EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF SALES PERSONNEL S DEMOGRAPHICS ON THEIR WORK PERFORMANCE IN THE ORGANIZED RETAIL STORES

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1 EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF SALES PERSONNEL S DEMOGRAPHICS ON THEIR WORK PERFORMANCE IN THE ORGANIZED RETAIL STORES Dr. M.M. Munshi Associate Professor, Department of Post Graduate Studies (VTU-RRC), Visvesvaraya Technological University, Jnana Sangama, Belgaum Prof. Sanjay V. Hanji Research Scholar, VTU-RRC, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Jnana Sangama, Belgaum, and working as Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Basaveshwar Engineering College, Vidyagiri, Bagalkot ABSTRACT This study makes an attempt to explore the effect of sales personnel s demographics such as gender, age, qualification and work experience on their work performance in the The study was conducted in organized retail stores in Karnataka state, India. The results of the study revealed that only the work experience levels of the sales personnel had a significant effect on their work performance scores. The results of post hoc test confirmed that sales personnel working in the organized retail stores with high work experience had high work performance scores whereas those with low work experience had low work performance scores. Based on the study findings, suggestions are made to the retail organizations. Keywords: Sales Personnel, Demographics,, Organized Retail Stores Introduction In past few years, the organized retail has seen a remarkable growth in Indian retail sector. Many domestic and foreign players have shown interest and have made investment with a long term vision in the Indian retail sector. It is expected to have a potential growth in organized retail sector in the country and many global players are expected to open many more stores in India (Lamont, 2012; Chakraborty, 2014). However, increase in foreign direct investment has given way to increase in competition to existing retail organizations and to those organizations which are yet to open. Growing competition, lowering of trade barriers, and shift towards market economy are adding up more pressure on today s retail organizations to increase their performance levels. The organizations performance heavily depends upon the individual employee s performance at the workplace. Thus, all organizations small or big are contemplating on enhancing performance of their employees (Singh, 2010). Sales people are the employees who decide the fortune of the Page 113

2 organization as they are the life blood and pillars of the organization (Panda and Sahadev, 2005). Organizations can face huge financial loses and lose market momentum if their sales force are unproductive (Walker, Churchill & Ford, 1977). Therefore, the sales force s performance has been an important topic in marketing (Pilling, Donthu, & Henson, 1999). Every sales organization is concerned about performance of their sales personnel (Colletti & Fiss, 2006; Trailer & Dickle, 2006). Sales managers and researchers have always tried to understand the important variables which influence of sales personnel s work performance. However, the literature review indicates that employee demographics are among the most important factors which influence the work performance of employees but yet, it has not drawn much attention of researchers and academicians. Hence, the present study is focused on exploring the effect of the different sales personnel s demographics such as gender, age, qualification, and work experience on their work performance scores in the Literature Review There are many researches in the past which have focused on investigating effect of employee demographics on their job performance. However, the employee demographic categories vary between different studies. Abelson, Kacmar & Jackofshy (1990) have used age, tenure, gender, formal education as factors among many others while studying the factors that influence the salespeople performance in real estate brokerage business. It was found that tenure and gender (females) were significantly correlated with salespeople s performance whereas interestingly, age and formal education did not show any relation with the salespeople s performance. Ping & Yue (2010) in their research have found that gender, education and tenure have significant effect on the job performance scores of the employees whereas age did not have any effect on the job performance scores. Akintayo and Babalola (2012) also studied to know whether job performance of the employees was affected by their gender. The results showed no effect of gender on job performance. Shooshtarian, Ameli & Lari (2013) examined the relationship between demographic variables such as age, education with job performance. The results revealed that, the age and education both were positively and significantly related to the job performance of labors. There were some studies which studied the moderating effect of demographics where the dependent variable was work performance. The moderating variable is also a kind of independent variable where it has its impact on the dependent variable. Rowold (2011) while investigating the relationship between leadership behaviors and performance also studied the moderating effect of age, gender, cultural heterogeneity on that relationship. The results showed that age, gender and cultural heterogeneity moderated the leadership behaviors and their performance. Rani, Abidin and Hamid (2013) also used age and tenure as moderating variables while examining the relationship between spiritual intelligence and work performance of nursing staff in Malaysia. However, no moderating effect of age and tenure was found on the relationship. Statement of Problem Based on the empirical and theoretical facts provided in the above literature, it is evident that demographic variables such as gender, age, qualification and work experience of individuals might have a significant effect on their work performance levels in any given organizational setting. The effect of sales personnel s demographics on their work performance in organized retail stores is unknown, especially, in the Indian context. Hence, the present research focuses on studying whether the sales personnel s demographics such as (a) gender, (b) age, (c) qualification, and (d) work experience have a significant effect on their work performance scores in the Objective of the Study To explore the effect of the different sales personnel s demographics such as gender, age, qualification, and work experience on their work performance scores in the Hypothesis Main Hypothesis (H): There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s (a) gender, (b) age, (c) qualification, and (d) work experience on their work performance scores in the The main hypothesis is divided in four sub-hypotheses: H 1 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s gender on their work performance scores in the Page 114

