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The Service Industries Journal

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Customer orientation as a mediator of the influence of locus of control on job performance

Wan-Jing April Changa; Tung Chun Huangb a Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Hsinchu University of Education, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China b Department of International Business Management, Ching Yun University, Jung-Li Taiwan, Republic of China First published on: 28 September 2010

To cite this Article Chang, Wan-Jing April and Huang, Tung Chun(2011) 'Customer orientation as a mediator of the

influence of locus of control on job performance', The Service Industries Journal, 31: 2, 273 — 285, First published on: 28 September 2010 (iFirst) To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/02642060902759129 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642060902759129

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The Service Industries Journal Vol. 31, No. 2, January 2011, 273 –285

Customer orientation as a mediator of the influence of locus of control on job performance Wan-Jing April Changa and Tung Chun Huangb a

Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Hsinchu University of Education, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China; bDepartment of International Business Management, Ching Yun University, Jung-Li Taiwan, Republic of China

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(Received 14 January 2008; final version received 15 January 2009) Although the effects of locus of control (LOC) on job performance are welldocumented, the mechanisms that explain those effects remain unclear. The authors propose that customer orientation plays an important intervening role between LOC and job performance. Data are analysed from responses by 175 salespeople working in duty-free shops in Taiwan’s international airport using a structural equation modelling approach. The results show that customer orientation partially mediates the effects of LOC on job performance. The findings reveal the importance of behaviours that benefit customers, and the disadvantages of persuasive selling behaviours on the performance of first-line salespeople in retailing. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed. Keywords: customer orientation; locus of control; job performance; retailing; Taiwan

Introduction In a highly competitive environment, the ways in which salespeople interact with customers is crucial to business success. The marketing success of a firm depends greatly upon its sales representatives, since they have the most direct influence on customers (Williams & Attaway, 1996). This argument is particularly valid in the case of retailing. The retail industry connects manufacturing and marketing activities, with customer contact happening at the end of the business value chain (Kotler, 2000). As retailers strive to develop customer-oriented environments, delivering quality and value to the customer through improved customer services has been identified as a way of gaining a potentially competitive advantage (Stanforth & Lennon, 1997). Tohmatsu (2000) suggested that growth of the retail industry is the key index of a nation’s economic and social development. In Taiwan, revenue in the retail industry has been continuously increasing in recent years. In 2006, retailing made up 10.09% of the revenue of the whole service industries, while the service industries made up 68.82% of the national GDP. While it is crucial for salespeople to be customer-oriented, their personalities are also important determinants of job performance. Locus of control (LOC) is one of the most widely studied personality concepts (Matsumoto, 2000) and has been used to predict employee behaviour in organizations. The British Retail Consortium considered the skills, important to successful performance in the industry, include self-confidence and personal strengths (assertiveness, decisiveness, flexibility, judgment, initiative, and 

Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

ISSN 0264-2069 print/ISSN 1743-9507 online # 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/02642060902759129 http://www.informaworld.com

