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Sales force leadership during strategy implementation: a social network perspective

  • Original Empirical Research
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Abstract

Many new marketing strategies falter in the execution phase where managers fail to make frontline employees fully committed to implementing the new initiatives. While formal managers can apply transformational and transactional leadership behaviors to increase salespeople’s strategy commitment, peers can also exert a great deal of informal influence on salespeople. Building on recent social network perspectives of leadership, this paper investigates the interplay between the sales manager’s leadership styles and peer effects during the implementation of a new strategy in a large sales organization. The authors find that salespeople with high network centrality but low strategy commitment not only lower their peers’ commitment but also hurt the effectiveness of a transformational manager. Specially, the influence of a central salesperson becomes stronger when the sales group has lower external connectivity. However, sales managers’ transactional leadership can decrease the non-committed central salesperson’s influence over peers.

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Notes

  1. We thank the AE for asking for the alternative of these two leadership styles.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Babak Hayati, Yashar Atefi and Michael Ahearne contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Asian Institute of Management, Eugenio Lopez Foundation Building, Joseph R. McMicking Campus, 123 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines

    Babak Hayati

  2. Professional Sales Institute, E. J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University, 2117 Business Education Complex, 4005 Nicholson Drive Extension, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Yashar Atefi

  3. Stephen Stagner Sales Excellence Institute, C. T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, 334 Melcher Hall, Houston, TX, USA

    Michael Ahearne

Authors
  1. Babak Hayati
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  2. Yashar Atefi
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  3. Michael Ahearne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Ahearne.

Additional information

Neil Morgan served as Area Editor for this article.

Appendix

Appendix

Survey Measures (1 = “strongly disagree,” and 7 = “strongly agree”) – CFA item loadings are provided at the end of each item.

Transformational Leadership (MacKenzie et al. 2001 )

Transactional Leadership (MacKenzie et al. 2001 )

Core transformational leader behavior

1. Articulates a vision (.89)

2. Provides an appropriate mode l (.91)

3. Facilitates the acceptance of group goals (.93)

High performance expectations

1. Makes it clear to me that she or he expects me to give 110% all of the time (.92)

2. Insists on only the best performance (.91)

3. Will not settle for second best (.88)

Supportive leader behavior

1. Acts with considering my feelings (.87)

2. Considers my personal feelings before acting (.85)

3. Shows respect for my personal feelings (.90)

4. Treats me with considering my personal feelings (.86)

Intellectual stimulation

1. Challenges me to think about old problems in new ways (.86)

2. Asks questions that prompt me to think about the way I do things (.91)

3. Has stimulated me to rethink the way I do some things (.88)

4. Has ideas that have challenged me to reexamine some of my basic assumptions about my work (.89)

Contingent reward behavior

1. Always gives me positive feedback when I perform well (.87)

2. Gives me special recognition when I produce at a high level (.89)

3. Commends me when I exceed my productivity goals (.92)

4. Frequently acknowledges my good performance (.89)

Contingent punishment behavior

1. Would indicate his or her disapproval if I performed at a low level (.86)

2. Lets me know about it when I perform poorly (.90)

3. Points it out to me when my productivity is not up to par (.87)

Product Knowledge (Behrman & Perreault 1982)

1. I know the design and specifications of company products very well (.85)

2. I know the applications and functions of company products very well (.87)

3. I am able to detect causes of operating failure of company products (.83)

4. I keep abreast of our company’s production and technological developments (.84)

Strategy Role Commitment (Noble & Mokwa 1999) – We measured this both for salespeople and sales managers

(company name) has recently introduced a strategic change in sales focus, from one that is focused on managing current, active accounts and selling print advertising, to one that is focused on developing new business and selling digital products. Two of the strategic-level goals that all its members can contribute to are: (1) growing active accounts by 50% and (2) increasing digital sales by 100%

1. I intend to execute this strategy to the fullest extent of my ability (salespeople: .84; sales managers: .85)

2. I am committed to my role in implementing this strategy (salespeople: .86; sales managers: .86)

3. I intend to expend a great deal of effort in carrying out my responsibilities in this strategy (salespeople: .89; sales managers: .90)

4. I am determined to meet my assigned objectives in this strategy (salespeople: .82; sales managers: .84)

Social Networks (Nomination Method, Marsden 1990 )

Please nominate salespeople INSIDE your sales group to whom you regularly refer to for advice on work-related matters.

Please nominate salespeople OUTSIDE of your sales group to whom you regularly refer to for advice on work-related matters.

Please indicate whether you regularly refer to your sales manager for advice on work-related matters (1: Yes, 2: No)

Objective Measures: Sales Group’s Sales Performance: new product quota achievement of each sales group (%); Sales Manager’s (and Salesperson’s) Work Experience: years of experience in the company (years)

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Hayati, B., Atefi, Y. & Ahearne, M. Sales force leadership during strategy implementation: a social network perspective. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 46, 612–631 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-017-0557-2

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