Flat sales

Differences in sales management practices between developed and undeveloped countries are narrowing, indicating that global account management, rather than country-based or region-based account management, is becoming crucial to the success of many companies.

A recent study by marketing professors David Cravens and George S. Low, along with Nigel F. Piercy of the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, supports author Thomas Friedman’s assertion that globalization is flattening the economy. Although there were some variations between certain countries, the researchers found no major differences between developed and undeveloped nations. The study, which appears in the journal Organizational Dynamics, examined information provided by more than 1,000 field sales managers in Austria, Bahrain, Greece, India, Israel, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

Directive leadership

The popular empowering style of leadership doesn’t work well for new ventures, where decisions need to be made quickly, according to research by Keith Hmieleski, management assistant professor.

“Fast-moving environments demand fast decisions,” said Hmieleski, who conducted the study with Michael D. Ensley of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. “Empowering management misses critical windows of opportunity.”

The researchers surveyed 168 managers at 66 firms from the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing startups and surveyed 417 top managers at 154 U.S. firms. Their findings, set to appear in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Organizational Behavior, suggest that directive leadership is the better style for a start-up venture.

A directive leader is one who can rapidly clarify what work needs to be done in the moment and by whom. Empowering leaders, who give employees room to think and behave independently, are often perceived as superior to directive leaders. But that style of leadership was shown to falter for new ventures.