Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude?: The Role of Positive Thinking in Door-to-Door Sales

Abstract

This case study focuses on the use of a motivational philosophy called “positive mental attitude” (PMA) by door-to-door salespersons. While agreeing with Leidner's finding in her study of a similar company that PMA functions as a form of worker control, I show here how the flexibility of PMA makes it useful to salespersons, who draw upon it to deal with everyday work problems. Dealers draw upon their personal goals and values to form motivational foci—the content of the positive thinking they wish to maintain—and attempt to keep these thoughts in mind through motivational practices learned during their training.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Nancy Berns was my coresearcher on this project and provided valuable feedback on this article. I am also thankful to Cindy Anderson, Robin Leidner, John Lie, Kathleen Lowney, Clark McPhail, Aaron Porter, Anastasia Tuckness, and participants at the 2000 meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society for commenting on earlier versions of this article.