Pedhazer 1991).
To reduce the impact of the multicollinearity in
the original data, the factor scoresthe composite
measure of the variables in each factor based on the
factor loadingswere used in the regression equations (Rummel 1970). The regression results are
shown in Table 2.

Regression Analysis
Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the strength of the relationship between the
independent leadership practices variables and each
of the dependent variables.

Equations for Regression Model

Self-Efficacy = b, + b,ENABLE + b^MODEL +

Role Clarity =b^ + b^CHALLENGE +

b,VISION + bgENABLE +
Job Satis.=bg+ b^CHALLENGE +

Findings
Regression of all three leadership practices on selfefficacy resulted in an R^ of .001 and none of the
individual practices were supported (H3a, H4a, H5a).
The five leadership practices aggregated accounted for 33 percent of the variance in the

Joumal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

10

Table 1
Intercorrelations and Reliabilities
SD

Range

Challenging
the Process

20.71

4.9

6-30

Inspiring a
Shared Vision

20.47

5.14

6-30

.83*

Enabling
Others to Act

23.23

4.86

6-30

.67*

.75*

Modeling
the Way

21.14

4.84

6-30

.79*

.84*

.75*

Encouraging
the Heart

21.51

5.69

6-30

.63*

.67*

.67*

.61*

6.

Self-Efficacy

36.85

4.07

9-45

.12

.13

.14

.15

.12

7.

Role Clarity

95.07

11.93

23-115

.37*

.46*

.47*

.56*

.40*

.52*

8. Job Satisfaction 32.66

5.17

8-40

.62*

.67*

.71*

.67*

.65*

.32

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Mean

0.85
0 .87
0.86
0.87
0.92
0.81
0.92
.57*

*p<.01,n=158
Cronbach alphas are on the diagonal.

Table 2
Regression Anaiyses Using Factor Scores
Dependent
Variables
Self-Efficacy"

Role Clarit/'

Job Satisfaction^

Independent
Variables

Hypothesis
Direction

Standardized
Beta-Coeff.

(constant)
ENABLE
MODEL
HEART

(+)

.092
.067
.068

112.906
1.147
.838
.851

.000
.253
.403
.396

.050
.162
.288
.412
.207

119.926
.743
2.431
4.313
6.180
3.098

.000
.459
.016
.000
.000
.002

.393
.298
.387
.213
.408

124.238
7.711
5.839
7.593
4.178
7.996

.000
.000
.000
.000
.000
.000

(constant)
CHALLENG
VISION
ENABLE
MODEL
HEART
(constant)
CHALLENG
ViSION
ENABLE
MODEL
HEART

a. Adjusted R'=.OO1, F=.923, not significant

b. Adjusted R'=.33, F=14.57, Signif F= ,0000
c. Adjusted R==.59, F=46.52, Signif F= .0000
n=158

w
{+)
( )

(+)
(+)
(+)
(+)
(+)

(+)
(+)
(+)
(+)

Sigt

0.84

FaU 1999

11

salespeoples' role clarity. There was no support for

the hypothesis that Challenging the Process was
negatively associated with Role Clarity (Hla), (Standardized Beta Coefficient of .05, p<.459). Support
was found for role clarity's positive relationships
with Inspiring a Shared Vision (H2a)(Standardized
Beta Coefficient of .162, p<.016). Enabling Others
to Act (H3b)(Standardized Beta Coefficient of .288,
p<.000). Modeling the Way (H4b) (Standardized Beta
Coefficient of .412, p<.000) and Encouraging the
Heart (H5b)(Standardized Beta Coefficient of .207,
p<.002).
The five leadership practices aggregated accounted for 59 percent of the variance in
salespeople's job satisfaction. The anticipated positive associations of job satisfaction with Challenging the Process (Hlb)(Standardized Beta Coefficient

of .393, p<.000), Inspiring a Shared Vision

CH2b)(Standardized Beta Coefficient of .298, p<.000).
Enabling Others To Act (H3c)(Standardized Beta
Coefficient of .387, p<.000), Modeling the Way
(H4c)(Standardized Beta Coefficient of .213, p<.000),
and Encouraging the Heart (H5c)(Standardized Beta
Coefficient of .408, p<.000) were supported.