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stress tolerance). LOC refers to the degree of which an individual perceives how his rewards are dependent upon his own behaviours or attributes. In studies of organizations, customer orientation is an important theme in selling situations (Boles, Babin, Brashear, & Brooks, 2001; Harris, Mowen, & Brown, 2005); however, it has received relatively little attention in retail settings. In addition, related research has tended to examine the relationships between employee’s customer orientation and its antecedents or consequences separately, rather than simultaneously. Several studies have also adopted the selling orientation – customer orientation (SOCO) concept to reflect the attitudes and behaviours of salespeople, without further differentiating the types of selling orientation and their influence on individual job performance. This work attempts to improve upon prior empirical literature in the following ways: first, by conducting a customer orientation analysis in a retail setting; second, by proposing an integrated model with a process perspective, which examines the mediating role of customer orientation, and linking LOC and job performance; and third, by confirming which kinds of selling behaviour are the most influential in improving job performance. Literature review and hypotheses Locus of control The basis of the attribution influences one’s future expectations, intentions and behaviours. The first journal article to incorporate attribution theory in the sales management literature is by Mowen, Brown, and Jackson (1981). Attribution literature in sales management is composed of two research streams: performance appraisal and salesperson motivation. The latter examines attribution from the salesperson’s perspective rather than that of the sales manager (Johnson, 2006). Attribution theory has a natural connection to LOC, though attribution theory is the theory, and LOC is the personality trait. Briefly, attribution theory explains the different behavioural tendencies of people with different LOC. Attribution theory states that if people make an internal attribution, behaviours are those they believe to be under the personal control of the individual; while an external attribution is made, behaviours are what people consider the situation forced the individual to do. Similarly, persons with an internal LOC (internals) believe that reinforcements are determined by personal effort, ability, and initiative, whereas persons with an external LOC (externals) tend to believe that reinforcements are determined by other people, luck, or fate (O’Brien, 1984). LOC was first defined by Rotter (1966), which reflects individual differences in generalized beliefs about the personal controllability of reinforcing life events (Smith & Iskra-Golec, 2003), and the degree to which an individual perceives that the rewards are dependent upon his/her own behaviours or attributes. LOC is one of the most widely studied personality concepts (Matsumoto, 2000). It has been extensively and systematically applied to behaviours in occupational setting (O’Brien, 1984). Furnham (1992) has also argued that LOC is an important variable in the determination of work-related behaviour. According to previous research, internals are likely to exhibit greater intrinsic motivation, be more achievement oriented, and report lower turnover intentions (Renn & Vandenberg, 1991); internals often perform beyond their basic job requirements (Blau, 1993); be more action oriented (Hoffman, Novak, & Schlosser, 2003); and are likely to take on more risk in business and engage in a greater degree of information searching (Howell & Avolio, 1993), and tended to have higher household incomes (Hoffman et al., 2003) than externals. Organizational researchers have typically used Rotter’s internal – external LOC scale RLOC (Rotter, 1966) to measure general control orientation; however, different

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environments and situations can generate different LOC orientations (Hodgkinson, 1993; Spector, 1988). Their underlying assumption is that devising specific LOC scales, by connecting particular settings, would increase not only content validity, but also predictive validity (Furnham & Steele, 1993). Responding to researchers’ calls for refinements on both the conceptualization and measurement of the LOC construct, Spector (1988) developed the work locus of control scale (WLCS), specifically for use in work settings, which is useful in studies related to employee attitudes, behaviours (Orpens, 1992), and performance (Blau, 1993). Blau (1993) reported stronger relationships between a work-specific LOC measurement and several job performance criteria, compared with Rotter’s general measures. Given the focus of the present study on the prediction of job performance, a measure of LOC for outcomes of work-related behaviour seemed to have the most relevance here (Hattrup, O’Connell, & Labrador, 2005). Customer orientation The concept of customer orientation was developed in the work of Levitt (1960). Brown and his colleagues further defined customer orientation as an employee’s tendency or predisposition to meet customer needs in an on-the-job context (Brown, Mowen, Donavan, & Licata, 2002). Customer orientation refers to the degree of which salespeople practice this marketing concept, by trying to help their customers make purchase decisions that will satisfy customer needs. According to Saxe and Weitz (1982), a salesperson is customer oriented when he or she engages in behaviours designed to build customer satisfaction. Salespeople are described as exercising customer-oriented sales tactics when they are genuinely interested in their customers and when they develop solutions with the customers’ needs in mind (Pettijohn et al., 2007). Customer orientation is a frequent research subject and includes salespeople’s skills, training, organizational commitment, learning orientation, and competitiveness (Boles et al., 2001; Harris, Mowen, & Brown, 2005). Several writers have suggested interpersonal behaviour models, incorporating two dimensions: concern for self and concern for others (Blake & Mouton, 1970). Within the context of these models and the emphasis on customer satisfaction, high customer orientation reflects high concern for others, low-pressure selling, and problem– solution selling approaches (Saxe & Weitz, 1982). The perception that salespeople play an integral role in determining the degree of satisfaction experienced by customers led to the development of the SOCO scale. The first attempt to directly measure customer orientation at the individual level was performed by Saxe and Weitz (1982), which was used to measure the extent to which a salesperson seeks to increase customer satisfaction. Generally, research has been supportive of SOCO as a useful and valid instrument. The coefficient alpha for the SOCO scale, for the first sample of salespeople, was 0.86, indicating that the scale has a high level of internal consistency, an important indication of reliability (Saxe & Weitz, 1982). The relationship between LOC and customer orientation Some researchers believed that internal LOC is linked to selling activity (Spiro & Weitz, 1990). Salespeople with internal LOC are inclined to ascribe rewards or punishment to their own sales-related behaviours. They are more likely to perceive greater personal control over their work environments and also likely to have more belief, both in their own competence and in their better performance stemming from their own efforts (Smith & Iskra-Golec, 2003). With more confidence, salespeople display ability in

