Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

How Ethical Leadership and Ethical Self-Leadership Enhance the Effects of Idiosyncratic Deals on Salesperson Work Engagement and Performance

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To meet the shifting needs and preferences of the contemporary sales workforce, sales organizations are deploying idiosyncratic deals (I-deals), or mutually beneficial individualized workplace arrangements between salespeople and the organization. However, research is lacking on how, and under what conditions, I-deals facilitate work engagement and performance among salespeople. In this study, based on analysis of data gathered from 221 business-to-business salespeople, we demonstrate that I-deals are positively related to two foci of salesperson work engagement (i.e., social engagement and change engagement) and salesperson performance. Furthermore, we find that ethical self-leadership, which is driven by ethical leadership, functions as an internal self-governance mechanism that strengthens the impact of I-deals on salesperson work engagement. Based on these results, we delineate novel theoretical and practical implications on the role of I-deals in facilitating effective sales talent management.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this insight.

  2. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this insight.

  3. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this insight.

References

  • Adler, P. S., & Kwon, S.-W. (2002). Social capital: Prospects for a new concept. Academy of Management Review, 27(1), 17–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alarcon, G. M., & Edwards, J. M. (2011). The relationship of engagement, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Stress and Health, 27(3), 294–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albrecht, S. L., Connaughton, S., Foster, K., Furlong, S., & Yeow, C. J. L. (2020). Change engagement, change resources, and change demands: A model for positive employee orientations to organizational change. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(53), 19–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anand, S., Vidyarthi, P. R., Liden, R. C., & Rousseau, D. M. (2010). Good citizens in poor-quality relationships: Idiosyncratic deals as a substitute for relationship quality. Academy of Management Journal, 53(5), 970–988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babin, B. J., Griffin, M., & Hair, J. F., Jr. (2016). Heresies and sacred cows in scholarly marketing publications. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), 3133–3138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badrinarayanan, V., Gupta, A., & Chaker, N. N. (2021). The pull-to-stay effect: Influence of sales managers’ leadership worthiness on salesperson turnover intentions. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 41(1), 39–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badrinarayanan, V., Ramachandran, I., & Madhavaram, S. (2019). Mirroring the boss: Ethical leadership, emulation intentions, and salesperson performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(3), 897–912.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A. B., Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. P., & Taris, T. W. (2008). Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology. Work & Stress, 22(3), 187–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bal, M., & Rousseau, D. M. (2015). Introduction to idiosyncratic deals between employees and organizations: Conceptual issues, applications and the role of co-workers Idiosyncratic Deals between Employees and Organizations. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bal, P. M., & Boehm, S. A. (2019). How do i-deals influence client satisfaction? The role of exhaustion, collective commitment, and age diversity. Journal of Management, 45(4), 1461–1487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bal, P. M., & Vossaert, L. (2019). Development of an i-deals motivation and management measure. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 18(4), 201–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, D. C., & Collier, E. (2013). Investigating work engagement in the service environment. Journal of Services Marketing, 27(6), 485–499.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. London: FreePress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bedi, A., Alpaslan, C. M., & Green, S. (2016). A meta-analytic review of ethical leadership outcomes and moderators. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(3), 517–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blau, P. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boichuk, J. P., Bolander, W., Hall, Z. R., Ahearne, M., Zahn, W. J., & Nieves, M. (2014). Learned helplessness among newly hired salespeople and the influence of leadership. Journal of Marketing, 78(1), 95–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 595–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), 117–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carmeli, A., Ben-Hador, B., Waldman, D. A., & Rupp, D. E. (2009). How leaders cultivate social capital and nurture employee vigor: Implications for job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(6), 1553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1982). Control theory: A useful conceptual framework for personality–social, clinical, and health psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 92(1), 111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64(1), 89–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874–900.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cullen, K. L., Edwards, B. D., Casper, W. C., & Gue, K. R. (2014). Employees’ adaptability and perceptions of change-related uncertainty: Implications for perceived organizational support, job satisfaction, and performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(2), 269–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasborough, M. T., Ashkanasy, N. M., Tee, E. Y., & Herman, H. M. (2009). What goes around comes around: How meso-level negative emotional contagion can ultimately determine organizational attitudes toward leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(4), 571–585.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, A. S., & Van der Heijden, B. I. (2018). Reciprocity matters: Idiosyncratic deals to shape the psychological contract and foster employee engagement in times of austerity. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 29(4), 329–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Roeck, K., & Farooq, O. (2018). Corporate social responsibility and ethical leadership: Investigating their interactive effect on employees’ socially responsible behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), 923–939.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeConinck, J. B. (2015). Outcomes of ethical leadership among salespeople. Journal of Business Research, 68(5), 1086–1093.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Domingues, J., Vieira, V. A., & Agnihotri, R. (2017). The interactive effects of goal orientation and leadership style on sales performance. Marketing Letters, 28(4), 637–649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubinsky, A. T., & Ingram, T. N. (1983). Important first-line sales management qualifications: What sales executives think. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 3(1), 18–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, H. H. (1976). Modern factor analysis. University of Chicago press.

