EFFECTS OF GOAL-DIRECTED EMOTIONS ON SALESPERSON VOLITIONS, BEHAVIOR,AND PERFORMANCE - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

The authors investigate the motivational effects of emotions in a sale s force context. The personal stakes that salespeople have in a goal s ituation triggered anticipation of emotions that result from attaining or failing to attain their performance goal. Positive anticipatory em otions were positively related to volitions and mediated the relations hip between personal stakes and volitions. Goal attainment was positiv ely related to positive outcome emotions and negatively related to neg ative outcome emotions, Goal-directed behavior was positively associat ed with positive outcome emotions, independently of goal attainment. T he findings suggest that emotions are an important driving force behin d sales force motivation, The authors discuss the implications for sal es management, theory development, and further research.