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using different and adaptive approaches during interaction with customers (Paulhas, 1983). In addition, they invest greater effort in task and tend to seek out relevant information in complex task situations. Duty-free store sales should provide complete information for all products and understand travellers with different culture backgrounds, and to meet their various needs, such as choosing gifts, finding certain brand products, and comparing product functions in the limited time. On the other hand, salespeople who are prototypical externals do not perceive a reliable contingency between their sales-related behaviours and their sales outcomes. These individuals generally believe that the rewards and punishments they incur result from such capricious, unstable forces as chance or at the whim of powerful others (Chung & Ding, 2002). Thus, they may display limited selling approaches during interaction with customers, and passively seek out customers’ needs. Therefore, in our study of retail salespeople, we tested whether there is a positive relationship between internal LOC and customer orientation. H1: Internal LOC is positively related to customer orientation.

The relationship between customer orientation and job performance From a performance perspective, it appears that salespeople often have a distinct advantage by utilizing a customer-oriented selling approach. Saxe and Weitz’s (1982) research indicated customer orientation is related to sales performance. The SOCO effect on important outcomes includes sales performance, firm performance, customer satisfaction, and relationship quality. The SOCO scale composed of two subscales: customer orientation and selling orientation. Results from studies have indicated that the salesperson, the selling firm, and the customer can all benefit when a customer-oriented selling style is used, as opposed to a selling-oriented approach (Goff, Boles, Bellenger, & Stojack, 1997). Donavan, Brown, and Mowen (2004) contend that higher levels of customer orientation in salespeople can lead to correspondingly higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in those salespeople. Also, in a study of residential realestate salespeople, top-performers reported higher levels of customer-orientation than equally experienced, but less successful realtors (Dunlap, Dotson, & Chambers, 1988). Likewise, in a business-to-business sales setting, Swenson and Herche (1994) reported that customer orientation was related to higher performance. The evidence available indicates that customer orientation is positively related to a salesperson’s performance, while selling orientation is negatively related to job performance, though the research is limited, particularly in a retail setting (Boles et al., 2001). Therefore, we propose the following: H2: Customer orientation is positively related to job performance, while selling orientation is negatively related to job performance.

The mediating effect of customer orientation on LOC – job performance relationship The relationship between LOC and job performance has already received intensive research attention, generating a large number of studies. Judge and Bono (2001) presented a metaanalysis and found their correlation was 0.22. However, the intermediate mechanism of this relationship should be further explored. Brown et al. (2002) examined whether customer orientation partially mediates the personality traits (introversion, stability, agreeability, conscientiousness, openness, and

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activity) and performance rating. In this study, we are interested in determining whether the levels of salespeople’s customer orientation mediate the effects of LOC on job performance. As previously discussed, internal LOC is expected to relate positively to job performance. The real influence of LOC on job performance is through the behaviour of salespeople. Within retail stores, salespeople who are internals tend to adopt active approaches to seek information of customers’ needs, and this customer orientation, in turn, can affect their final sales outcomes. Consequently, we propose the following: H3: Customer orientation partially mediates the effects of LOC on job performance.