  • Klotz, A. C., & Bolino, M. C. (2022). When quiet quitting is worse than the real thing. Harvard Business Review. 1–5.

  • Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frayne, C. A., & Geringer, J. M. (2000). Self-management training for improving job performance: A field experiment involving salespeople. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(3), 361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner (2022), Gartner sales survey finds nearly 90% of Sellers Feel Burned Out From Work. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-08-30-gartner-sales-survey-finds-nearly-90-percent-of-selle (Accessed on August 01, 2023).

  • Giovannetti, M., Sharma, A., Cardinali, S., Cedrola, E., & Rangarajan, D. (2022). Understanding salespeople’s resistance to, and acceptance and leadership of customer-driven change. Industrial Marketing Management, 107, 433–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, M. A., Neal, A., & Parker, S. K. (2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 327–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grisaffe, D. B., VanMeter, R., & Chonko, L. B. (2016). Serving first for the benefit of others: Preliminary evidence for a hierarchical conceptualization of servant leadership. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 36(1), 40–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guenzi, P., & Habel, J. (2020). Mastering the digital transformation of sales. California Management Review, 62(4), 57–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guenzi, P., & Nijssen, E. J. (2021). The impact of digital transformation on salespeople: An empirical investigation using the JD-R model. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 41(2), 130–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, A., Kumar, A., Grewal, R., & Lilien, G. L. (2019). Within-seller and buyer–seller network structures and key account profitability. Journal of Marketing, 83(1), 108–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habel, J., Alavi, S., & Linsenmayer, K. (2021). Variable compensation and salesperson health. Journal of Marketing, 85(3), 130–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, B. H., & Nickerson, J. A. (2003). Correcting for endogeneity in strategic management research. Strategic Organization, 1(1), 51–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, J., & Hovav, A. (2013). To bridge or to bond? Diverse social connections in an IS project team. International Journal of Project Management, 31(3), 378–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S. D., Alge, B. J., Brown, M. E., Jackson, C. L., & Dunford, B. B. (2013). Ethical leadership: Assessing the value of a multifoci social exchange perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 115, 435–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, N. N., & Lussier, B. (2020). Managing the sales force through the unexpected exogenous COVID-19 crisis. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, 101–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ho, V. T., & Kong, D. T. (2015). Exploring the signaling function of idiosyncratic deals and their interaction. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 131, 149–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501–529.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homburg, C., Workman, J. P., Jr., & Jensen, O. (2002). A configurational perspective on key account management. Journal of Marketing, 66(2), 38–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornung, S., Rousseau, D. M., & Glaser, J. (2008). Creating flexible work arrangements through idiosyncratic deals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(3), 655.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornung, S., Rousseau, D. M., Glaser, J., Angerer, P., & Weigl, M. (2010). Beyond top-down and bottom-up work redesign: Customizing job content through idiosyncratic deals. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(2–3), 187–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornung, S., Rousseau, D. M., Weigl, M., Müller, A., & Glaser, J. (2014). Redesigning work through idiosyncratic deals. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 23(4), 608–626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, D. E., Le Bon, J., & Rapp, A. (2013). Gaining and leveraging customer-based competitive intelligence: The pivotal role of social capital and salesperson adaptive selling skills. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(1), 91–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, G. K., & Panagopoulos, N. G. (2015). Commitment to technological change, sales force intelligence norms, and salesperson key outcomes. Industrial Marketing Management, 50, 162–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, T. N., LaForge, R. W., Locander, W. B., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, P. M. (2005). New directions in sales leadership research. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 25(2), 137–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inyang, A. E., Agnihotri, R., & Munoz, L. (2018). The role of manager leadership style in salesperson implementation of sales strategy: A contingency perspective. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 33(8), 1074–1086.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaramillo, F., Bande, B., & Varela, J. (2015). Servant leadership and ethics: A dyadic examination of supervisor behaviors and salesperson perceptions. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 35(2), 108–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaramillo, F., Grisaffe, D. B., Chonko, L. B., & Roberts, J. A. (2009). Examining the impact of servant leadership on salesperson’s turnover intention. