DOES WELLNESS LEAD TO HAPPIER, BETTER ...

DOES WELLNESS LEAD TO HAPPIER, BETTER PERFORMING SALESPEOPLE? Emily Goad & Rebecca VanMeter Doctoral Students, Department of Marketing The University of Texas at Arlington 701 S. West Street, Suite 234 Arlington, TX 76019-0469 [email protected] & [email protected]

Introduction The ever-changing role of a salesperson has increased expectations associated with salesperson's ability to contribute to effectiveness of a selling unit (Porter, Claycomb, and Kraft 2008). These shifts in salespeople’s roles have contributed to a work-environment laden with pressures for which salespeople must find ways to alleviate them (Porter, Claycomb, and Kraft 2008). Salespeople who find themselves unable to manage the pressures and stress that confront them, may be faced with negative outcomes for themselves and the firm. Previous literature has suggested possible negative outcomes include: decreased life satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, low job satisfaction, and potentially low or decreasing job performance (Boles, Johnston, Hair 1997; Sager 1994; and Singh, Goolsby, and Rhoads 1994). Because of the potential impact that stressed salespeople can have on a businesses’ bottom line, it is imperative managers understand ways to aid their employees in managing pressures and stressors. Wright (2003) expressed the need for a proactive line of organizational research, which is termed as positive organizational behavior (POB). In line with POB, there are many management activities that can be implemented to assist salespeople in managing and preventing stresses inherent in this line of work. As a means to counteract potential consequences of stressed employees, many firms offer health and/or wellness program. The purpose of this work is to conceptualize how salespeople practicing wellness lifestyles and utilizing company-offered wellness programs can positively impact life satisfaction of the salesperson and reduce emotional exhaustion, in turn increasing job performance and satisfaction. In line with POB research, we offer a proactive means for sales managers to aid their sales force with potential stressors. Salesperson Wellness Lifestyle A wellness lifestyle, in terms of the salesperson, is conceptualized to include an individual’s traits, behavioral tendencies, thoughts, and emotional orientations that affect salespeople’s mental state of well-being. Furthermore, it is proposed that a wellness lifestyle improves employees’ abilities to manage stressful job environments and through organizational interventions, firms can impact salespeople’s wellness to increase performance (Porter, Kraft, and Claycomb 2008). Porter, Claycomb, and Kraft (2008) developed a scale to measure a salesperson’s wellness lifestyle (SPWL), they assert that the six dimensions of a wellness lifestyle are each components of the higher order conceptual construct, SPWL.

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The first dimension of a wellness lifestyle is personal health responsibility which is an individual taking a proactive approach to both their physical and mental health (Porter, Claycomb, and Kraft 2008). The second dimension of a wellness lifestyle is stress management awareness which entails knowledge of methods that focus on relaxation, allowing an individual to be attentive and productive in potentially stressful situations (Porter, Claycomb, and Kraft 2008). The third dimension of SPWL is nutritional awareness. The fourth dimension is physical fitness which refers to significance of regular exercise to a salesperson (Porter, Claycomb, and Kraft 2008). The fifth dimension is social support both at work and away from work. The last dimension of a salesperson wellness lifestyle is spirituality as it relates to the meaning of work and inner life. Emotional Exhaustion Emotional exhaustion in a work situation is defined as “the feeling of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one’s work” (Maslach and Jackson, 1981, p. 101). This burnout tendency is particularly evident in jobs with strong interpersonal components and jobs with high levels of stress, such as sales positions (Singh, Goolsby, Rhoads 1994). Lewin and Sager (2008) find that support from sales managers elevates salespeople’s sense of well-being enough to decrease emotional exhaustion. A key component of a salesperson’s wellness lifestyle is social support both at and away from work; this, in turn, should increase job satisfaction and performance based on prior research (Porter, Claycomb and Kraft, 2008; Jaramillo, Mulki, and Locander, 2005). Based on this: Proposition 1: A salesperson wellness lifestyle reduces emotional exhaustion which in turn positively affects job performance and satisfaction. Life Satisfaction Life satisfaction is defined as “a global assessment of a person’s quality of life according to his chosen criteria” (Shin and Johnson 1978, p. 478). Life satisfaction is conceptualized in our model as a type of self-evaluation that is influenced by a salesperson’s personal wellness lifestyle and the company wellness programs. Existing research indicates that life satisfaction and job satisfaction are highly correlated, and that one part of a person’s life cannot easily be separated from the other, such as work and personal life (Kantak, Futrell, and Sager 1992; Jones 2006). Furthermore, research shows that life satisfaction positively affects job performance and that this relationship is stronger and more significant than job satisfaction-job performance relationship (Jones 2006). Based on the aforementioned thesis and previous research, we suggest that: Proposition 2: A salesperson wellness lifestyle positively impacts life satisfaction which in turn positively affects job performance and satisfaction. Wellness Programs There is a trend in organizations towards offering wellness. Oftentimes in sales research, the role of the organization is stressed as fostering and promoting salesperson wellness to improve salesperson and firm performance (Porter, Kraft, and Claycomb 2008). Based on theory and organization examples, there is a need to test the effectiveness of wellness programs. We 2012 National Conference in Sales Management Proceedings