3 H 2 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s age on their work performance scores in the organized retail stores. H 3 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s qualification on their work performance scores in the H 4 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s work experience on their work performance scores in the Research Methodology In this research, both exploratory and descriptive research designs have been used. The exploratory research design was used to get more insights and understanding about the overall organized retail stores and about the sales personnel working in them. Several personal interviews were conducted with the sales personnel and their managers in the organized retail stores of different types and formats. The personal interviews were conducted to qualitatively investigate the effect of sales personnel s demographics on their work performance. Finally, with the help of exploratory research design, the research objective and hypotheses were fine tuned. The descriptive research design was mainly employed to test the research hypotheses and examine the effect of sales personnel s demographics on their work performance. A well structured questionnaire was used to collect the data and later analysis was done using SPSS 16 version. The questionnaire consisted of basic demographic questions on gender, age, qualification and work experience of the sales personnel along with a scale to measure their work performance. The scale was self developed (Munshi & Hanji, 2014) to measure the work performance. It consisted of 23 items on work performance measured on a five point rating scale. The questionnaire was administered to the managers of sales personnel and not to the sales personnel themselves. The managers reported the work performance of sales personnel working under them. This avoided the chance of false reporting by sales personnel. The present study was mainly concentrated on the sales personnel working in the organized retail stores of Karnataka state, India. A two-stage cluster sampling was used as the sampling technique. The study was conducted on 700 sales personnel working in organized retail stores but their work performance data was filled in by their respective managers. The survey was conducted in many different types of organized retail formats in Karnataka state such as the hypermarkets, department stores, exclusive retail stores, specialty stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. Data Analysis and Interpretation The data analysis and interpretation is carried out for the above set hypotheses. H 1 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s gender on their work performance scores in the The objective of testing this hypothesis is to know whether the different gender groups (i.e. male & female) have significantly different work performance scores. Table 1: Group statistics of gender and work performance Gender N Mean Standard Deviation Standard Error Mean Male Female An independent sample t-test was conducted to investigate whether there was a significant effect of the sales personnel s gender on their work performance scores in the The group statistics of gender and work performance are shown in the table 1. In the table 2, the Levene s Test for Equality of Variances suggested that equal variances were assumed for this test F (.308, p =.579). Hence, the test was further carried out assuming equal variances. The results of the independent sample t-test pointed out that there was no significant difference in the work performance scores of male (M = 3.80, SD =.39) and female (M = 3.82, SD =.39) sales personnel in the organized retail stores t (698) = -.621, p =.535. The test showed that the male and female sales personnel did not differ in their work performance scores. This means that the gender of sales personnel in the organized retail stores have nothing to do with their work performance. Hence Page 115

