TY - JOUR
T1 - Social network theory and the sales manager role
T2 - engineering the right relationship flows
AU - Flaherty, Karen
AU - Lam, Son K.
AU - Lee, Nick
AU - Mulki, Jay P.
AU - Dixon, Andrea L.
N1 - Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - Sales leadership research has typically taken a leader-focused approach, investigating key questions from a top-down perspective. Yet considerable research outside sales has advocated a view of leadership that takes into account the fact that employees look beyond a single designated individual for leadership. In particular, the social networks of leaders have been a popular topic of investigation in the management literature, although coverage in the sales literature remains rare. The present paper conceptualizes the sales leadership role as one in which the leader must manage a network of simultaneous relationships; several types of sales manager relationships, such as the sales-manager-to-top-manager and the sales-manager-to-sales manager relationships, have received limited attention in the sales literature to date. Taking an approach based on social network theory, we develop a conceptualization of the sales manager as a "network engineer," who must manage multiple relationships, and the flows between them. Drawing from this model, we propose a detailed agenda for future sales research.
AB - Sales leadership research has typically taken a leader-focused approach, investigating key questions from a top-down perspective. Yet considerable research outside sales has advocated a view of leadership that takes into account the fact that employees look beyond a single designated individual for leadership. In particular, the social networks of leaders have been a popular topic of investigation in the management literature, although coverage in the sales literature remains rare. The present paper conceptualizes the sales leadership role as one in which the leader must manage a network of simultaneous relationships; several types of sales manager relationships, such as the sales-manager-to-top-manager and the sales-manager-to-sales manager relationships, have received limited attention in the sales literature to date. Taking an approach based on social network theory, we develop a conceptualization of the sales manager as a "network engineer," who must manage multiple relationships, and the flows between them. Drawing from this model, we propose a detailed agenda for future sales research.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84856165938&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/PSS0885-3134320104
U2 - 10.2753/PSS0885-3134320104
DO - 10.2753/PSS0885-3134320104
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84856165938
SN - 0885-3134
VL - 32
SP - 29
EP - 40
JO - Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
JF - Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
IS - 1
ER -