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Methodology Sample The data were collected from 180 first-line salespeople working in tax-free shops in Taiwan’s international airport. A total of 175 questionnaires were returned (a 97.2% response rate) and no invalid responses were found. The sample characteristics showed that 89.6% were female; 40.6% were 20 –25 years old; 74.3% were single; and 58.9% were high school graduates. Salespeople close to 36.6% had less than 1 year experience in their current position, since a large number of employees had been hired to meet the expanded demand for duty-free shops during the previous year. Measures Locus of control The WLCS developed by Spector (1988) was used to assess the extent to which people expect that rewards, reinforcements, and other outcomes in the work domain are controlled either by one’s own actions or by others. Responses to 15 items (e.g. job promotions are usually a matter of good fortune) are scored on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (disagree very much) to 5 (agree very much). To be consistent with hypotheses, we reversed the coding direction. Higher scores indicate a greater internal LOC. Alpha coefficient is 0.724. Customer orientation The Saxe and Weitz’s (1982) SOCO was used to assess the sales approach used by a salesperson or experienced by a customer (Tadepalli, 1995). Responses to 10 items are scored on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (disagree very much) to 5 (agree very much). To confirm the factor structure of customer orientation in our study, we conducted a factor analysis (Table 1). Item four was deleted from the original scale due to the low loading. The results showed that, different from the original customer and selling dimensions, three factors emerged from our data: customer benefit, manipulative selling, and persuasive selling. Customer benefit approach is a positive behaviour and close to the traditionally defined customer orientation; manipulative selling and persuasive selling, on the other hand, are negative and close to the traditionally defined selling orientation. The composite reliability are 0.810, 0.780, and 0.796; and average variances extracted (AVE) are 0.519, 0.533, and 0.661, respectively. The AVE values are greater than the correlation between two factors squared, 0.010, 0.116, and 0.023; therefore, the discriminant validity among three factors is claimed (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

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Table 1. Factor analysis on customer orientation. Factor loading

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Items 2. I try to get customers to discuss their needs with me 1. I try to help customers achieve their goals 5. I try to achieve my goals by satisfying customers 6. A good salesperson has to have the customer’s best interest in mind 8. I pretend to agree with customers to please them 9. I keep alert for weakness in a customer’s personality so I can use them to put pressure on him/her to buy 7. It is necessary to stretch the truth in describing a product to a customer 3. I decide what products to offer on the basis of what I can convince customers to buy, not on the basis of what will satisfy them in the long run 10. I spend more time trying to persuade a customer to buy than I do trying to discover his/her needs Eigenvalue Composite reliability Variance extracted

Customer benefit

Manipulative selling

Persuasive selling

Communalities

0.807

0.628

0.758

0.693

0.713

0.677

0.586

0.526

2.117 0.810 0.59

0.811

0.465

0.730

0.582

0.661

0.663

1.870 0.780 0.533

0.822

0.557

0.804

0.729

1.533 0.796 0.661

Extraction method: principal component analysis. Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization.

Job performance A number of studies have investigated the relationship between LOC and job performance and mixed results have been found (Judge, Erez, & Bono, 1998). In most previous studies, job performance has been defined by supervisory rating (Silvester, Patterson, & Ferguson, 2003), which could be more subjective based. Here, job performance was represented by the sales revenue generated by the individual, which served as an objective and outputbased performance measure (Schwepker & Good, 2004). Except the outcome oriented of sales jobs itself, the quantitative measure is more precise and objective than a behaviour-oriented measure, which usually involves a rater’s observation. We collected the subjects’ average rate of sales quota achieved, for three months in a row, from December 2005 to February 2006. The targets were determined by the duty-free shops in advance and the actual sales outcomes of each salesperson were reviewed monthly. Tenure Tenure was controlled to prevent its impact on customer orientation and job performance. O’Hara, Boles, and Johnson (1991) argued that greater job tenure could lead to higher levels of customer-oriented selling. Since employees with greater tenure had more

