Motivations of Distributor Sales Executives (DSEs) in the Telecom Sector : An Exploratory Study in the State of Jharkhand, India

In the recent years, there has been an emergence of a new entity called the Distribution Sales Executive (DSE) in the telecom industry in India. A DSE is a ‘sales executive’ attached to the distributor. This leads to ambiguity in role ownership, guidance and regulations which in turn leads to exploitation of the DSE leading to low motivation of the DSE. Motivational literature has extensively studied salaried on-roll employees but very few studies have touched on the aspect of off-roll employees. This research is an attempt to fill the lacuna. The study was carried out in the state of Jharkhand (India). It hypothesized that marketing support (MKTSUP), recognition support (RECOGSUP) and career progression support (PROGSUP) would have direct positive effect on motivation of the DSE. PLS-SEM was used to explore the hypothesized model. It was found that marketing support (MKTSUP) had a negative impact and progression support (PROGSUP) has no impact on motivation. The recognition support (RECOGSUP) — both from organisation, social standing amongst peers and community — emerged as a key factor in motivation of DSE. It is hoped that the results of the study would provide better understanding as to the motivations of DSE for the corporates and will stimulate further research on the topic