4 it was evident that, there was no significant effect of sales personnel s gender on their work performance scores. Table 2: Results of independent sample t-test between gender and work performance Levene s Test for Equality of Variance t-test for Equality of Means Independent sample t-test Emotional Intelligence Equal Variance assumed Equal variance not assumed F.308 Sig.579 t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference % Confidence Interval of the Difference Upper Lower H 2 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s age on their work performance scores in the The objective of testing this hypothesis is to know whether the different age groups have significantly different work performance scores. The descriptive table 3, has provided some essential information about descriptive statistics, which is mean, standard deviation and 95 % confidence intervals of the dependent variable work performance for each separate groups of the independent variable (sales personnel s age groups) i.e. a) 18 to 21 years, b) 22 to 25 years, c) 26 to 30 years, and d) 30 and above years. Table 3: Descriptive statistics of age and work performance Age (in years) N Mean Standard Deviation Standard Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower Upper & above Total Table 4: Results of ANOVA analysis between age and work performance ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups Within Groups Total A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted in order to test whether there was a significant effect of the sales personnel s age on their work performance scores in the The different age groups considered here were a) 18 to 21 years, b) 22 to 25 years, c) 26 to 30 years, and d) 30 and above years. In the table 4, the results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) pointed out that there was no significant difference in the work performance scores of the sales personnel in different age groups i.e., 18 to 21 years (M = 3.77, SD =.39); 22 to 25 years (M = 3.80, SD =.41); 26 to 30 years (M = 3.85, SD =.33); and 30 & above years (M = 3.87, SD =.33) in the organized retail stores, F (3, 696) = 1.06, p =.366. This showed that the different sale personnel age groups did not differ in their work performance scores. This Page 116

5 means that age of the sales personnel have nothing to do with their work performance. Hence it was evident that, there was no significant effect of the sales personnel s age on their work performance scores in the H 3 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s qualification on their work performance scores in the The objective of testing this hypothesis is to know whether the different qualification groups have significantly different work performance scores. The descriptive table 5 has provided some essential information about descriptive statistics, which is mean, standard deviation and 95 % confidence intervals of the dependent variable work performance for each separate groups of the independent variable (sales personnel s qualification levels) i.e. a) SSLC, b) PUC, c) Degree, and d) Post Graduate. Table 5: Descriptive statistics of qualification and work performance Qualification N Mean Standard Deviation Standard Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Lower Upper SSLC PUC Degree Post Graduate Total Table 6: Results of ANOVA analysis between qualification and work performance ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups Within Groups Total A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted in order to test whether there was a significant effect of the sales personnel s qualification on their work performance scores in the In the table 6, the results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) pointed out that there was no significant difference in work performance scores of the sales personnel in different qualification groups i.e., SSLC (M = 3.82, SD =.33); PUC (M = 3.80, SD =.37); Degree (M = 3.81, SD =.43); and Post Graduate (M = 3.77, SD =.29) in the organized retail stores, F (3, 696) =.153, p =.928. This showed that of the sale personnel with different qualification levels did not differ in their work performance scores. This means that qualification of the sales personnel have nothing to do with their work performance. Hence it was evident that, there was no significant effect of the sales personnel s qualification on their work performance scores in the organized retail stores. H 4 : There is a significant effect of the sales personnel s work experience on their work performance scores in the The objective of testing this hypothesis is to know whether the different work experience groups have significantly different work performance scores. The descriptive table 7, has provided some essential information about descriptive statistics, which is mean, standard deviation and 95 % confidence intervals of the dependent variable work performance for each separate groups of the independent variable (sales personnel s work experience levels) i.e. a) 1 to 3 years, b) 3 to 7 years, c) 7 to 10 years and d) 10 years and above. Table 7: Descriptive statistics of work experience and work performance Page 117