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selling expertise, had the ability to present a wide range of alternatives, and were familiar with the customer’s needs over a longer period of time, they were expected to display higher levels of customer-oriented behaviour and performance than their less experienced counterparts. In this study, tenure was measured by the number of years the subjects had worked as salespeople. Analytical technique This study employed the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique with LISREL 8.30 for hypothesis testing, since it enables the simultaneous evaluation of all of the predicted relationships in the integrated model. Before conducting the model analysis, the data were screened and it was determined that both the statistical assumptions of normality and the linear relationships were met. In addition, the maximum likelihood (ML) method of estimation was applied to analyse the covariance matrix. ML is widely used and is based on the normal-distribution theory; we believe this was the appropriate approach to employ. According to Seibert and Liden (2001) and Zhao and Selbert (2005), we fitted several nested models to the data, each incorporating different assumptions about the model parameters. Comparisons with reasonable alternative models are recommended as a means of showing that the proposed model is the best representation of the data and are considered to be an important part of assessing model fit (Kelloway, 1998). In the present study, the first model specified only the direct paths from control variable to the customer orientation and job performance outcome variables. Then, we compared the proposed model with two alternative models to assess the possibilities that customer orientation has a full or no mediating effect on the relationship between LOC and job performance rather than a partial mediating effect as we proposed. The proposed model specifies both the control variable paths and the set of paths hypothesized in this study. The alternative 1 (full mediation) model assesses the direct effects between our set of constructs. The alternative 2 (nonmediation) model examines whether the effect of LOC on job performance were only direct, with no indirect effects through the customer orientation. Both of them included the control variable path. Results and discussion Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients among the variables are shown in Table 2. The goodness-of-fit indices of competing models are presented in Table 3. The results showed our proposed model fits better than alternative models; however, the unexpected Table 2. Descriptive statistics and correlations.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Tenure Internal locus of control Customer benefit Manipulative selling Persuasive selling Job performance

N ¼175.  p , 0.05.  p , 0.01.

M

SD

1

2

3

4

5

2.14 3.65 4.20 3.44 2.78 0.97

1.12 0.36 0.41 0.60 0.72 0.010

20.15 20.08 20.05 20.01 0.23

0.36 20.12 20.25 0.20

20.10 20.15 0.36

0.34 20.14

20.19

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Table 3. Goodness-of-fit indexes for structural equation models.

x2 (df )

RMSEA

GFI

AGFI

NFI

CFI

106.90 (10) 19.36 (3) 33.62 (5) 43.09 (6) 1.28 (2)

0.237 0.178 0.182 0.190 0.000

0.83 0.96 0.94 0.92 1.00

0.64 0.75 0.75 0.73 0.97

0.14 0.81 0.67 0.60 0.99

0.11 0.81 0.67 0.60 1.00

Model C: control variable P: partial mediation A1: full mediation A2: non-mediation M: partial mediation

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C, controlled model; P, proposed model; A, alternative model; M, modified model.

significantly positive effect of persuasive selling on manipulative selling appeared. Both selling approaches originally belong to selling orientation in the SOCO scale; therefore, we added the path and modified our proposed model. The Chi-square statistic of the modified model was not significant (x2 ¼ 1.28, df ¼ 2, p ¼ 0.52851), meaning that no significant difference existed between the data and model. All the fit indices clearly exceeded the recommended cut-off values: the GFI value of 1.00, the AGFI value of 0.97, the NFI values of 0.99, the CFI value of 1.00, and the RMSEA value of 0.00 indicated that the model fitted the data closely. Thus, the modified model was the best-fitting solution and used to examine our hypotheses. Also, based on the three-step mediation test which Baron and Kenny (1986) addressed: first, the relationship between internal LOC and customer orientation was positively and significantly related (b ¼ 0.360, t ¼ 5.003, p , 0.001); second, the relationship between customer orientation and job performance was positively and significantly related (b ¼ 0.373, t ¼ 5.389, p , 0.001); and third, the relationship between internal LOC and job performance was not significant (b ¼ 0.125, t ¼ 1.686), the effect size was reduced from their direct and significant relationship (b ¼ 0.242, t ¼ 3.305, p , 0.001) after adding the variable of customer orientation. Therefore, the mediating role of customer orientation between internal LOC and job performance was supported. Table 4 lists the structural equation results and estimated coefficients for the hypothetical model’s statistics and Figure 1 illustrates the standardized paths in the structural model. Examination of the standardized parameter estimates indicated that three of six hypothesized relationships were significant. Specifically, regarding tests of the effect of Table 4. Structural equations results and estimated coefficients. Dependent variables Customer benefit Independent variables