Discussion
Leadership practices as a group, and most practices individually, have a significant association with
role clarity and job satisfaction of salespeople, but
no association with their self-efficacy.

Self-Efficacy
The lack of support for self-efficacy as an critical
perception was unanticipated. Bandura (1982) may
provide a theoretical explanation for this finding.
Bandura identified four antecedents to self-efficacy.
Bandura asserts that the first antecedent, enactive
attainments, authentic mastery experiences, and
the second, vicarious experiences, seeing others perform successfully, can be more important than the
third, verbal persuasion. Verbal persuasion is one
means of Encouraging the Heart. Both enactive attainments and vicarious experiences are unlikely to
be significantly impacted by leader behaviors, so that
self-efficacy may be independent of leader behavior.
Whether the problem is the construct, the measure, or respondent fatigue is unknown. The high
means and small standard deviations of the selfefficacy measure demonstrates that salespeople generally felt very competent on those dimensions of
their jobs. The self-efficacy measure used was modi-

fied and there is little precedent for any self-efficacy measure in industrial sales. Possibly, it is essential to have great confidence in your abilities as
a salesperson to select a sales career or succeed in
a sales position.

Role Clarity
The findings for Challenging the Process suggest
that those leadership behaviors have little influence on role clarity. One explanation may have to
do with the perception of that behavior. Innovation
and risk-taking behaviors may be perceived as disruptive, unfocused, or unproductive and may not
coincide with the salesperson's view of leadership
as positive, goal oriented, and uplifting. Another
explanation is that the source of challenge is not
the first-line sales manager. A corporate climate of
innovation and risk-taking may necessarily come
from higher management or the challenges may
stem from customer insistence on innovation.
The significance of the Inspiring a Shared Vision
hypothesis suggests that a sales manager who creates and inspires a clear direction for the desired
future for salespeople enables those salespeople to
identify what is required of them. If salespeople are
focused on a vision, they will waste less energy
pursuing unimportant activities.
Enabling Others to Act, which emphasizes cooperative goals, information and power sharing, leads
to role clarity. With more information and power,
salespeople feel empowered to plan their own work,
make their own decisions and consequently gain
greater control and understanding of what needs to
be done and why.
It is unsurprising that Modeling the Way, described as behaving in ways that are consistent
with stated values, and dividing long term goals
into smaller doable tasks would be important in
increasing role clarity. A sales manager practicing
Modeling the Way may model key values by treating the salesperson as a customer should be treated
(Corcoran et al. 1995).
As for Encouraging the Heart, receiving and
watching others receive positive reinforcement for
specific accomplishments increases certainty about
the actions expected. The praise, recognition, appreciation, and support reinforce role expectations.

Job Satisfaction
Job Satisfaction does appear to be related to the
manager's ability to Challenge the Process, to allow

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

12

Figure 3
Revised Model of Perceived Transformational Leadership Practices of Saies Managers and Their
Association with the Self-Efficacy, Roie Clarity, and Job Satisfaction of Saiespeopie

Challenging the Process

Inspiring a Shared vision

Enabling Others to Act

Role Clarity

Modeling the Way

Job Satisfaction

Encouraging the Heart

FaU 1999
people to risk failure, and innovate. Salespeople
seek challenges and often choose a sales position
because of the opportunity to innovate in an environment where risk taking is rewarded.
Inspiring a Shared Vision enables salespeople to
see the value of their own work in the future of the
firm. They also feel valued and possibly more secure when involved in the planning and discussion
of the future. Salespeople perceive their work as
more meaningful and can relate its importance to
the success of the firm.
Enabling Others to Act provides salespeople with
a sense of ownership of their work, permits significant discretion, allows involvement in planning, and
creates an atmosphere of mutual trust and dignity
and respect. This trusting and empowering environment engendered by a sales manager appears to
impact the salesperson's job satisfaction.
A sales manager practicing Modeling the Way
may demonstrate his or her values by treating the
salesperson as a customer (Corcoran et al. 1995).
Identifying salesperson needs, listening (Rich 1998),
and offering solutions encourage customer (salesperson) satisfaction. Setting goals, establishing milestones, and breaking up tasks indicate to the salesperson that the sales manager values and supports
his or her success, thus promoting job satisfaction
(Berlew 1974).
Encouraging the Heart emphasizes praise, recognition, appreciation and support. These are traditional
methods of rewarding and encouraging the sales force,
frequently utilized to keep salespeople satisfied.