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 29(4), 351–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. C., Kalmi, P., & Kauhanen, A. (2000). How does employee involvement stack up? The effects of human resource management policies on performance in a retail firm. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 49(1), 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, A., Agnihotri, R., & Briggs, E. (2021a). The role of frontline employees’ competitive intelligence and intraorganizational social capital in driving customer outcomes. Journal of Service Research, 24(2), 269–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, A., Agnihotri, R., Chaker, N. N., Singh, R. K., & Das, B. K. (2017). Connect within to connect outside: Effect of salespeople’s political skill on relationship performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 37(4), 332–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, A., Agnihotri, R., Singh, R., Puri, S., & Kumar, N. (2021b). Assessing the drivers and outcomes of behavioral self-leadership. European Journal of Marketing, 55(4), 1227–1257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, A., Briggs, E., & Schrock, W. (2023a). Exploring the synergistic role of ethical leadership and sales control systems on salesperson social media use and sales performance. Journal of Business Research, 154, 113344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalra, A., Lee, N. Y., & Dugan, R. (2023b). Exploring antecedents and outcomes of salesperson change agility: A social exchange theory perspective. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2023.2169940

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirkland, J. C. R., Edwards, B. D., & Flaherty, K. E. (2021). The effect of honest and humble leadership on salesperson customer orientation. Journal of Business Research, 130, 49–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight, C., Patterson, M., & Dawson, J. (2017). Building work engagement: A systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of work engagement interventions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(6), 792–812.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kong, D. T., Ho, V. T., & Garg, S. (2020). Employee and coworker idiosyncratic deals: Implications for emotional exhaustion and deviant behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 164, 593–609.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kossek, E. E., & Kelliher, C. (2023). Making flexibility more i-deal: Advancing work-life equality collectively. Group & Organization Management, 48(1), 317–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kossek, E. E., Perrigino, M. B., & Lautsch, B. A. (2023). Work-life flexibility policies from a boundary control and implementation perspective: A review and research framework. Journal of Management, 49(6), 2062–2108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lam, J., Mulvey, M. S., & Robson, K. (2022). Looking through the Glassdoor: The stories that B2B salespeople tell. Industrial Marketing Management, 105, 478–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambe, C. J., Wittmann, C. M., & Spekman, R. E. (2001). Social exchange theory and research on business-to-business relational exchange. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 8(3), 1–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latham, G. P., & Yukl, G. A. (1975). A review of research on the application of goal setting in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 18(4), 824–845.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, E. K., Hong, W., & Rupp, D. E. (2022). Employee idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) and organizational justice: the role of individual job performance and coworkers’ i-deals. Personnel Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2021-0335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewbel, A. (2012). Using heteroscedasticity to identify and estimate mismeasured and endogenous regressor models. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 30(1), 67–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao, C., Wayne, S. J., Liden, R. C., & Meuser, J. D. (2017). Idiosyncratic deals and individual effectiveness: The moderating role of leader-member exchange differentiation. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(3), 438–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao, C., Wayne, S. J., & Rousseau, D. M. (2016). Idiosyncratic deals in contemporary organizations: A qualitative and meta-analytical review. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37, S9–S29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindell, M. K., & Whitney, D. J. (2001). Accounting for common method variance in cross-sectional research designs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(1), 114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J., Lee, C., Hui, C., Kwan, H. K., & Wu, L. Z. (2013). Idiosyncratic deals and employee outcomes: The mediating roles of social exchange and self-enhancement and the moderating role of individualism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(5), 832.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Z., Zhang, X., Xu, H., Deng, H., Li, J., & Lan, Y. (2022). The effect of i-deals on employees’ unethical behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles of hubristic pride and grandiose narcissism. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 938864. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938864

