ABSTRACT

Purpose

Servant leadership has been tested as having a positive impact on employee self-efficacy which has been tested in the marketing literature within a service-delivery context. To date, there are no studies testing the Servant Leadership → Self-Efficacy path leading to salesperson job satisfaction, sales performance, and turnover intentions within a B2B context. The purpose of this study is to assess whether servant leadership has a direct relationship on salesperson self-efficacy (positive), job satisfaction (positive), performance (positive) and turnover intentions (negative). Second, the intent is to test whether servant leadership indirectly affects turnover intentions through self-efficacy, job satisfaction and performance as single and serial mediated paths. Finally, the study tests whether gender, firm size and job demands as challenge and hindrance stressors serve to moderate these hypothesized paths.

Method

Data was gathered over a 10-day period using an online survey from a survey panel of U.S. sales professionals who sell products and services to businesses within their sales role. The data was approximately evenly split between females and males and between smaller firms (less than 250 employees) and larger companies (more than 250 employees). The authors used Hayes Process Model 4 to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

Key results in this study suggest that servant leadership has a direct impact on salesperson job satisfaction (positive), self-efficacy (positive), and turnover intentions (negative), but fails to influence salesperson performance directly. Further, salesperson job satisfaction directly decreases turnover intentions; performance directly increases turnover intentions; but self-efficacy fails to have a direct impact on turnover intentions. Servant leadership has a direct impact on turnover intentions and indirect influence through job satisfaction (single mediator) and through self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and performance as serially mediated paths (Self-Efficacy → Job Satisfaction and Self-Efficacy → Performance). One significant finding is that servant leadership fails to directly influence salesperson performance suggesting that self-efficacy may exhibit suppressing the effects on Servant Leadership → Salesperson Performance path. Finally, the results indicate that gender (binary) and firm size (< 250 employees and > 250 employees) fail to serve as moderators on the proposed paths. However, servant leadership behaviors buffer the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors at low and moderate levels, but fail to have a buffering effect at high levels of challenge and hindrance stressors.

Implications

This study confirms that sales managers should consider adopting servant leadership to raise salesperson job satisfaction to aid in retaining sales talent (lower turnover intentions). Furthermore, sales managers who adopt servant leadership behaviors raise salesperson self-efficacy, which is a new finding that has not been tested to date in the marketing literature. Further, self-efficacy seems to suppress the direct link between servant leadership and salesperson performance indicating that servant leadership positively influences salesperson self-efficacy leading to higher salesperson performance as a mediated path. Also, salespeople who are high performers experience higher turnover intentions, possibly suggesting that high sales producers may perceive they should leave for better compensation or growth opportunities elsewhere. These relationships seem to hold regardless of gender and firm size. Finally, servant leadership seems to buffer the effects of low and moderate levels of challenge and hindrance stressors on job satisfaction, performance and turnover intentions.

Originality

This study provides further clarity as to whether servant leadership has a direct, partially mediated, or fully mediated influence on salesperson job satisfaction, performance and turnover intentions. The results support that servant leadership fails to directly influence salesperson performance; however, servant leadership increases self-efficacy, which in turn increases salesperson performance. This is a new finding within a business-to-business sales context. Another contribution to the nomological net is that servant leadership indirectly lowers salesperson turnover intentions through serial mediated paths consisting of self-efficacy, job satisfaction and performance as mediators.

中文翻译：

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仆人式领导对销售人员自我效能、绩效、工作满意度和离职意向的影响

摘要

目的

仆人式领导已被测试为对员工自我效能产生积极影响，这已在服务交付背景下的营销文献中得到测试。迄今为止，还没有研究测试在 B2B 环境中导致销售人员工作满意度、销售业绩和离职意向的仆人式领导 → 自我效能路径。本研究的目的是评估仆人式领导是否与销售人员的自我效能感（正面）、工作满意度（正面）、绩效（正面）和离职意愿（负面）有直接关系。其次，目的是测试仆人式领导是否通过自我效能、工作满意度和绩效作为单一和连续的中介路径间接影响离职意向。最后，该研究测试了性别、

方法

数据是在为期 10 天的时间里使用在线调查收集的，该调查来自美国销售专业人士的调查小组，这些专业人士在其销售职责范围内向企业销售产品和服务。数据在女性和男性之间以及在较小的公司（少于 250 名员工）和较大的公司（超过 250 名员工）之间大致平均分配。作者使用 Hayes Process Model 4 来测试假设的关系。

发现

本研究的主要结果表明，仆人式领导对销售人员的工作满意度（积极）、自我效能（积极）和离职意愿（消极）有直接影响，但不能直接影响销售人员的绩效。此外，销售人员的工作满意度直接降低了离职意愿；业绩直接增加离职意向；但自我效能对离职意向没有直接影响。仆人式领导通过工作满意度（单一中介）和自我效能、工作满意度和绩效作为串行中介路径（自我效能→工作满意度和自我效能→绩效）对离职意向产生直接影响和间接影响。一个重要的发现是仆人式领导不能直接影响销售人员的绩效，这表明自我效能可能会抑制对仆人式领导→销售人员绩效路径的影响。最后，结果表明，性别（二元）和公司规模（< 250 名员工和 > 250 名员工）未能在提议的路径上起到调节作用。然而，仆人式领导行为在低水平和中等水平上缓冲了挑战和阻碍压力源的影响，但在高水平的挑战和阻碍压力源上却没有缓冲作用。

影响

本研究证实，销售经理应考虑采用仆人式领导来提高销售人员的工作满意度，以帮助留住销售人才（降低离职意愿）。此外，采用仆人式领导行为的销售经理提高了销售人员的自我效能感，这是迄今为止尚未在营销文献中得到检验的新发现。此外，自我效能似乎抑制了仆人式领导与销售人员绩效之间的直接联系，表明仆人式领导对销售人员自我效能产生积极影响，从而导致更高的销售人员绩效作为中介路径。此外，高绩效销售人员的离职意愿更高，这可能表明高销售生产商可能认为他们应该离开以获得更好的薪酬或其他地方的增长机会。无论性别和公司规模如何，这些关系似乎都成立。最后，仆人式领导似乎可以缓冲低水平和中等水平的挑战和阻碍压力源对工作满意度、绩效和离职意愿的影响。

独创性

本研究进一步明确了仆人式领导是否对销售人员的工作满意度、绩效和离职意向具有直接、部分中介或完全中介的影响。结果支持仆人式领导不能直接影响销售人员的绩效；然而，仆人式领导会提高自我效能，进而提高销售人员的绩效。这是企业对企业销售环境中的新发现。对法则网络的另一个贡献是，仆人式领导通过由自我效能、工作满意度和作为中介的绩效组成的一系列中介路径间接降低了销售人员的离职意愿。