اثرات ساختار سازمانی و ویژگی های شغلی بر رضایت شغلی مدیران فروش صادرات و تعهد سازمانی

This study draws on the job-modification framework and the job characteristics model to investigate the relationship between organizational structure, job characteristics, and work outcomes in export sales organizations. The study offers a conceptual framework and an empirical test using data collected from 160 UK exporters. The results indicate that formalization and centralization have a positive impact on job feedback. Moreover, centralization relates negatively to job autonomy and job variety. Higher levels of job autonomy, job variety and job feedback enhance the job satisfaction of export sales managers. In turn, export sales managers’ job satisfaction relates positively to organizational commitment. Managerial implications are presented and future research avenues are identified.

Most organizations employ a variety of control mechanisms to direct and influence the attitudes and behaviors of employees, and ensure that work efforts are channeled towards activities that facilitate the achievement of organizational objectives (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1993, Jaworski, 1988 and Jaworski et al., 1993). The design and implementation of an effective control system is particularly important in the case of sales organizations. First, the role of salespeople as revenue generators is critical to an organization's success. Second, for many firms the sales force accounts for the largest portion of marketing personnel and the marketing budget (Cravens, Ingram, LaForge, & Young, 1993). Third, given the relative independence that most salespeople enjoy, an effective control system is necessary to align their attitudes and behaviors with the organization's objectives. Finally, sales managers are responsible for supervising, evaluating, directing, and controlling the activities of field salespeople (Anderson & Oliver, 1987). Therefore, control is an important sales management activity. Despite the numerous studies investigating the dimensions, the antecedents and the consequences of sales management control, there are still some notable gaps in the literature. First, Jaworski (1988) recognizes that organizational structure is an important control mechanism present in organizations. Surprisingly, few empirical studies attempted to examine the influence of organizational structure on salespeople's behavior. Most existing studies focus their attention on control types which are under the direct authority of field sales managers (e.g., Anderson and Oliver, 1987 and Challagalla and Shervani, 1996). The structure of a sales organization determines the nature of the relationship between salespeople and their supervisors and has important implications for the control approach that sales managers can adopt in order to encourage desired behaviors and outcomes. Thus, the influence of organizational structure on salespeople's behavior is an issue that warrants more research attention. Second, most existing studies examine the direct influence of sales management control on important work outcomes like job satisfaction and sales performance (e.g., Jaworski et al., 1993 and Oliver and Anderson, 1994). The findings of these studies are contradictory and inconclusive (Challagalla & Shervani, 1996). The relationship between sales management control and various work outcomes is perhaps more complicated than some studies suggest. One approach to reconcile such conflicting findings is to examine the role of other relevant constructs and investigate an expanded chain-of-effects. Drawing upon the job-modification framework (Oldham & Hackman, 1981) this study attempts to expand the literature by investigating interrelationships between organizational structure, export sales managers’ job characteristics, and work outcomes. Third, existing knowledge regarding control systems and how they influence the job characteristics and work outcomes of salespeople relates mostly to sales activities conducted in a domestic market setting. By contrast, limited empirical evidence is available regarding how exporting firms attempt to influence the behavior and activities of export sales personnel (Katsikea et al., 2007 and Theodosiou and Katsikea, 2007). The limited research evidence regarding control systems in the context of export operations is disturbing. Exporting is the most popular approach that small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) adopt in order to enter and penetrate foreign markets (Leonidou, Katsikeas, & Samiee, 2002). Moreover, the responsibility for export sales in these firms is commonly assigned to home-based employees who travel to foreign markets to perform the sales activities. The effective organization and management of export sales personnel are of utmost importance for SMEs’ export success. In light of these, the main objective of this study is to examine empirically the job-modification framework (Oldham & Hackman, 1981) within the context of export sales organizations. In particular, the study aims to demonstrate that the organizational structure adopted by an export sales organization has an important influence on export sales managers’ perceptions regarding the core characteristics of their job. In turn, perceptions of job characteristics have an important impact on export sales managers’ work outcomes like job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Although the present research does not create new theory per se, it makes an incremental contribution to the literature by extending a well established management theory in the neglected context of export sales operations. Furthermore, it sheds more light on the nature of the relationship between control mechanisms and salespeople work outcomes, an issue that remains largely unresolved in the marketing literature. The remainder of the article is organized as follows. First, we outline the background of the research. Particularly, we discuss the role of organizational structure in influencing the job characteristics of salespeople, and examine how selling activities are organized in export sales organizations. Second, we present the conceptual framework that directed the execution of this research inquiry and develop research hypotheses. Then, we present the research methodology and report the results of statistical analysis. The article concludes with a discussion of study findings, managerial implications, limitations, and directions for future research.

To purify the initial measures, a combination of exploratory factor analysis and item-to-total correlations was used. As a result, we dropped a number of items that had low item-to-total correlation or high cross-loadings (see Table 1). With the remaining items we performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using the EQS statistical package (Bentler, 1995). Because of sample size restrictions, we estimated three separate CFA models. To assess the goodness-of-fit of the estimated models, in addition to the overall chi-square statistic (whose sensitivity to sample size is well recognized), four other indices were used: the ratio of chi-square to the degrees of freedom (χ2/d.f.), the comparative fit index (CFI), the non-normed fit index (NNFI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). The first CFA model contains 22 items, measuring 5 constructs. Formalization, centralization, job autonomy, and job variety are included in this model as first-order constructs. On the other hand, job feedback is estimated as a second-order factor comprised two dimensions, namely activity information and capability information. Fit statistics indicate a close fit to the data (χ2(197) = 254.54, p < .01; χ2/d.f. = 1.29; [CFI] = .98, [NNFI] = .98, and [RMSEA] = .043). The second CFA model includes 18 items. This model estimates job satisfaction as a second-order construct comprised five dimensions: satisfaction with overall job, satisfaction with fellow workers, satisfaction with supervision, satisfaction with company policy and support and satisfaction with customers. The result suggest a good fit to the data (χ2(130) = 217.35, p < .01; χ2/d.f. = 1.67; [CFI] = .97, [NNFI] = .97, and [RMSEA] = .065). Finally, the third CFA model contains 23 items measuring four constructs, namely organizational commitment, role conflict, role ambiguity, and export sales manager's experience. This model also has a satisfactory fit to the data (χ2(224) = 398.42, p < .01; χ2/d.f. = 1.78; [CFI] = .95, [NNFI] = .95, and [RMSEA] = .070). Table 1 presents standardized loadings and t-values obtained from the estimation of the three CFA sub-models. All first-order and second-order factor loadings are large and significant indicating convergent validity. We assessed discriminant validity following the guidelines provided by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). First, we assessed all possible pairs of constructs in a series of two-factor confirmatory models. Each model was run twice, once constraining the phi coefficient to unity and once freeing the parameter. A significantly lower chi-square value for the unconstrained model indicates that the two constructs are distinct. Discriminant validity was obtained for all study constructs (χ21 > 3.84 for all pair wise comparisons). Second, we estimated the confidence interval (±two standard errors) around the correlation estimate of all pairs of constructs. In none of the cases did the confidence interval include 1.0. These findings provide sufficient evidence for discriminant validity between each possible pair of constructs. We calculated Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability score to assess construct reliability. As indicated in Table 1, for all constructs the values obtained for these indices are above the standards suggested in the literature (i.e., alpha values greater than .70 and composite reliability scores greater than .60). Overall, the results of the above analyses indicate that all scales employed in the present research possess adequate measurement properties. Table 2 presents descriptive statistics and intercorrelations for study constructs.