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Low, G. S., Cravens, D. W., Grant, K., & Moncrief, W. C. (2001). Antecedents and consequences of salesperson burnout. European Journal of Marketing, 35(5–6), 587–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lussier, B., Chaker, N. N., Hartmann, N. N., & Rangarajan, D. (2022). Lone wolf tendency and ethical behaviors in sales: Examining the roles of perceived supervisor support and salesperson self-efficacy. Industrial Marketing Management, 104, 304–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macey, W. H., Schneider, B., Barbera, K. M., & Young, S. A. (2009). Employee engagement: tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage. Wiley Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • MacKenzie, S. B., Podsakoff, P. M., & Rich, G. A. (2001). Transformational and transactional leadership and salesperson performance. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29(2), 115–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, M. J., & Arnkoff, D. B. (1978). Cognitive and self-control therapies. In S. L. Garfield & A. E. Borgin (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and therapy change (pp. 689–722). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mallapragada, G., Gupta, A., & Josephson, B. (2022). The impact of social capital and transaction efficacy on salesperson performance. Production and Operations Management, 31(9), 3525–3542.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manz, C. C. (1986). Self-leadership: Toward an expanded theory of self-influence processes in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 585–600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manz, C. C. (1991). Leading employees to be self-managing and beyond: Toward the establishment of self-leadership in organizations. Journal of Management Systems, 3(3), 15–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manz, C. C., & Sims, H. P., Jr. (1980). Self-management as a substitute for leadership: A social learning theory perspective. Academy of Management Review, 5(3), 361–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manz, C. C., & Sims, H. P. (2001). The new superleadership: Leading others to lead themselves. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marescaux, E., De Winne, S., & Sels, L. (2019). Idiosyncratic deals from a distributive justice perspective: Examining co-workers’ voice behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 154, 263–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2008). Early predictors of job burnout and engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(3), 498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medhurst, A. R., & Albrecht, S. L. (2016). Salesperson work engagement and flow: A qualitative exploration of their antecedents and relationship. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 11(1), 22–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menguc, B., Auh, S., Fisher, M., & Haddad, A. (2013). To be engaged or not to be engaged: The antecedents and consequences of service employee engagement. Journal of Business Research, 66(11), 2163–2170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miao, C. F., & Evans, K. R. (2013). The interactive effects of sales control systems on salesperson performance: A job demands–resources perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(1), 73–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miao, C. F., Evans, K. R., & Shaoming, Z. (2007). The role of salesperson motivation in sales control systems—Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation revisited. Journal of Business Research, 60(5), 417–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, M. S., Cropanzano, R. S., & Quisenberry, D. M. (2012). Social exchange theory, exchange resources, and interpersonal relationships: A modest resolution of theoretical difficulties. Handbook of social resource theory: Theoretical extensions, empirical insights, and social applications, 99–118.

