Workplace isolation: salespeople and supervisors in USA

Abstract

Virtual work is becoming the norm in sales organizations because it is cost effective for the firm and can benefit customers and salespeople. However, along with these benefits, virtual work brings new challenges to organizations. One critical issue is workplace isolation (WI). This study uses responses from a sample of 346 salespeoples in the pharmaceutical field to test a model that investigates the relationships among WI, self-efficacy, leadership style, extra-role performance (ERP), satisfaction with the supervisor, and turnover intentions. Salespersons perception of managers as considerate leaders are associated with lower WI levels. Salespeople with higher levels of self-efficacy are less likely to believe that they are isolated from the company and their colleagues. WI, in turn, is significantly related to satisfaction with the supervision and ERP. Managerial implications and future research directions are presented.

Keywords:

• isolation
• leadership
• performance
• sales
• self-efficacy
• turnover

Notes

1. Employee behaviors are also motivated by initiating structure, also called instrumental leadership (Mulki, Jaramillo and Locander 2009). This style characterizes leaders who rely on a directive style and offer employees guidance and directions for job completion. They define group activities, describe the role each member is expected to assume, and establish clear task guidelines. Researchers investigating the impact of considerate leadership on employee attitudes and behaviors have also included instrumental leadership in their models (Kohli 1989; Harris and Ogbonna 2001; Mulki et al. 2009). In view of this, the impact of considerate leadership on WI is evaluated after controlling for instrumental leadership. The impact of instrumental leadership to satisfaction with supervisor was also controlled for.