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hypothesize that wellness programs’ effectiveness can be evaluated through the usage of them by employees. Usage of wellness programs entails whether the individual salesperson frequently takes advantage of the wellness programs that their organizations offers; or on the other end of the spectrum, do they not use programs at all or infrequently? We hypothesize that for a wellness program to be effective and have an impact on the relationship between a salesperson’s wellness lifestyle and life satisfaction or emotional exhaustion; salespeople must frequently use these programs. We expect that frequent usage of wellness programs will strengthen relationship between SPWL and life satisfaction. Similarly, high usage of wellness programs for salespeople with a wellness lifestyle, should lead to less emotional exhaustion. Based on this: Proposition 3: Organizational wellness programs that are actively implemented, promoted, and utilized by salespeople will positively moderate salesperson wellness lifestyle which will, in turn, lower levels of emotional exhaustion for employees. Proposition 4: Organizational wellness programs that are actively implemented, promoted, and utilized by salespeople will positively moderate salesperson wellness lifestyle which will, in turn, increase life satisfaction of employees. Discussion Although there is a growth in firm’s offering wellness programs, academic researchers have yet to investigate the impact of these programs. This paper offers the following contributions:  The SPWL scale has yet to be empirically tested to determine if SPWL is in fact indicative of salespeople’s ability to manage and cope with the stress of the selling function.  Firms are implementing various types of well-being initiatives and spending considerable time and money on these programs. However, there is little research demonstrating that offering these types of programs positively impacts organizational outcomes.  Jaramillo, Mulki and Locander (2006) posit that programs designed to reduce or reverse effects of salesperson emotional exhaustion would be beneficial. Yet, little research shows how implementing these wellness programs actually affect employee emotional exhaustion.  Encouraging employee wellness through organization-sponsored programs is a new perspective for marketing, at the micro-level, where firms are looking to assist their employees (stakeholders) through greater satisfaction in life and their job. We have offered a conceptual framework to evaluate a salesperson’s wellness lifestyle, firm wellness programs, and outcomes at the individual and firm level. The end result of this research will provide companies and managers with support for wellness programs that are already offered by many organizations. While this paper attempts to fill gaps that exist in sales literature, there is still considerable work needed both conceptually and empirically in this area. References Boles, James S., Mark W. Johnston, and Joseph F. Hair, Jr. (1997). “Role Stress, Work-Family Conflict & Emotional Exhaustion: Inter-relationships and Effects on Some Work-Related Consequences,” Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Vol. 17, pp. 17-28.


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Jaramillo, Fernando, Jay Prakash Mulki, and William B. Locander (2006). “The Role of Time Wasted in Sales Force Attitudes and Intention to Quit,” International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 24, pp. 24-36. Jones, Michel D. (2006). "Which is a Better Predictor of Job Performance: Job Satisfaction or Life Satisfaction?" Journal of Behavioral & Applied Management, Vol. 8, pp. 20-42. Kantak, Donna Massey, Charles M. Futrell, and Jeffrey K. Sager (1992). "Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction in a Sales Force," Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Vol. 12, pp. 1-7. Lewin, Jeffrey E. and Jeffrey K. Sager (2008). “Salesperson Burnout: A Test of the CopingMediational Model of Social Support,” Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Vol. 28, pp. 233-246. Maslach, Christina, and Susan E. Jackson (1981). “The Measurement of Experienced Burnout,” Journal of Occupational Behavior, Vol. 2, pp. 99-113. Porter, Stephen S., Cindy Claycomb, and Frederic B. Kraft (2008). “Salesperson Wellness Lifestyle: A Measurement Perspective” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Vol. 28, pp. 53-66. Sager, Jeffrey (1994). “A Structural Model Depicting Salespeople’s Job Stress,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 22, pp. 74-84. Shin, D.C. and D.M. Johnson (1978). "Avowed Happiness as an Overall Assessment of the Quality of Life," Social Indicators Research, Vol. 5, pp. 475-92. Singh, Jagdip, Jerry R. Goolsby and Gary K. Rhoads (1994). “Behavioral and Psychological Consequences of Boundary Spanning Burnout for Customer Service Representatives,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 31, pp. 558-569. Wright, Thomas A. (2003). “Positive Organizational Behavior: An Idea Whose Time has Truly Come,” Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 24, pp. 437-442.


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