6 Experience N Mean Standard Deviation Standard Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean (in years) Lower Upper & above Total Table 8: Results of ANOVA analysis between work experience and work performance ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Between Groups Within Groups Total A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted in order to test whether there was a significant effect of the sales personnel s work experience on their work performance scores in the In the table 8, the results of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) pointed out that there was a significant difference in the work performance scores of sales personnel in different work experience groups in the organized retail stores, at F (3, 696) = 9.310, p =.000. This showed that the sale personnel with different work experience levels differed in their work performance scores. This means that work experience of the sales personnel has a significant effect on their work performance in the It was very apparent from the above analysis that work experience levels of the sales personnel had a significant effect on their work performance scores but it was still not clear that which work experience groups of the sales personnel were having significantly different work performance scores. Hence, the Tukey Post-Hoc Test was conducted to find the answer to this question (see table 9 and table 10) Experience Tukey HSD (I) Experience Table 9: Multiple comparisons for work experience and work performance (J) Experience Mean Difference (I - J) Std. Error Sig. 95% Confidence Interval Lower Upper * * & above * * & above * * Page 118

7 10 & above & above * *. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. Tukey HSD * Table 10: Tukey HSD for work experience and work performance Experience N Subset for alpha = & above Sig Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed. The results of Tukey post-hoc multiple comparison tests showed that: a) The sales personnel with 10 years and above (M = 3.93, SD =.32) work experience displayed significantly better work performance than the sales personnel with 3 to 7 years (M = 3.78, SD =.37) and 1 to 3 years (M = 3.65, SD =.49) work experience. b) The sales personnel with 7 to 10 years (M = 3.82, SD =.39) work experience displayed significantly better work performance than the sales personnel with 1 to 3 years (M = 3.65, SD =.49) work experience. c) The sales personnel with work experience 10 years and above (M = 3.93, SD =.32) and 7 to 10 years (M = 3.82, SD =.39) showed almost identical work performance scores. d) Even the sales personnel with work experience 3 to 7 years (M = 3.78, SD =.37) showed nearly equal work performance scores as of those sales personnel with 7 to 10 years (M = 3.82, SD =.39) work experience. The results of post hoc test has given clear evidence that high work experience of the sales personnel working in the organized retail stores had high work performance scores. The low experienced sales personnel had low work performance scores. Results and Discussion The research objective was formulated into a hypothesis to find whether there is a significant effect of the sales person s (a) gender, (b) age, (c) qualification, and (d) work experience on their work performance scores in the This main hypothesis was broken down into sub hypothesis H 1, H 2, H 3, & H 4 for the independent variables (a) gender, (b) age, (c) qualification, and (d) work experience respectively. The results of independent sample t-test for the hypothesis H 1 showed that there was no significant difference in the work performance scores of male and female sales personnel in the In other words, no significant effect of sales personnel s gender was found on their work performance scores, which concurs the previous study finding by (Akintayo and Babalola, 2012). The men and women are equally competent in this era that too in all the fields. Earlier men used to be a dominant gender at the workplace, population wise or even performance wise. While now, women are everywhere and retailing is not an exception. The results of ANOVA for the hypothesis H 2 showed that there was no significant difference in the work performance scores of sales personnel in different age groups 18 to 21 years, 22 to 25 years, 26 to 30 years, and 30 & above years in the In other words, there was no significant effect of sales person s age found on their work performance scores in the This research finding coincides with the findings of previous researches conducted by (Ableson, Kacmar & Jackofshy, 1990; Ping & Yue, 2010). The age of sales personnel does not seem to have any impact on their work performance in the The results of ANOVA for the hypothesis H 3 showed that there was no significant difference in work performance scores of the sales personnel in different qualification groups namely, SSLC, PUC, Degree, and Post Graduate levels. In other words, there was no significant effect of the sales personnel s qualification on their work performance scores in the organized retail stores, which concurs with the previous study conducted Page 119

