Socio-demographic correlation with Organisational performance among Automobile sales professional of Pakistan

The purpose of the research paper is to analyse the impact of some socio-demographic variables on the organisational performance. The influence of these socio-demographic variables was evaluated in the context of sales professionals working in the automobile sector of Pakistan. Conclusive research design has been adopted in the study by using quantitative techniques. Responses were gathered by the sample of 500 sales professionals. The results generated from Pearson correlation, Oneway ANOVA, and descriptive statistics have been used to understand the relationship of socio-demographic variables with organisational performance and to measure the differences between various designations on performance. Responses were tested by conducting statistical tests by using SPSS. The findings of the study demonstrated that some of the socio-demographic variables have a significant impact on the organisational performance among sales professionals. It was noticed from the correlation that age, education, designation, and income have a strong relationship with organisational performance, whereas, tenure and perceived socio-economic status and incentive has a moderate relationship. Gender, language, and perceived health status were found having no relationship with organisational performance. There was the difference in the performance of sales management and staff members. This depicts the fact that designation influences the working criteria. In order to improve organisational performance, the socio-demographic variables that must be considered are age, income, education, and designation. The findings demonstrate that there is the no difference in the performance of managers due to their focus, while, the staff members performance differ from each other. This study is providing analysis for the organisations to understand the factors that must be considered in order to improve overall performance. Corresponding author: Hassan Mahfooz Rao Email addresses for the corresponding author: projectbwp@gmail.com First submission received: 14th April 2018 Revised submission received: 5th June 2018 Accepted: 3rd August 2018 Introduction The automobile industry of Pakistan has witnessed growth in the recent years due to increasing demand among people (Finance Division, Government of Pakistan, 2017). The increase in the demand of the sector has made it essential for the concerned authorities to focus on the aspects that contribute towards organisational performance. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the impact of socio-demographic variables on the organisational performance among automobile sales professionals. This study is focused on evaluating the influence of some of the socio-demographic variables on the performance of the organisation among automobile sales professionals. It will provide specific and relevant information and data about the relationship that will assist organisations in understanding the factors that are important. With the help of this study, the automobile companies in Pakistan would be Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 3 April 2019 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 84 able to comprehend the demographic factors of salespersons that influence the performance of the organisation. It will assist them in the process of evaluating the relationship between some of the demographic variables with organisational performance regarding sales professionals within automobile sector of Pakistan. It is beneficial to understand the variation of performance within various designation cadres. It can support to identify obstacles of specific designations; potential areas require attention and to plan organisational strategies to enhance organisational performance. Variation within designation further can determine job satisfaction, motivation, retention, performance, and productivity (Latif, Ahmad, Qasim, Mushtaq, Ferdoos & Naeem, 2013). Literature Review The various point of view available in literature will be covered in this section related to demography and organizational performance. This section will support to formulate hypotheses. Demography According to Bell, Villado, Lukasik, Belau and Briggs (2011), demography can be defined as the research of the overall social status of individuals inside the financial and societal domain. Moreover, it usually comprises different factors that are size, income, job, family, gender, age, education level and job. In addition to this, it involves the investigation of the structure, dissemination of the populations of individuals and size. Furthermore, demographics might also be illustrated as the measurable characteristics of a given populace. Perryer, Jordan, Firns and Travaglione (2010) stated that demography is the investigation of the populace that comprises disease, death and birth in a particular community. Moreover, it is noted that modern-day demographic research is however not only populace conscious but also has a time aspect. Furthermore, the demographic factors have also been demonstrated by Van Dijk, Van Engen and Van Knippenberg (2012) as the socio-economic features of sales force professionals like experience, education, age, sex, qualification, marital status and other variables. Demographic factors are individual elements that comprise income, educational level, gender, working experience and so on. However, some of the frequently utilised demographic factors as collected from the literature comprises marital status, the location of residence, ethnicity, education, SES, religion, mobility, language, family structure, home and car ownership (Kim & Agrusa, 2011). In the current study, demographic factors of sales professionals of Pakistani automobile industry are stated to as their measurable personal features. Moreover, these characteristics entail age, gender, qualification, tenure, average monthly income, socio-economic status, incentives, language, and health status. To address the research question of “What are the demographic variables related to organisational performance among automobile sales professionals of Pakistan? ” it was hypothesised that, H1: Demographic variables (age, gender, qualification, tenure, average monthly income, socioeconomic status, incentives, language and health status) will be positively related to organisational performance among automobile sales professionals of Pakistan. Organisational Performance It is noted that the organisational performance is a frequently used concept in industrial mindset. It mentions how people execute their task to achieve the goals and objectives of the company (Muethel, Gehrlein & Hoegl, 2012). Organisational performance is the crucial factor because it indicates to the shareholders about the way the company is working. It is basically the measure of actual output against the input or expected output. The organisational performance is improved through the effectual working of the employees. It is the means of determining that whether the organisation has achieved its goals or objectives or not (Bellou, 2010). Sales professionals in any business field are considered to play significate role to represent their organisation. In respect to the importance of this issue, various studies have tried to highlight buffering or significant variable related to organisational performance. One of the studies has focused the relationship between emotional intelligence and organisational performance among sale professionals, could not find any meaningful relationship (AlDosiry, Alkhadher, Alqaraa & Anderson, 2015). Some of the efforts have been observed to propose a theoretical framework to study the relationship of organisational performance Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 3 April 2019 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 85 with personality factors and learning (Ma, Yu & Cheng, 2013). Ma and colleagues (2013) also could not successfully provide an explanation of the relationship of performance with personality or learning. It is essential to study the core factors those could contribute or enhance the performance. To address the research question, “What are the difference in organisational performance between managers and staff members among automobile sales professionals? ” it was hypothesised that, H2: Managers will score higher on organisational performance in comparison to other staff members among automobile professionals. Methodology The methods that are adopted in order to gather information for the article are detailed below: Research Design The study has made use of conclusive research design. It is used in order to generate findings that contribute to making decisions or reaching conclusions. In this type of research studies, the data requirements must be defined explicitly. It provides an opportunity to verify and quantify the findings of the studies. With the help of this research design, the researcher can gather data that are important for generating specific findings and conclusions (Bryman & Bell, 2015). This research design involves the use of quantitative methods for collecting and analysing data. The purpose of selecting this research design is that it helps in the testing relationship between variables which is the aim of this research study. Moreover, the findings in the conclusive research design are used as input for decision making, which means that the authorities within organisations can make effective decisions for determining the impact of socio-demographic variables on performance (Mackey & Gass, 2013). Sample Sample was collected from five (5) representative cities of Pakistan as these cities are the focal point for business. Sample size was determined by sample size calculator (Openepi Calculator, nd). The sample size that has been used is 500 participants who are the sales professionals working in the automo