Oakmaster Furniture Inc.

Background

Oakmaster Furniture Inc. produces several lines of oak furniture, ranging from traditional to contemporary. The firm has been in business for more than 20 years, serving primarily the western half of the United States. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company employs 360 salespeople. Its salesforce consists of three regions, with four districts in each region. There are three regional sales managers and 12 district sales managers. About one year ago, Roger Acorn was promoted to district sales manager at Oakmaster. He had been a salesperson with a competing firm for five years before joining the company two years ago. Roger was dissatisfied with the work environment at his previous employer, so when he arrived at Oakmaster, he was eager to take on new challenges with a company he viewed as progressive.

As Roger reflected on his first year as district sales manager, he was concerned. His district had experienced higher-than-expected turnover among his salesforce during the year, and he was puzzled. In his opinion, Oakmaster offered excellent pay and benefits, a cooperative work environment, a challenging and rewarding job, strong company support, and opportunity for promotion.

Although Roger was very satisfied at Oakmaster, he began to believe that his salespeople might not be as happy. As a salesperson, he had noticed that dissatisfied colleagues' job performance often suffered. However, his salespeople's performance on the whole was not significantly down. Like many salesforces, his salespeople's performances ranged from less than average to outstanding. Nevertheless, he knew the importance of being satisfied. It was job dissatisfaction that led to his departure from his previous job.

In an attempt to measure the level of job satisfaction among his salespeople, Roger administered INDSALES to his salesforce. When the results were tabulated, he was surprised to find several areas in which salespeople expressed dissatisfaction. Salespeople seemed to be dissatisfied with their pay, thinking that it was low in comparison with what others were getting for similar work in other companies. Much to his dismay, Roger's salespeople seemed to be dissatisfied with him. They thought that he did not attempt to solicit their ideas about things and did not live up to his promises. Salespeople also expressed their dissatisfaction with the promotion policy, believing that it was unfair. They did not think that promotion was based on ability. salespeople did not believe they were receiving adequate support from the home office. Although Roger was surprised and disappointed at the level of dissatisfaction among his salespeople, he was glad he took steps to analyze their job satisfaction. He was eager to take steps to bring about greater satisfaction. Roger decided to draw up plans for improving satisfaction and present them to his boss at their meeting scheduled for next week.

1. What steps can Roger take to increase the level of satisfaction among his salespeople?

2. Rather than examining overall salesforce job satisfaction, what might be a more useful approach to examining salesforce job satisfaction with INDSALES?

3. What do you perceive the relationship to be between job satisfaction and turnover at Oakmaster?