Responsible Leadership and Salespeople’s Creativity: The Mediating Effects of CSR Perceptions

Abstract

Although sales tasks require creative thinking, salespeople’s creativity has been identified as one of the most under-researched topics in the sales literature. This study contributes to filling this gap by understanding how responsible leadership and corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions can contribute to fostering salespeople’s creativity. This study’s empirical analysis is based on information provided by 176 supervisor–salesperson dyads from 96 companies, and the results indicate that responsible leadership is positively related to salespeople’s creativity. Furthermore, our findings confirm that the relationship between responsible leadership and salespeople’s creativity is mediated by salespeople’s CSR perception, their job satisfaction, and their identification with the organization. Sales leaders should recognize that by practicing responsible leadership behavior, they can create this type of work environment for their subordinates.

Responsibility beyond the Board Room? A Systematic Review of Responsible Leadership: Operationalizations, Antecedents and Outcomes

“…CFA factor loading greater than 0.5 AVE = 0.70 α = 0.79 CFA confirmed one factor 1 = never 5 = always Castro-Gonzales, et al, 2019 [80] 'the awareness and consideration of the consequences of one's actions for all stakeholders, as well as the exertion of influence by enabling the involvement of the affected stakeholders and by engaging in an active stakeholder dialogue. There in responsible leaders strive to weigh and balance the interests of the forwarded claims.'…”

“…Quite a few studies explored the mediating effects between RL and micro-level outcomes. Several mediators comprised certain kinds of recognition between (employee-) self and leader or organization, such as value congruence between employees and leaders at different levels [81], leader identification [90], organizational identification [67,80], and person-organization fit [79]. This suggests that the performance of RL resonates more with employees who share values with their organization and supervisor, or in other manners identify with the responsibility of RL.…”

Improving Millennial Employee Well-Being and Task Performance in the Hospitality Industry: The Interactive Effects of HRM and Responsible Leadership

“…However, the effects of responsible leadership on employees remain unclear in the hospitality sector. The available literature highlighted the impacts of responsible leadership on employee satisfaction, creativity, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the hospitality industry [36][37][38]. In addition, the accumulated research is based on agency, stakeholder, and institutional theories to explore the effects of responsible leadership [34,35,40,91].…”

Sales Control Systems and Salesperson Commitment: The Moderating Role of Behavior Uncertainty

“…They contribute significantly to the growth and sustainable survival of companies by generating sales volumes and developing long-term relations between end-customers and companies [1][2][3]. This is especially true for industrial firms, where the sales force is a unique organizational unit that produces output sales [4]. The turnover of salespeople usually results in economic loss due to customer defection, and thus harms the sustainable competitive advantage of the companies [5].…”