Work, Organisations and Society

Complete all sections This report will look at the occupation‘IT sales professional’, and analyse in which ways and why this job role might be witnessing a decline in the levels of motivation. The first point will be to look at the factors that are driving this decrease in morale, and thensee how it is possible to apply a motivational process theory that could enhance the morale of employees in this career. Lastly, a job redesign will be suggested that helps maintain, and also continuously improve, the motivation of an IT sales manager. Before analysing why an IT sales professional might be demotivated, it is important to understand what it is and what an IT sales manager does. Prospectus, a career advising website, provides the following description: “The work of an IT sales professional falls into the three main areas of pre-sales, sales and post-sale support of hardware and software”(Prospectus,2015). Based on this definition it is possible to think that a feasible reason behind the demoralization of an individual in this type of job is related to technological progress, which now allows people to download different types of software from the Internet.This eliminates the need for an intermediary, such as the sales professional, to guide them through how and what to buy. Relating to this is the fact that people can do it for free, negatively impacting the amount of sales that are made face-to-face; and since sales professionals are paid via commission their wage goes down. Hence, it will lead to job insecurity and decreased motivation. Another reason demotivating IT sales managers is related to the incredible growth of e-commerce. This will affect salesjobsas customers are going less to stores to buy products, for example computer hardware. Jones (2013) argued that until 2017 we will witness an average of 13.8% growth in e-commerce transactions in the United States alone. Therefore, sales managers that rely on human interactions to sell their goods are becoming less important, not only because of the increase of e-commerce, but also because users are becoming more self-informed about what to buy. Consequently,consumers no longer need the help of an intermediary. This will lead to a decrease in the motivation of IT sales professionals, as they become aware that they are increasingly irrelevant. Using Vroom’s expectancy theory could increase the morale of an IT sales professional. Vroom (1964) argues the motivational force experienced by a worker equals the multiplication of expectancy (the expectation that effort leads to performance), instrumentality (the belief that performance leads to organizational rewards) and valence (the value placed on the outcome). The expectancy model is relevant for the case of a demotivated IT sales professional, because the expectancy and instrumentality factors are low. The worker should believe the effort that he/she will place results in greater performance, as one of the essential problems in this case is the psychological aspect of the demotivation as the worker feels that the job is becoming irrelevant due to the growing sector of e-commerce. Thus, the management should make the workers feel appreciated and relevant, by showing that their effort to sell IT products will result in higher sales, regardless of the external factors, such as recent improvements in information communication technology (ICT). Also, changing or adding the outcome for the professionals’ performance should increase the low instrumentality. In this case, the outcome for the professionals is the commission they receive, which declinesif sales decrease. For this reason, management should satisfy the workers by providing better rewards for the salesmen’s successful performance.Ultimately the managers should make sure the employees’ rewards, economic or not, are valued by the worker. The administration should satisfy the professionals by finding better outcomes for the workers’ successful performance, therefore use an efficient reward system; as it is an effective motivator in mind, “the connection between performance and rewards must be visible, and a climate of trust and credibility must exist in the organisation”(p460,Lorsch). A redesign of the IT sales professional job could be attempted to increase levels of motivation, hence critically analyzingtwoexisting options. A Taylorist approach should be attempted, since as opposed to Fordism, it organizes labor around the existing machinery and does not eliminate workers with new machinery.Consequently, this stimulates the low morale of employees arising fromincreasing new technologies and e-commerce. Developed by Frederick Taylor, also known as “the world’s first efficiency expert”, his scientific management form of work redesign would improve the employee’s motivation more than a Fordist approach(Huczynski & Buchanan 2013,p.465). As it is based on economic rewards, senior management could increase pay, hence appealing to the extrinsic values (money-wise) of the employee and stimulate him/her into increasing productivity. Job enlargement could be the answer by engaging online customers and offering live online assistance, which could be done by existing sales professionals, with minimal training, over the computer. By specifically teaching an employee to work with the already existing online market increases the chance of attracting more customers. As employees are clearly split between what each one should do and how to appeal to the emerging e-market, it also helps diminish boredom of workers. On the other hand, even though costs could be minimal, they are imminent; furthermore, according to the Gilbert’s fatigue studies in the 1920s, work intensification could lead to illness as employees try to secure extra earnings for the extended effort(Huczynski & Buchanan 2013,p469). Altogether, due to improvements in ICT, an IT sales professional motivation levels are down as people skip intermediary steps such as going physically to shops. Nevertheless, through job enlargement, appealing to new online markets and stimulating the already existing sales employees to ‘go out at customers’ through the online portal,will boostmotivation levels as their job security is no longer threatened. On the other hand, the ultimate question could be whether sales jobs are a thing of the past and customers directly convince themselves, or not, to buy a certain product or service through self-information. Bibliography Cranfield, Huczynski, A. A. and Buchanan, D. A. (2013) Organizational behaviour. 8th edn. United Kingdom: Pearson Education. FIGURE 1: Lunenburg,Fred. (2011). “Expectancy Theory of Motivation: Motivating by Altering Expectations” [online] available at: http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Luneneburg,%20Fred%20C%20Expectancy%20Theory%20%20Altering%20Expectations%20IJMBA%20V15%20N1%202011.pdf IT sales professional: Job description (no date) [online] Available at: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/it_sales_professional_job_description.htm (Accessed: 15 November 2015). Jones, C. (2013) Ecommerce is growing nicely while Mcommerce is on A tear. [online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/10/02/ecommerce-is-growing-nicely-while-mcommerce-is-on-a-tear/ (Accessed: 15 November 2015). Vroom, V. H. (1964). “Work and Motivation”. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.