Content area
Full Text
The results of this study which used sales managers in the United States as subjects indicate that obese salespeople are considered less fit for challenging sales territories and may be discriminated against in assignment decisions. Interestingly, a job which included little face-to-face contact with customers (inside telephone sales) did offset the effects of obesity. Obese salespeople are also disciplined more harshly for breaches of ethical conduct.
Introduction
Sales managers regularly make decisions regarding various aspects of human resources management. Decisions involving training, organization, resource deployment, supervision, promotion, compensation, and motivation represent critical aspects of many sales management positions. On the surface, these decisions may appear to be "clinical" in which managers utilize relevant and factual information to make objective decisions which are based on taking courses of action that will most likely lead to an attainment of organizational goals. Relevant information used in such decision making is thought to be information which is germane, appropriate, and legitimate (has a clear-cut impact on the decision to be made). In cases of employment discrimination, the claim is made that decisions have been made using irrelevant and inappropriate information (i.e., race, gender, ethnic background) which have no legitimate bearing on the decision to be made.
Studies of employment discrimination have been widely circulated. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, studies investigating race discrimination became popular. As the number of women in full-time employment increased, studies of gender discrimination increased. Research interest in the condition of obesity has been sparked by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and more recently by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title I of the ADA seeks to eliminate employment discrimination against individuals with physical or mental impairments. Such impairments are defined as those which substantially limit one or more major life activities. However, the perception of substantial impairment by an employer (rather than actual impairment) can also satisfy the definition of an impairment. One controversial impairment is that of obesity. This study examines the effects of obesity in a sales management context along with variables which may interact with weight discrimination including gender, type of sales position, and type of product sold.
Many sales organizations are becoming more diverse as the entire U.S. workforce becomes more...