  • Mullins, R., & Agnihotri, R. (2022). Digital selling: Organizational and managerial influences for frontline readiness and effectiveness. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(4), 800–821.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neck, C. P., & Houghton, J. D. (2006). Two decades of self-leadership theory and research: Past developments, present trends, and future possibilities. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(4), 270–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neck, C. P., & Manz, C. C. (1994). From groupthink to teamthink: Toward the creation of constructive thought patterns in self-managing work teams. Human Relations, 47(8), 929–952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neck, C. P., & Manz, C. C. (1996). Thought self-leadership: The impact of mental strategies training on employee cognition, behavior, and affect. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 17(5), 445–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ng, T. W., & Feldman, D. C. (2015). Ethical leadership: Meta-analytic evidence of criterion-related and incremental validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oh, H., Chung, M.-H., & Labianca, G. (2004). Group social capital and group effectiveness: The role of informal socializing ties. Academy of Management Journal, 47(6), 860–875.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panagopoulos, N. G., & Ogilvie, J. (2015). Can salespeople lead themselves? Thought self-leadership strategies and their influence on sales performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 47, 190–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peesker, K. M., Ryals, L. J., Rich, G. A., & Boehnke, S. E. (2019). A qualitative study of leader behaviors perceived to enable salesperson performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 39(4), 319–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plouffe, C. R. (2018). Is it navigation, networking, coordination… or what? A multidisciplinary review of influences on the intraorganizational dimension of the sales role and performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 38(2), 241–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly, 1(2), 107–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rafferty, A. E., Jimmieson, N. L., & Armenakis, A. A. (2013). Change readiness: A multilevel review. Journal of Management, 39(1), 110–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, C., Claro, D. P., & Germiniano, R. (2023). The effect of inside sales and hybrid sales structures on customer value creation. Journal of Business Research, 154(11), 33–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rapp, A., Ogilvie, J., & Bachrach, D. G. (2015). Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders. Business Horizons, 58(3), 261–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, B. L., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 617–635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, D. M. (2005). I-deals: Idiosyncratic deals employees bargain for themselves. ME Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, D. M., Ho, V. T., & Greenberg, J. (2006). I-deals: Idiosyncratic terms in employment relationships. Academy of Management Review, 31(4), 977–994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 600–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saks, A. M., & Ashforth, B. E. (1996). Proactive socialization and behavioral self-management. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 48(3), 301–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sand, G., & Miyazaki, A. D. (2000). The impact of social support on salesperson burnout and burnout components. Psychology & Marketing, 17(1), 13–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwepker, C. H. (2015). Influencing the salesforce through perceived ethical leadership: The role of salesforce socialization and person–organization fit on salesperson ethics and performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 35(4), 292–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwepker, C. H. (2019). Using ethical leadership to improve business-to-business salesperson performance: The mediating roles of trust in manager and ethical ambiguity. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 26(2), 141–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwepker, C. H., & Ingram, T. N. (2016). Ethical leadership in the salesforce: Effects on salesperson customer orientation, commitment to customer value and job stress. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 31(7), 914–927.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shannahan, K. L., Bush, A. J., & Shannahan, R. J. (2013). Are your salespeople coachable? How salesperson coachability, trait competitiveness, and transformational leadership enhance sales performance. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(1), 40–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simmering, M. J., Fuller, C. M., Richardson, H. A., Ocal, Y., & Atinc, G. M. (2015). Marker variable choice, reporting, and interpretation in the detection of common method variance: A review and demonstration. Organizational Research Methods, 18(3), 473–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, J., Flaherty, K., Sohi, R. S., Deeter-Schmelz, D., Habel, J., Le Meunier-FitzHugh, K., Malshe, A., Mullins, R., & Onyemah, V. (2019). Sales profession and professionals in the age of digitization and artificial intelligence technologies: Concepts, priorities, and questions. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 39(1), 2–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, R., Kumar, N., & Puri, S. (2017). Thought self-leadership strategies and sales performance: Integrating selling skills and adaptive selling behavior as missing links. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(5), 652–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Smet, A., Dowling, B., Mugayar-Baldocchi, M., and Schaninger, B. (2022), “Gone for now, or gone for good? How to play the new talent game and win back workers," The McKinsey Quarterly, available at: mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/gone-for-now-or-gone-for-good-how-to-play-the-new-talent-game-and-win-back-workers (Accessed on August 01, 2023).