b

t

Manipulative selling b

t

Persuasive selling b

t

Exogenous variable Internal locus of control 0.40 4.93 20.07 20.58 20.51 23.43 Endogenous variable Customer benefit Manipulative selling Persuasive selling 

p , 0.05. p , 0.01.  p , 0.001. 

Job performance b 0.02

t 1.31

0.07 4.38 20.01 20.71 20.01 21.35

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Figure 1. Standardized path coefficients of final model. Standardized coefficients for the model are presented. The effect of the control variables is not shown. x2 ¼ 1.28, df ¼ 2, p ¼ 0.52851, RMSEA ¼ 0.000.  p , 0.05,  p , 0.01,  p , 0.001.

LOC on customer orientation, internal LOC was found to be positively and significantly related to customer benefit (g ¼ 0.36, t ¼ 4.93, p , 0.001). Additionally, internal LOC was negatively and significantly related to persuasive selling (g ¼ 20.26, t ¼ 23.43, p , 0.001). Therefore, H1 was partially supported. Second, in testing the effect of customer orientation on job performance, customer benefit was positively and significantly related to job performance (b ¼ 0.32, t ¼ 4.38, p , 0.001). Therefore, H2 was partially supported. Third, the final partially mediating model demonstrated that the paths, including LOC to customer benefit, customer benefit to job performance, and LOC to persuasive selling, were significant. Thus, H3 was supported. In addition, although not hypothesized, persuasive selling was found to be positively and significantly related to manipulative selling (g ¼ 0.33, t ¼ 4.41, p , 0.001). Putting all the hypotheses together, the resulting standardized total effects (Table 5) show that customer benefit was the most important determinant (0.32) of job performance, followed by internal LOC (0.24) persuasive selling (20.10) and manipulative selling (20.05). On the other hand, internal LOC exerted the greatest influence on customer benefit (0.36), followed by persuasive selling (20.26), job performance (0.24), and manipulative selling (20.13). The results pointed out that customer benefit had the highest relationship with LOC as well as job performance. Manipulative selling, on the other hand, had the lowest relationship with LOC and job performance. The final model explained 31% of the variance in the customer orientation and 21% of the variance in the job performance. Discussion Overall, the model that we have adopted is a good fit. Our hypothesized model revealed the importance of the mediating role of customer orientation on the effects of LOC on job performance, that is, salespeople with a higher degree of internal LOC tended to be more considerate about customers’ interests that result in better job performance. Specifically, first, the extent of the salespeople’s customer orientation was related to the LOC. Since the internals had confidence in themselves, they tended to participate in active problem solving to communicate with customers and achieved their own goals by satisfying their customers. However, internals and externals had no significant differences in manipulative tactics, such as pretending to agree with customers in order to please

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Table 5. Standardized total effects on dependent variables. Dependent variables Independent variables Exogenous variable Internal locus of control

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Endogenous variable Customer benefit Manipulative selling Persuasive selling Squared multiple correlation for structural equation

