The sales manager as a boundary spanner: A role theory analysis

Abstract

Are sales managers hindered in their duties by their boundary spanning role? As Mintzberg (1979) and other students of organizational behavior have ob-served, the sales manager is the “person in the middle.” The activities a sales manager is required to perform and the way in which these are performed are defined largely by the expectations and demands of other people. Some are members of the firm, such as other sales managers, supervisors, product managers, and production personnel, while others occupy positions outside the firm, such as customers, competitors, advertising agencies, and suppliers. Unfortunately, as Bagozzi (1980) comments, “We know very little about the behavior and characteristics of salespeople and even less (authors’ italics) about the people who manage them.”. © 1983 Taylor & Francis Ltd.