  • Soane, E., Truss, C., Alfes, K., Shantz, A., Rees, C., & Gatenby, M. (2012). Development and application of a new measure of employee engagement: The ISA engagement scale. Human Resource Development International, 15(5), 529–547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, C. J., Scholz, J., Douaud, G., Johansen-Berg, H., & Penhune, V. B. (2012). Structural correlates of skilled performance on a motor sequence task. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steinbauer, R., Renn, R. W., Taylor, R. R., & Njoroge, P. K. (2014). Ethical leadership and followers’ moral judgment: The role of followers’ perceived accountability and self-leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 120, 381–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toor, S. U. R., & Ofori, G. (2009). Ethical leadership: Examining the relationships with full range leadership model, employee outcomes, and organizational culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 90, 533–547.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toth, I., Heinänen, S., & Kianto, A. (2022). Disentangling the elements of PsyCap as drivers for work, organization and social engagement in knowledge-intensive work. Personnel Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-01-2021-0031

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treviño, L. K., Brown, M., & Hartman, L. P. (2003). A qualitative investigation of perceived executive ethical leadership: Perceptions from inside and outside the executive suite. Human Relations, 56(1), 5–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • VanSandt, C. V., & Neck, C. P. (2003). Bridging ethics and self-leadership: Overcoming ethical discrepancies between employee and organizational standards. Journal of Business Ethics, 43, 363–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verbeke, W., Dietz, B., & Verwaal, E. (2011). Drivers of sales performance: A contemporary meta-analysis. have salespeople become knowledge brokers? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39, 407–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vidyarthi, R., Chaudhry, P., Anand, A., & Liden, C. R. (2014). Flexibility i-deals: How much is ideal? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29(3), 246–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H. J., Lu, C. Q., & Siu, O. L. (2015). Job insecurity and job performance: The moderating role of organizational justice and the mediating role of work engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 1249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiseman, P., Ahearne, M., Hall, Z., & Tirunillai, S. (2022). Onboarding salespeople: Socialization approaches. Journal of Marketing, 86(6), 13–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, E., Tschan, F., Messerli, L., & Semmer, N. K. (2013). Expressing and amplifying positive emotions facilitate goal attainment in workplace interactions. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, A. J., Loi, R., & Ngo, H. Y. (2016). Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization. Journal of Business Ethics, 134, 493–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, C. (2014). Does ethical leadership lead to happy workers? A study on the impact of ethical leadership, subjective well-being, and life happiness in the Chinese culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 123, 513–525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, W., May, D. R., & Avolio, B. J. (2004). The impact of ethical leadership behavior on employee outcomes: The roles of psychological empowerment and authenticity. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11(1), 16–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Marketing, School of Business Administration, University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH, 45469, USA

    Ashish Kalra

  2. Department of Marketing, Institute of Management Technology, Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad, 201001, India

    Rakesh Singh

  3. Department of Marketing, McCoy College of Business Administration, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Vishag Badrinarayanan & Aditya Gupta

Authors
  1. Ashish Kalra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rakesh Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Vishag Badrinarayanan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Aditya Gupta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vishag Badrinarayanan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kalra, A., Singh, R., Badrinarayanan, V. et al. How Ethical Leadership and Ethical Self-Leadership Enhance the Effects of Idiosyncratic Deals on Salesperson Work Engagement and Performance. J Bus Ethics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05717-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05717-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation