Sales trainer roles, competencies, skills, and behaviors: A case study

Numerous studies have examined different issues related to evaluating the effectiveness of sales training programs. Limited needs assessment, lack of training objectives, no alignment between training objectives and corporate goals, and sales training content, are all potential factors that can influence the effectiveness of training programs. Yet, little attention has been paid to the role of a central actor in the training process — the sales trainer. The evaluation of sales training programs is incomplete without taking into consideration the qualifications of the trainer. Through a case study, this paper suggests there are 8 roles that are associated with the sales trainer position. To effectively execute these roles, this exploratory investigation identified 18 related skills that are grouped into 5 competencies. Recommendations are offered regarding the relevance of this research for practitioners and suggestions are provided for future research in this area.     

Target arson: Update 1991 a study of selected old and new variables

The purpose of this study is to replicate and extend earlier studies on the impact of economic and sociological variables upon the incidence of arson fires and losses. The data used in this study covered the period from 1960 to 1988. Initially, a total of 180 variables classified generally as either economic or sociological were chosen for inclusion in the study. These variables were selected based upon their inclusion in other studies in which arson is investigated or upon literature suggesting that a variable is related to arson. Fourteen variables were found to have a significant relationship with the incidence of arson fires and losses. Implications for various individuals and government agencies are discussed.     

The Good,the Poor and the Wealthy: who Responds Most to College Financial Aid?

Financial aid programmes for students in the United States focus increasingly on academic merit, rather than financial need. There is little empirical evidence, however, on the distributional effects of merit–based aid – who benefits or responds most. We develop a bivariate probit model of the enrolment process estimated using data for a large public university over several years. Results show that merit–based aid increases enrolment for all students, but that financially–able students respond disproportionately, even with academic merit held constant. Thus, increased emphasis on merit in financial aid may exacerbate the trend toward greater income inequality in the US, even among students of equal academic merit.     

The assessment center technique: A validation study

It may be that an assessment center predicts potential for higher level management even better than performance at the first level of supervision.     

On the Measurement of Discrimination Against Women

Socio-economic measurements implicity invite individuals and governments to base decisions on them. We attempt to show that estimates of discrimination represent poor guides to decision-making when discrimination is defined too broadly, when earnings differentials are not properly adjusted for changes in relative productivity, and when the present-value method used is not well-suited to the problem.     

Corporate governance—A multi-theoretical approach to recognizing the wider influencing forces impacting on organizations

It has been argued by researchers that agency theory has limitations as the underpinning theory for governance given its inability to recognize the wider environmental influencing forces impacting on organizations. This paper provides a case for incorporating a number of management-based theories to augment agency theory in recognizing these wider environmental influencing forces and the consequent extended governance paradigm it creates. Through a theory building approach that reviews and critically analyses the extant literature, a case is built to integrate four existing theories that complement each other to recognize these wider influencing forces. The paper argues that the proposed approach will narrow the theoretical practical gap in governance and will consequently have policy implications on governance guidelines. Further research is suggested to validate the approach with a wide range of real life organizational settings.     

Political Economy and Organizational Leadership: A Hope-based Theory

Unlike other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, economics has neglected leadership. This paper proposes that a distinctive leadership role is to facilitate the development of hope so that organizational members can sustain their commitments. The conceptual grounding for this approach can be found in the work of Amaryta Sen, Albert Hirschman and Jon Elster, who have tried to explain the effect of commitment and emotions on behavior. It is also proposed here that the authority organizational leaders have to call meetings gives them the capacity both to influence social interactions to carry out this role, and to gauge the organization's cultural strength and its members' receptiveness to inspirational information that can shape the choice of leadership styles.