Satisfied salespeople stay

A survey asked business people about the climate of hiring and maintaining employees in harsh economic conditions. It was reported that 85% of participants were concerned about recruiting employees and 81% said they were concerned about retaining employees. When the economy is down, turnover is rapid. Generally speaking, if an organisation wants to retain its employees, it must learn why people leave their jobs and why others stay and are satisfied with their jobs. Discriminant analysis was used to determine what factors explained the differences between salespeople who left a large computer manufacturing company and those who stayed. The independent variables were company rating, job security, seven job satisfaction dimensions, four role-conflict dimensions, four role-ambiguity dimensions and nine measures of sales performance. The dependent variable was the dichotomy between those who stayed and those who left. The canonical correlation, an index of discrimination ( = 0.4572), was significant (Wilks’  = 0.7909, F_26,173 = 1.7588,  = 0.0180). This result indicated that the variables discriminated between those who left and those who stayed.

The results from simultaneously entering all variables in discriminant analysis are presented in the table above. The rank order of importance, as determined by the relative magnitude of the canonical loadings, is presented in the first column. Satisfaction with the job and promotional opportunities were the two most important discriminators, followed by job security. Those who stayed in the company found the job to be more exciting, satisfying, challenging and interesting than those who left.

Discriminant analysis discriminates ethical and unethical behaviour

In order to identify the important variables that predict ethical and unethical behaviour, discriminant analysis was used. Prior research suggested that the variables that affect ethical decisions were attitudes, leadership, the presence or absence of ethical codes of conduct and the organisation’s size. To determine which of these variables were the best predictors of ethical behaviour, 149 firms were surveyed and asked to indicate how their firm operated in 18 different ethical situations. Of these 18 situations, 9 related to marketing activities. These activities included using misleading sales presentations, accepting gifts for preferential treatment and pricing below out-of-pocket expenses. Based on these nine issues, the participating firms were classified into two groups: ‘never practice’ and ‘practice’. An examination of the variables that influenced classification via twogroup discriminant analysis indicated that attitudes and a company’s size were the best predictors of ethical behaviour. Evidently, smaller firms tended to demonstrate more ethical behaviour on marketing issues.