Managing Sales Workforce Diversity

The purpose of this paper is designed to introduce, educate, and promote diversity within your company. Your company will be shown the merits of diversity and how diversity within your organization can be a benefit. This paper will be broken down into three main areas: Benefits of Diversity, Challenges of Diversity, and Recommendations for an effective diversity within your organization..

1. What changes are occurring in our workforce today and are likely to continue into the future?

* Inside Sales employees are high in skill variety, but lower in the other dimensions, which cause a lack of motivation. This causes them to have low experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge of results.

In any case, a general notion can be drawn that the the motivator factor are measured in different terms. The Sales staff aggressively pursues more sales opportunities because its success, feeling of achievement and the large financial incentive depend on their individual performance. This does not exist in Marketing as the feeling of achievement or the vague bonus scheme depends on the company’s performance rather than individual success. Furthermore, the hygiene factors such as pay policy, supervision style, social status and working condition seem to play significant role in Pluto Telecommunications. These hygiene factors in Sales department create job satisfaction as the sale staff is well paid, with greater autonomy in making decisions, high social status awareness and self –esteem. Yet, these factors, up to certain degree do, not play important role for Marketing. Therefore, it is essential to understand what and how motivates people.

Barrick, M. R., Stewart, G. L., & Piotrowski, M. (2002). Personality and job performance: Test of the mediating effects of motivation among sales representatives. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(1), 43-51.

This paper will explore the how diversity is addressed within my current work environment. For the past 21 years, I have been a Behavioral Health Assistance Service Director of a private, non-profit organization that provides community support services to children and adults in Pennsylvania with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, and autism. Our agency’s mission statement expresses our commitment to “enhancing the quality of life and personal growth of those we serve through support for individual choice and independence” along with embracing the philosophy that each individual has the ability to succeed in life, through personal empowerment with dignity and respect. Our agency provides services in four different regions (Northeast, Southeast, Lehigh Valley and Western) of Pennsylvania that include 16 counties. Due to the vast array of services and their locations, focus will be place on the Northeast region of the agency. Please note that policies and procedures are agency wide as so are agency trainings.

On a regular occasion, when driving with males in a car, and there is somebody on the road making an error in driving, the comment always comes up that the driver must be a female. I know that it is said in jest, but it is a typical stereotyping comment which is made, which seems to be accepted by society. I don’t drive, so I don’t take offence to the comment, but I do stand up for other female drivers when the comment is made though, because I wouldn’t be surprised if other females, who do drive, do take offence to such a comment. Learning what I have now though, if a comment like that is said, then I won’t react to it. I will be tolerant towards the person saying it because they are obviously repeating something which is commonly said within society and said in jest. Even though the comment isn’t acceptable to me, I will learn to tolerate it.

This paper will discuss in some detail about what goes into a good salesperson and how to get clients. It will also discuss six total rewards program. Define the behaviors of the sales force that are targeted with the compensation plan. Next, look into how a value proposition is accomplished for current and future employees at car lot. Specify how fascinated future salespeople may be in the near future.

There are numerous motivational theories that explain why people do what they do. When viewed collectively, these theories suggest people’s actions are driven by the following factors: economic, social, and self-construct. Economic factors include not only money, but health protection, security, wealth, physical safety, and purchasing power. Sales commissions fit most of these needs, but do not fully meet the needs for security and physical safety. When people think about and act upon what others think of them, they are being influenced by social factors. Most people will work harder for positive feedback and avoid performance that garners negative feedback. For example, some people are eager to conform to the norms of a sales team and are positively motivated by the performance of the entire team. Self-construct is the inner voice that drives an individual to perform and differs in every individual. Some people are driven in the pursuit of self-accomplishment, while others are driven by the need for power or acceptance. Each of these factors are combined in varying degrees in all individuals, whether salespeople or not.

The topic that I’m choosing is Chapter 17, “Managing a Diverse Workforce.” Although there is an improvement in the diversity in the workforce, there is still room for change. Businesses have made many changes to help enforce the laws that were passed regarding diversity in the workforce. Women have been integrated into the workforce and there also have been many immigrants from other countries that have been given a new start to the workforce in the United States. Laws of equal opportunity have been made to help increase the workforce diversity. The goal for full equality of women and persons of color in the workplace has not been fully met; however, the United States’ workforce has made a lot of progress.

Managing diversity and equality effectively in the workplace is the core responsibility of any organization in the contemporary business world. Shen, Chanda, D’Netto and Monga (2009) conducted a survey whose results revealed the massive diversity within the British society in terms of ethnicity, nationality and religion. As a result, the Equality Act of 2010 was formulated and became law whose provisions focus on legal protection against discrimination based on gender re-assignment, marriage, civil partnership, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, pregnancy and maternity, sex and beliefs (Monks, 2007). Therefore, managing diversity in the workplace is critical towards the achievement of equality and discrimination free working environment. Bhatia (2008) observed that the ability to understand, accept, value, acknowledge and celebrate differences among people with respect to race, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnicity and mental ability within an organization is crucial in eliminating discrimination. Discrimination refers to the tendency of denying equal treatment to people believed to be members of the same social group (Ozbilgin, 2009). In other words, discrimination in the work place is related to denial of equal treatment in terms of promotion, compensation, career development, training and empowerment. Therefore, managing diversity in the work place is crucial towards the achievement of a discrimination free working environment and the

The social style characteristics discussed in class can play a large role in this theory. For example, if a salesperson with a “driver” personality attempts to sell appliances to an “amiable” personality the sale may fail because the two lack familiarity. The “driver” may utilize technical reasoning with an emotionless approach, which may scare away an amiable that is looking for a more personal experience. Varying personality types can still form partnerships, the salesperson however must be aware of this and change their approach.

Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.

The objective of this paper is to identify “various ways of motivating sales people”. There will be opinions and estimations carefully drawn from several academic and reliable sources, as well as self-interpretation about the validity of these findings. Finally, a commentary from a field visit with an LJ Hooker (Henderson Branch) Sales Manager, Amy Anderson, expressing her views on methods motivating the sales staff.

The results obtained are found to be contradicting with Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. The study revealed that the strongest motivation factor with the highest significance level on job satisfaction is the working conditions, which is a hygiene factor. The subsequent factors that motivate the sales personnel reported are recognition, company policies and