The use of influence tactics by sales representatives appears to be related to a number of latent constructs and factors such as, manifest needs, role conflict and role ambiguity, and perception of sales managers' power bases. However, such relationships have not been examined by researchers. These relationships were examined in this study in an effort to improve the current level of understanding of causes and results of the use of influence tactics in a sales environment. The contention of this study was that individuals in work settings engage in a variety of influence tactics, and that the type of influence tactics used are influenced by factors such as personal characteristics of the salespersons, the nature of goals to be achieved, the salespersons' perceptions of their superiors' power bases, and the nature and complexity of the dyadic relationship that exists between supervisor and subordinates.

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential of three independent psychological scales (Rotter's Locus of Control, Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire [non-injury job stress], and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale) to predict job satisfaction, as measured by Brayfield and Rothe's Index of Job Satisfaction, among salespersons in a small independent department store in Wichita Falls, Texas. An 82-item survey which examined the dynamics of a salesperson's work life was administered to 20 individuals who were full-time employees of the department store. Demographic data were also gathered although these factors were not entered into the regression analysis. A multiple regression procedure examined the responses of the 20 employees who participated in the study. The R-squared coefficient indicates that 41 percent of the variance in Job Satisfaction was explained by the three predictor measures. A major proportion of this unexplained variance may be in variables outside the scope of this study, e.g., salaries, vacation time, benefits, bonuses, or commissions. Results suggest that the independent variables measured by the Locus of Control Scale and the Job Content Questionnaire in combination were the best predictors of job satisfaction with a significance level of .01. The single best predictor was the Job Content Questionnaire, significant at .03. The three instruments (Locus of Control, Self-Esteem, and Job Content Questionnaire) which comprised the independent variables, reached a significance level of .03 in their prediction of job satisfaction (Brayfield-Rothe Index of Job Satisfaction). Study results indicate that a majority of the employees in the sample population were satisfied with their jobs and with the leadership style manifested by the store manager. In addition, job security was believed to be satisfactory. Inasmuch as there is a void in the literature regarding personal characteristics of salespersons as variables that interact with job satisfaction, comparisons of the findings of this research with other studies that have explored the intricacies of job satisfaction among salespersons who work in small, independent department stores cannot be made. Further research on the predictability of job satisfaction among salespersons in small, independent retail operations such as the department store investigated in this study would be useful not only to managerial staff in decision making and personnel management but would promote greater understanding of the personal characteristics of salespersons as human investment capital which has the potential to create the effective competitive edge required for survival in the new economy.

In today¡¦s world of highly developed economies, the average yearly consumption of paper per person is usually considered as an index of living standard. The paper industry is one of the basic industries necessary to our daily lives and an indispensably important industry in the domestic economic development. Basically, paper is a cheap medium that can be used for a wide range of purposes. Compared with other media, it has strong competitiveness. And as the industry is growing more mature, it is necessary to further investigate how to expand the market and enhance manufacturer¡¦s profit, so as to reach the goal of sustainable management of an enterprise. In order to evaluate whether the salespersons in the paper industry are able to bring profit for the company, a systematic appraisal system has to be established. This study broke through the conventional performance evaluation method adopted in the paper industry and proposed to use the 4 constructs of Balanced Scorecard as the constructs for performance evaluation, in an attempt to develop a comprehensive appraisal system. Among these 4 constructs, except the ¡§finance¡¨ and ¡§customer¡¨ constructs that were evaluated with objective quantitative indices, ¡§internal workflow¡¨ and ¡§learning and growing¡¨ constructs were subjective qualitative indices. Literature review was first conducted to induce the items for evaluating salesperson¡¦s performance. Through a survey on expert¡¦s opinions, indices considered as more imperative were derived to build the hierarchical structure of performance evaluation. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was then applied to calculate the weight of each index. Finally, empirical verifications were conducted to gain the agreement of the paper industry, in hope of providing a reference for the managers of the industry. Regarding to the structure and weight of the performance index established in this study for salespersons in the paper industry, the conclusions were made as follows: 1.The establishment of a performance appraisal system: 19 evaluation indices were developed, based on the 4 major constructs of Balanced Scorecard. 2.Weight of performance evaluation indices: Among the 4 major constructs of Balanced Scorecard, ¡§customer¡¨ was the priority, followed by the ¡§finance¡¨ construct. The overall weight of the two construct accounted for 60%. And among the 19 other indices, ¡§integrity¡¨ had the highest weight, and the rest of the top 5 indices were: gross profit margin rate, concept of cost, customer satisfaction, and achievement of collection. 3.Empirical verifications: This study conducted empirical verifications on a paper manufacturer, and the analysis results were consistent with the subjective evaluations of the high-ranking supervisors in the company. It was believed that the performance indices proposed in this study possessed high objectivity and accuracy, and could be used as a reference for performance evaluations in the future.

The problem this study addressed was the determination of those real estate tasks perceived to be most essential by successful residential salespersons (defined as the recipients for the past five years of the Salesperson of the Year award, (or, designation) and in some cases, Realtor Associate of the Year designation awarded annually by some local Texas boards of realtors). Out of 116 local boards of REALTORS listed in the 19781979 Texas membership directory, twenty-eight awarded the Salesperson of the Year designation. During the years 1973 through 1977, ninety-five individuals received the award. Of these sixty-nine returned usable questionnaires for the study. The final list of task statements ranked by the participants in the study were selected by a panel composed of Advisory Council members from post-secondary institutions offering real estate programs, and chairpersons of education committees from local boards of realtors.