Impact of job formalization and administrative controls on attitudes of industrial salespersons

Sales Managers formalize the jobs of salespersons to direct, influence, and shape behaviors and ensure that there is little behavioral variability. Formalization's imperative for coordination, however, conflicts with salespersons' desire for autonomy. As a result, formalization causes salespersons to experience negative attitudes such as higher role stress and lower organizational commitment. This study examines whether administrative control mechanisms, such as output-based or process-based controls, help reduce the deleterious impact of formalization on salespersons' attitudes. The study finds that output-based controls help reduce the negative impact of formalization on role ambiguity and organizational commitment, but not on role conflict The process-based controls do not help reduce the negative impact of formalization on any of the three attitudes examined in this study. Although output-based controls are criticized for imposing short-term performance pressure on salespersons, the results of this study justify their use over process-based controls, especially in a highly formalized job environment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.