Investigating the Impact of Locus of Control on Customer Orientation Behaviour of Sales Personnel in Services Sector

Abstract

There are numerous papers dwelling on the effects of locus of control on job performance but the process that explains the behaviour of sales personnel in the services sector has not received considerable attention from the HRM practitioners as well as researchers. The present study is conducted with the premise that customer orientation plays an important role which is influenced by the locus of control of sales personnel from the services sector. The data for the study were collected from a cross-section of respondents employed in the services sector in various towns of North Bengal. A structured questionnaire was administered on 200 respondents out of which 19 were unacceptable since they have not been answered properly. Apart from various descriptive measures, factor analysis and multiple regression techniques were employed to analyse the data. Findings of the study reveal that sales personnel having high internal locus of control exhibit higher customer orientation. The findings also reveal that sales personnel working under job-induced stress are likely to practise sales orientation. The outcome of the study amply demonstrates that the HR managers should influence the salespeople to follow customer orientation and help reduce their stress level by adopting appropriate HR policies to induce a vibrant CRM system in the organisation. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.