Are performance appraisals a bureaucratic exercise or can they be used to enhance sales-force satisfaction and commitment?

In some sales organizations the performance appraisal is treated as a burea ucratic exercise. As such, sales managers may essentially conduct appraisal s in an arbitrary and perfunctory manner. This behavior could be based on t he belief that conducting performance appraisals requires considerable amou nts of time and effort, generates few rewards, and adds considerably to the manager's level of conflict and stress. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships existing between performance appraisals, salespe rson organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. If various characteri stics of performance appraisals that build commitment and satisfaction coul d be identified, then managers may be more capable of using performance app raisals that yield positive results. A survey of 185 retail salespeople and 58 retail sales managers provided the data required to evaluate the relati onship between satisfaction, commitment, and various aspects of performance appraisals. The results of the study indicate that managerially mediated f actors may be used to enhance salesperson job satisfaction and organization al commitment. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.