8 by (Ableson, Kacmar & Jackofshy, 1990). The qualifications help the sales personnel to get enough maturity and knowledge but this does not seem to influence their work performance especially in the retail stores. Hence, hiring highly educated or qualified sales personnel at organized retail stores will not make any difference, unless, the products are highly technical in nature and they require certain kind of qualification to perform to their tasks. The results of ANOVA for the hypothesis H 4 showed that there was a significant difference in work performance scores of the sales personnel in different work experience groups in the The results of post hoc test has given a clear evidence that high work experience of the sales personnel working in the organized retail stores had high work performance scores. The low experienced sales personnel had low work performance scores. However, this finding is also consistent with the findings of previous research studies conducted by (Ableson, Kacmar & Jackofshy, 1990; Ping & Yue, 2010). Conclusion This study made an effort to explore the effect of sales personnel s demographics such as gender, age, qualification and work experience on their work performance in the organized retail stores of Karnataka state, India. The results of the study revealed that work experience levels of the sales personnel had a significant effect on their work performance scores whereas gender, age and qualification did not show any significant effect. The results of post hoc test indicated that sales personnel working in the organized retail stores with high work experience had high work performance scores whereas those with low work experience had low work performance scores. Some of the tasks what sales personnel perform in the organized retail stores are monotonous in nature such as store management. However, the tasks which are major contributors to work performance such as delivering good customer service, achieving considerable sales, making effective product presentations, and efficiently working in teams require more work experience. Hence, the sales personnel with considerable amount of work experience can perform much better than inexperienced sales personnel in Therefore, it is advised to the organized retail stores to hire reasonably experienced candidates for the sales jobs. Very high experience is also not desirable because if they are so highly experienced then they should be applying for the sales manager position and not for the sales person position. However, the decision lies with the retail organizations to decide the best work experience level to hire candidates for the sales personnel jobs. References: 1. Abelson, M.A., Kacmar, K.M., & Jackofshy, E.F. (1990). Factors Influencing Real Estate Brokerage Sales Staff. The Journal of Real Estate Research, 5(2), Akintayo, D.I., & Babalola, S.S. (2012). The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on ers Behaviour in Industrial Organizations. Inkanyiso, Journal of Human and Social Science, 4(2), Chakraborty, A. (2014). Retail Industry, Retrieved on June 15, 2015 from, 4. Colletti, J.A., & Fiss, M.S. (2006). The Ultimately Accountable Job: Leading Today s Sales Organization. Harvard Business Review, July-August, Lamont, J. (2012). Ikea shelves Indian retail market move, Retail & Consumers, Retrieved on August 19, 2013 from ion=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ft.com%2fcms%2fs%2f0%2fa8fb7d9c e1-a feabdc0.html%3 Fsiteedition%3Dintl&siteedition=intl&_i_referer=#axzz1kCPJuyha?ftcamp=crm/ / /nbe/ ExclusiveComment/product. 6. Munshi, M.M., & Hanji, S. (2014). A Multidimensional Subjective Scale Development for Measuring Sales of Retail Sales Personnel. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM), e-issn: X, p-issn: , 16(4). Ver. IV (Apr. 2014), Panda, T.K., & Sahadev, S. (2005). Sales and Distribution Management. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 8. Pilling, M.E., Donthu, N., & Henson, S. (1999). Accounting for the Impact of Territory Characteristics on Sales : Relative Efficiency as a Measure of Salesperson. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. 19, Ping, F.S., & Yue, H.K. (2010). The Mediating Effects of Leader-Member Exchange (Lmx) and Team-Member Exchange (Tmx) on the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Job Satisfaction and Job of Employees. Bachelor of Business Administration Project. Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong. 10. Rani, A.A., Abidin, I., & Hamid, M.R.A. (2013). The Impact of Spiritual Intelligence on : Case Studies in Government Hospitals of East Coast of Malaysia. The Macrotheme Page 120

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