Differences in salesperson and manager perceived control: a comparison of dyadic disagreements

Compares salespeople’s and managers’ perceptions of control. Salespeople in this sample of manufacturing firms perceive they are granted more control over sales‐call related activities than their managers perceived they were granting. This lack of congruity, however, may not necessarily have a negative effect on job‐related outcomes. A comparison of two types of perceptual incongruity supports this notion. While the direction of the perceptual imbalance does not affect adaptive selling behaviors, it does affect salesperson satisfaction. Satisfaction with job and company is higher in salesperson‐manager dyads in which the salesperson’s control perceptions are higher than those of his or her manager.