Social norms in the salesforce: justice and relationalism

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the role of social norms of justice and relationalism in salesperson–sales manager relationships, and their role in developing salesforce commitment and turnover.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from 402 business-to-business salespeople.

Findings

As discrete foundational norms, distributive, procedural and interactional (interpersonal, informational) justice develop higher-order norms of relationalism, which then reflect on increased commitment and reduced turnover intention of the salesforce. Among the justice norms, interpersonal justice has the strongest impact on relationalism.

Research limitations/implications

The paper shows how each justice norm has a distinct impact in shaping relational norms, and that interpersonal justice has the highest impact. In addition, with enhanced relationalism salespeople become more committed and have lower turnover intentions. Future research could use a longitudinal study, present manager’s side in the model and measure and compare the impact of supervisor- versus organization-focused justice.

Practical implications

To enhance relationalism, and thus in turn increase commitment and decrease turnover intention of salesforce, sales managers should pay attention to the salespeople’s perceptions of justice norms (distributive, procedural, informational and interpersonal justice), especially interpersonal justice, as it has the highest impact on relationalism. The specific ways to enhance justice perceptions are discussed.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to show how each justice norm is unique in its importance to shape the relationship between sales manager and salespeople in a way that increases the quality of relational norms, governing the relational process into a highly committed one. It also shows that among the four justice norms, interactional justice has the highest impact on relationalism. In addition, this is the first study to show that relationalism decreases turnover intention of salespeople.

Citation

Benoit, I.D., Brashear Alejandro, T., Foreman, J., Chelariu, C. and Bergman, S. (2019), "Social norms in the salesforce: justice and relationalism", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-01-2018-0054