An examination of emerging strategy and sales performance: motivation, chaotic change and organizational structure

In a complex adaptive environment, leaders must create an environment in which employees feel trusted and empowered to make decisions. Interconnectivity results in information that is easier to get, and customers can make competitive comparisons more easily. In addition, a sales organization that focuses on learning increases its intangible assets, which may be the only way it can remain competitive. A possible functional relationship between sales performance and factors relating to individual motivation, resistance to change, and a sales organization’s structure and strategy may exist that represents the concepts of change management within the viewpoints of an Internet‐driven world and of contemporary management. Examples from literature are presented as evidence to support the idea that motivation is the one critical item affecting sales performance and that resistance to change and an organization’s structure and strategy directly affect motivation.