Abstract

While extensive research has been done on sales performance, few studies have examined sales performance in call centers. Despite rapid growth in the use of call centers as sales & marketing tools in Canadian companies, research into antecedents of sales performance in this type of environment has not evolved at the same pace.

This thesis will examine antecedents of sales performance in call centers from the perspective of the sales call center employee’s evolution within the organization. Beginning with satisfaction with selection procedures, this study will trace the call center employee’s sales performance through organizational commitment and tenure in order to identify possible antecedents of their sales performance.

The study involved examining satisfaction with selection procedures organizational commitment, tenure and sales performance, within three sales call centers across Canada. Results showed that previously established conclusions on the correlation between satisfaction with selection procedures, commitment and tenure could not be replicated; therefore the link between satisfaction with selection procedures and sales performance could not be demonstrated in this research model. Results did confirm that, organizational commitment and tenure were strongly correlated to sales performance, although organizational commitment and sales performance showed negative correlations where prior research had found positive correlations.