Lack of motivation is a substantial productivity cost for organisations and business in generally work under the assumption that pay predicts performance. Satisfaction of the basic psychological needs has in research demonstrated a positive relationship with a better performance (i.e. Baard et al., 2004). If this is the case in the complex nature of sales work, with its primary focus on goals set (sales target) is yet to be decided. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the basic psychological needs, health and sales performance. The results emanating from this study on 252 sales people goes against previous research on performance as no significant relationships were found between the basic psychological needs and sales performance. However the study provides a strong empirical confirmation of the proposition that the basic psychological needs play an important role for health. Overall the results suggest that goal-setting (i.e. sales target) has significant consequences in shaping salespeople's cognitive aspect of motivation, putting the basic psychological needs behind and may result in impaired health.

This research explores the relationship between personality traits, Psychological Capital and job performance amongst sales employees within an Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector in South Africa. The study was conducted through quantitative research. The study used the Basic Traits Inventory short form (BTI) to measure personality traits; the Psychological Capital questionnaire (PCQ) to measure the Psychological Capital; and the Job Performance questionnaire (JBQ) to measure individual performance. A biographical questionnaire was also used. The questionnaires were administered to a population of 145 sales employees, 85 of whom were based in the company’s Johannesburg office, with the rest dispersed in the company’s Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, wider Free State and Mpumalanga offices. In view of the fact that the sample was small, 100% of the population was included in the study. A theoretical relationship between the constructs was determined and an empirical study provided evidence of the degree of relationship that existed between them. The results reveal significant relationships to exist between some sub-scales; however, statistical significance could not be reached for some correlations. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)