Managerial Implications
Study results indicate that use of thesefivepractices may enable the sales manager to positively
impact his or her individual salespeople. To Challenge the Process, a sales manager should create a
climate of encouraging innovation and risk-taking.
To Inspire a Shared Vision, a sales manager should
communicate and involve salespeople in the vision
of the future of the firm.
To Enable Others to Act, managers should view
salespeople as partners in producing sales results.
Managers need to involve salespeople in developing
sales goals and need to continue to allow salespeople considerable discretion in achieving sales
goals. Sales managers must build a relationship
with individual salespeople based on shared information and mutual trust.
A manager who succeeds in Modeling the Way
creates and communicates a basic philosophy that

13

defines how the sales task is to be performed and

clarifies the values of the sales manager for the
salesperson. Sales managers should adhere to the
values they espouse, as the sales manager is expected to lead by example.
To use Encouraging the Heart, sales managers
should provide an arena for organizational recognition of performance and a compensation plan that
rewards desired performance. Some less traditional
behaviors associated with Encouraging the Heart
are coaching and personal involvement in celebrations. These suggest the sales manager must communicate with and support individual salespeople
personally as much as possible.

Limitations and Future Research

Limitations of this study suggest avenues for future research. First, the hypotheses need to be tested
in a variety of sales force settings in order to be
generalizable. It could be expected that different
industries, with varying compensation plans, different hiring qualifications, and different types of
products might require other leadership behavior.
All the sales managers and most of the salespeople are
men. Comer et al. (1995) showed men and women to
have different responses to leadership. This study may
not be relevant to predominately female sales forces.
Second, data were collected on only one level of
sales manager. Further research could examine if
higher level managers are the source of vision and
risk orientation. As all the data were collected on a
single questionnaire, common method variance may
infiate the strength of the relationships. The data
were also all collected at one time, so that the time
sequence of the relationships is ambiguous. A longitudinal study would indicate if leadership behaviors and their impact vary over time.
Third, the use of perceptions of leader behaviors,
rather than actual observations of leader behaviors
may create some response bias. As is common in
leadership studies, measurements may be affected
by prototypicality (Bass and Avolio 1989).
Prototypical ity suggests that a salesperson has
formed implicit theories of how leaders behave from
prior investigation. The salesperson may be answering the questionnaire based on those implicit theories. General satisfaction, which is the tendency to
be satisfied with everything and anything in one's
life, may also create a response bias for the job
satisfaction items.
Fourth, the level of multicollinearity found in the
leadership practices limits the strength of the find-

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

14

ings. The multicollinearity may be due to the sample

or the theoretical construct. Using the questionnaire with another sample or comparing results
from this questionnaire with the results from another model of leadership, perhaps the Bass model,
would strengthen the findings.
Finally, the self-efficacy results indicate a need to
understand the consistently high responses in this
sample. Is self-efficacy always high in salespeople
or could the self-efficacy results be attributed to
specification error, measurement error, respondent
fatigue, or corporate culture? A well tested selfefficacy measure would be very useful.
The changing nature of the salesperson's and sales
manager's functions suggests it will be necessary to
continue to study leadership behaviors and salesperson perceptions and outcomes in order to understand how the sales force can best provide value to
an organization in the future.

