Employees in contemporary organisations have increasing opportunities to proactively adjust their work to their own needs. Unlike earlier job design models, job crafting theory places the employee at the centre as a proactive co-designer of the job. Job crafting has been linked to work engagement, job performance and other desirable outcomes, but rarely studied among salespeople or in relation to sales performance. Its relationship with different forms of motivation is also under-researched, although the original authors already discussed the role of motivation. In a sample of Slovenian salespeople we examined how selected demographic variables, type of sales, intrinsic motivation and approach job crafting relate to sales performance, measured with a self-rating scale and with the self-reported percentage of attained sales quota. Only approach job crafting was analysed; the avoidance dimension, which is negatively or non-significantly related to desirable outcomes in other studies, was excluded. Approach job crafting was related to intrinsic motivation and to both performance measures. We estimated two hierarchical regression models, with self-rated sales performance and the self-reported percentage of quota attained as criteria. Approach job crafting was a significant predictor in both models, whereas intrinsic motivation predicted only self-rated sales performance. Demographic variables and type of sales were not significant predictors. The results are largely consistent with theory, with findings in non-sales samples and with self-determination theory, which we used to define intrinsic motivation. Given the small, non-representative sample, the study should be replicated with access to actual sales performance data, and the possible mediating role of job crafting should be tested in a longitudinal design. The study is one of a few that examine job crafting among salespeople and offers starting points for encouraging approach job crafting among salespeople.
|
