Sales Teams or Salespersons: Performance Implications for Embracing Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultural Values in a Global Marketplace

Identifying antecedents of salesperson performance is a long‐standing objective in the sales management research field. The purpose of this article is to outline how the practical understanding of, and the willingness to embrace, sales employees' cultural value‐systems adds value while considering performance drivers, individualistic versus collectivistic values, and performance outcomes. The cultural dimensions under consideration, individualism and collectivism, cannot be approached as a dichotomy. As is the case for all cultural dimensions, they represent a continuum and not absolutes. In this study, the work preferences and predispositions of participants were compared using an international data set. Respondents were culturally classified based on research (i.e., Americans and Australians as individualists and Japanese and South Koreans as collectivists). Specifically, it was found that individualists were less attached to their current work situation; collectivists indicated less work/family conflict; and individualists valued independent work more while collectivists valued deciding work time. This is important because of the need to understand how to effectively connect with the values of people to encourage positive performance outcomes. The reality is that value holds differing degrees of emphasis; the performance formula is the theoretical framework to guide this research. The implications of the results for sales management professionals are discussed.