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The authors investigated the influence of goal orientation on sales performance in a longitudinal field study with salespeople. As hypothesized, a learning goal orientation had a positive relationship with sales performance. This relationship was fully mediated by 3 self-regulation tactics: goal setting, effort, and planning. In contrast, a performance goal orientation was unrelated to sales performance. These results suggest that a focus on skill development, even for a veteran workforce, is likely to be associated with higher performance. Management should seek evidence of a learning goal orientation when selecting new employees, while avoiding an excessive focus on performance goal orientation without a comparable skill-development focus.
Vandewalle et al. (Thu,) studied this question.