Customer benefit

Manipulative selling

Persuasive selling

Job performance

0.36

20.13

20.26

0.24

– – – 0.13

– – 0.33 0.12

– – – 0.06

0.32 20.05 20.10 0.21

them, stretching the truth when describing a product, or staying alert to spot weaknesses in customers’ personalities, in order to pressurize customers to buy. Also, salespeople who provide customer benefit generated higher sales revenue. High customer orientation salespeople engaged in behaviours aimed at increasing long-term customer satisfaction. By showing consideration for their customers, the salespeople obtained feedback from those customers on their own job performance. However, manipulative selling and persuasive selling did not help salespeople to further improve their performance. Furthermore, persuasive selling was unexpectedly found to be significantly related to manipulative selling, and they are both selling oriented and the opposite of being customer oriented. It is not unusual to find salespeople pressurizing customers to make purchase decisions through manipulative tactics. To sum up, the results of this study are consistent with the proposed hypotheses: internal LOC is positively related to customer orientation; customer orientation is positively related to job performance; and customer orientation partially mediates the effects of LOC on job performance.

Implications Several practical implications are discussed below, the first of which is based on the result showing that internals have positive relationships with customer orientation, which in turn generates higher performance. Retailers may consider using personality and customer orientation scales as selection tools when recruiting salespeople. Objective measurements usually provide higher reliability and validity than subjective judgments. This is not only important for understanding the characteristics of applicants but also for predicting their future job performance. The second implication is based on the finding that customer orientation is positively related to job performance. First-line salespeople come into contact with customers most frequently, and may demonstrate higher customer benefit orientation and lower persuasive selling orientation to achieve their sales targets. Retail employers may design specific training programmes to facilitate their employees’ customer orientation and to empower them to respond in satisfying customers’ needs in a prompt and flexible manner. Different kinds of customers have different interests, and high-performance salespeople must possess rich product knowledge to be able to understand customers’ needs. In addition,

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they must behave appropriately, in order to meet customers’ needs and reach their own goals without subjecting the customers to pressure tactics. All these attributes can be developed through a well-designed training programme and by empowering the employees to take the appropriate actions. The third implication is that the customer orientation of first-line employees does not simply come about automatically; context is the key determinant. Therefore, establishment of a service-oriented culture is critical, especially in retail settings where employees frequently come in direct contact with customers. To nurture a customer-oriented culture, it is often suggested that organizations collect information pertaining to customer needs and then use it to sell products (Schneider & Bowen, 1993). Corporate culture could also be shaped through a variety of channels, such as stories, ceremonies, recognition, and rewards and daily operating routines, etc. Furthermore, human resource practices, such as staffing, training and development, and performance appraisal and compensation, all reflect an organization’s culture, to a certain degree. Therefore, HR practices can be tailored to first-line employees, in order to establish a service-oriented culture. Limitations and future directions Some limitations and suggestions regarding the research framework and methods used in this study are discussed below. This work has integrated LOC, customer orientation, and job performance to capture the ‘picture inside the black box’. Though the proposed model demonstrates satisfactory results, it focuses on only a few critical variables that can affect job performance. A more sophisticated model, incorporating personality-performance, might offer fertile ground for additional contributions to this subject. Therefore, future study can consider more-expansive models, embracing a broader range of issues. There may be some limitations when interpreting these findings. First, regarding the sample issue, different groups of respondents could be surveyed at the same time from multiple data sources, such as employees, immediate supervisors, and shop directors. Owing to the different natures associated with their tasks, it is reasonable to assume that the relationship between LOC and job performance, via customer orientation, may differ depending on the target customers. Second, this work focused on Taiwanese employees, and the results are only relevant to research in similar subject areas. Future study could compare retail salespeople in different contexts, so that the proposed relationships may be generalized across cultures. Third, instead of cross-sectional data for relationship examination, longitudinal data may prove to have a valuable causal relationship in a comparative study. This study measures job performance, based solely on sales revenue from sales records of three months in a row. Though this avoids the possibility of bias judgments from supervisors, which scholars advocate to prevent, future researchers may wish to consider qualitative and quantitative performance together. In this way, they may be able to obtain more in-depth information, since job performance quality in the short-term does not guarantee similar long-term performance, which is sometimes based on customer trust and may not be reflected in the immediate buying decisions used in the present study. References Baron, R.M., & Kenny, D.A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.

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