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Fall 1999

17
Appendix A
Instruments

Leadership Practices InstrumentObserver

Source: Kouzes and Posner 1990
Rarely (1) to Very Frequently (5)
Challenging the Process
C1-Seeks out challenging opportunities that test his or her skills and abilities
C6-Stays up-to-date on the most recent developments affecting our organization
C11-Challenges the way we do things at work
C16-Looks for innovative ways we can improve what we do in this organization
C21 -Asks "what can we learn?" when things do not go as expected
C26-Experiments and takes risks with new approaches to his or her work even when there is a chance of failure
Inspiring A Shared Vision
V2-Describes the kind of future he or she would like for us to create together
V7-Appeals to others to share his or her dream of the future as their own
VI 2-Clearty communicates a positive and hopeful outiook for the future of the organization
V17-Shows others how their long-term future interests can be realized by enlisting in a common vision
V22-Looks ahead and forecasts what he or she expects the future to be like
V27-IS contagiously excited and enthusiastic about future possibilities
Enabling Others To Act
E3-lnvolves others in pianning actions that will be taken
E8-Treats others with dignity and respect
E13-Gives people a lot of discretion to make their own decisions
El 8-Develops cooperative relationships with the people he or she works with
E23-Creates an atmosphere of mutual trust in the projects he or she leads
E28-Gets others to feel a sense of ownership for the projects that they work on
Modeling the Way
M4-Is clear about his or her own philosophy of leadership
M9-Makes certain that the projects he or she manages are broken into manageable chunks
M14-Spends time and energy on making certain that people adhere to the values that have been agreed on
Ml 9-Lets others know his or her beliefs on how to best run the organization he or she leads
M24-IS consistent in practicing the values he or she espouses
M29-Makes sure the work group sets dear goals, makes plans, and establishes milestones for the projects he or she leads
Encouraging the Heart
H5-Takes the time to celebrate accomplishments when project milestones are reached
H10-Makes sure that people are recognized for their contributions to the success of our projects
H15-Praises peoplefor a job well done
H20-Gives the members of the team lots of appreciation and support for their contributions
H25-Finds ways to celebrate accomplishments
H30-Makes it a point to tell the rest of the organization about the good work done by his or her group
LPI-Observer Copyright 1990 by Kouzes Posner ttitemational.lNC. Used with Permission.

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Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Appendix A (continued)
Instruments
Self-Efficacy
(adapted from Kohli, 1989, performance dimensions from Behrman and Perreault, 1982)
Low (1) to High (5)
Sales Objectives
Meeting sales objectives such as market share, and dollar volume
Selling high profit margin products
Identifying and selling to major accounts
Technical Knowledge
Technical knowledge pertaining to your company's products, production processes, etc.
Providing Information
Submitting timely, accurate, complete reports, records, and paperwork related to orders
Controlling Expenses
Controlling expenses by saving the company money in general where possible
Sales Presentations
Understanding the real concerns of customers
Working out solutions to customers questions and objections
Making effective sales presentations

MULTIRAM-Role Clarity Instrument

Source: Singh and Rhoads, 1991
Very Certain (1) to Very Uncertain (5)reverse scored
Facet-Dimensions
Company-Flexibility
How much freedom of action I am expected to have
How I am expected to handle non-routine activities on the job
Company-Work
The sheer amount of work I am expected to do
Which tasks 1 should give priority
How much work 1 am expected to do
How 1 should handle my free time on the job
Supervisor-Support
To what extent my boss is open to hearing my point of view
How satisfied my boss is with me
How far my boss will go to back me up
Supervisor-Demands
How my boss expects me to allocate my time among different aspects of my job
How to meet the demands of my boss
How I should respond to my boss's criticism

FaU 1999

19

Appendix A (continued)
Instruments
What aspects of my job are most important to my boss
The level of professionalism my boss expects of me
Ethics
How top management expects me to handle ethical situations in my job
What I am expected to do if I find others are behaving unethically
The ethical conduct my boss expects of me
Customer-Interaction
How I am expected to interact with my customers
How much service I should provide my customers
How I should behave {with customers) while on the job
Customer-Objection
How I am expected to handle my customers' objections
How I am expected to handle unusual problems and situations
How I am expected to deal with customers' criticism

INDSALES-Job Satisfaction Instrument

Source: Churchill, Ford and Walker, 1974
Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5)
My
My
My
My

Supervision Dimension
sales manager really tries to get our ideas about things
sales manager has always been fair in dealings with me
sales manager gives us credit and praise for work well done
sales manager lives up to his/her promises

Job Dimension
My work is satisfying
My job is exciting
My work gives a sense of accomplishment
I'm really doing something worthwhile in my job