Toward a shared leadership environment: insights into retail salespeople’s work environment

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

Autoren

  • Alexandra Martina van der Berg
  • Johann Nils Foege
  • Stephan Nüesch

Externe Organisationen

  • Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU)
Forschungs-netzwerk anzeigen

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)121-138
Seitenumfang18
FachzeitschriftJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
Jahrgang42
Ausgabenummer2
Frühes Online-Datum2 Feb. 2022
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2022

Abstract

The growing digitization puts more pressure on brick-and-mortar businesses in the retail sector by creating new and more complex customer demands that increase the need for cooperative and trustful exchange relationships between supervisors and salespeople. A promising approach to tackle these challenges lies in implementing less hierarchical leadership structures. While sharing leadership on the team level gains traction among practitioners as a viable form of horizontal leadership, research provides little evidence on the conditions and mechanisms that enable a shared leadership work environment for retail salespeople. Especially the role of formal leaders in such a transition remains unclear. To fill this void, we followed a two-study design. We conducted a large-scale survey with 1,527 salespeople of a German fashion retailer to analyze how formal leadership contributes to the existence of a less hierarchically structured work environment for retail salespeople. Our multiple mediation analysis provides in-depth and context-sensitive insights into conditions and mechanisms that facilitate a shared leadership environment. A subsequent online-based scenario experiment confirms that transformational leadership is a driver for a shared leadership environment. We contribute to the literature by showing that transformational leadership matters not only in business-to-business (B2B) settings but also in traditionally more transactional business-to-consumer (B2C) retail sales settings to create a shared leadership environment.

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Zitieren

Toward a shared leadership environment: insights into retail salespeople’s work environment. / van der Berg, Alexandra Martina; Foege, Johann Nils; Nüesch, Stephan.
in: Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Jahrgang 42, Nr. 2, 2022, S. 121-138.

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

van der Berg, AM, Foege, JN & Nüesch, S 2022, 'Toward a shared leadership environment: insights into retail salespeople’s work environment', Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Jg. 42, Nr. 2, S. 121-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2021.2017295
van der Berg, A. M., Foege, J. N., & Nüesch, S. (2022). Toward a shared leadership environment: insights into retail salespeople’s work environment. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 42(2), 121-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2021.2017295
van der Berg AM, Foege JN, Nüesch S. Toward a shared leadership environment: insights into retail salespeople’s work environment. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 2022;42(2):121-138. Epub 2022 Feb 2. doi: 10.1080/08853134.2021.2017295
van der Berg, Alexandra Martina ; Foege, Johann Nils ; Nüesch, Stephan. / Toward a shared leadership environment : insights into retail salespeople’s work environment. in: Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 2022 ; Jahrgang 42, Nr. 2. S. 121-138.
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