IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v27y1981i11p1246-1260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sources of Job Related Ambiguity and Their Consequences Upon Salespersons' Job Satisfaction and Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas N. Behrman

    (Florida State University)

  • William J. Bigoness

    (University of North Carolina)

  • William D. Perreault, Jr.

    (University of North Carolina)

Abstract

This study presents a conceptual model relating four sources of job related ambiguity and two individual difference variables (locus of control and need for clarity) to salesperson job satisfaction and job performance. Previous research related to the model is briefly reviewed. Then, drawing data from a multicompany sample of industrial salespersons and their managers, behavioral research methods are used to clarify the nature and strength of the relationships in the model. The analysis reveals that ambiguity concerning family expectations is positively related to performance, but ambiguity regarding sales manager and customer expectations is negatively related to performance. Lower levels of satisfaction are explained primarly by ambiguous managerial expectations. The individual difference variables are shown to be related to job outcomes even after adjusting for different levels of perceived ambiguity. The individual difference variables, however, do not moderate the relationships between sources of ambiguity and job outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas N. Behrman & William J. Bigoness & William D. Perreault, Jr., 1981. "Sources of Job Related Ambiguity and Their Consequences Upon Salespersons' Job Satisfaction and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(11), pages 1246-1260, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:27:y:1981:i:11:p:1246-1260
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.27.11.1246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.27.11.1246
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.27.11.1246?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John W. Boudreau, 2004. "50th Anniversary Article: Organizational Behavior, Strategy, Performance, and Design in Management Science," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(11), pages 1463-1476, November.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4258 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Romain Franck & Maud Dampérat, 2023. "Influence of sales support technologies on salesperson performance: A study of interpersonal and intrapersonal mediators [Influence des technologies d’aide à la vente sur les performances du commer," Post-Print halshs-04159504, HAL.
    4. Misbah Nasir & Ambreen Bashir, 2012. "Examining workplace deviance in public sector organizations of Pakistan," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(4), pages 240-253, March.
    5. Uy, Marilyn A. & Sun, Shuhua & Foo, Maw-Der, 2017. "Affect spin, entrepreneurs' well-being, and venture goal progress: The moderating role of goal orientation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 443-460.
    6. Xing Zhang & Micha Kaiser & Peng Nie & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2019. "Why are Chinese workers so unhappy? A comparative cross-national analysis of job satisfaction, job expectations, and job attributes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, September.
    7. Powpaka, Samart, 2006. "How market orientation affects female service employees in Thailand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 54-61, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:27:y:1981:i:11:p:1246-1260. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.