The influence of goal orientation and self-regulation tactics on sales performance: A longitudinal field test

The authors investigated the influence of goal orientation on sales perform ance in a longitudinal field study with salespeople. As hypothesized, a lea rning goal orientation had a positive relationship with sales performance. This relationship was fully mediated by 3 self-regulation tactics: goal set ting, effort, and planning. In contrast, a performance goal orientation was unrelated to sales performance. These results suggest that a focus on skil l development, even for a veteran workforce, is likely to be associated wit h higher performance. Management should seek evidence of a learning goal or ientation when selecting new employees, while avoiding an excessive focus o n performance goal orientation without a comparable skill-development focus .