Student self-determination and boundaries: An emerging market perspective on the development of sales skills
Abstract
In an emerging market economy faced with high unemployment rates, it is essential to develop entrepreneurial skills, of which sales skills have been identified as an imperative contributor. Applying self-determination theory and boundary theory, this study explores what motivates students enrolled in a direct selling practical module at a university to pass the module successfully in the form of reaching a sales target. It also explores the boundaries that students assign between their student and personal lives, and their perception of the skills they have developed on completion of the module. The research approach was qualitative and employed eight in-depth interviews. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings revealed enacted segmentation as students distinguish between their life/home and work/school roles, but are constantly aware of the module. It was also found that the students believe the module made a positive contribution to the development of several skills. The findings contribute on two levels: practically, it may aid educators who offer similar courses, or who operate in countries with similar challenges, with insights on how to improve their sales courses; and theoretically, it contributes to the development of theories applicable to emerging economies.
References
Allen, T. D., E. Cho, and L. L. Meier. 2014. “Work-family boundary dynamics.” Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 1(1): 99–121. doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091330.
Amabile, T. M., W. DeJong, and M. R. Lepper. 1976. “Effects of externally imposed deadlines on subsequent intrinsic motivation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34(1): 92–98.
Anderson, S. J., R. Chandy, and B. Zia. 2018. “Pathways to profits: The impact of marketing vs. finance skills on business performance.” Management Science 64(12): 5559–5583.
Ashforth, B. E., G. E. Kreiner, and M. Fugate. 2000. “All in a day’s work: Boundaries and micro role transition.” Academy of Management Review 25(3): 472–491. doi:10.5465/AMR.2000.3363315.
Aucamp, I. C. 2015. “Social impact assessment as a tool for social development in South Africa: An exploratory study.” Doctoral thesis. University of Pretoria, Pretoria. https://repository.up.ac.za/ bitstream/handle/2263/50654/Aucamp_Social_2015.pdf?sequence=1.
Bulger, C. A., R. A. Matthews, and M. E. Hoffman. 2007. “Work and personal life boundary management: Boundary strength, work/personal life balance, and the segmentation-integration continuum.” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 12(4): 365–375. doi:10.1037/1076-8998.12.4.365.
Chimucheka T. 2014. “Entrepreneurship education in South Africa.” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 5(2): 403–416.
Clark, S. C. 2000. “Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance.” Human Relations 53(6): 747–770.
Deci, E. L. 1971. “Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 18(1971): 105–115.
Deci, E. L. and R. M. Ryan. 1985. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Deci, E. L. and R. M. Ryan. 2000. “The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior.” Psychological Inquiry 11(4): 227–268.
Dell, S. 2018. “Meeting basic needs – A first step to student success.: University World News June 22. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20180622154430588.
Direct Selling Association of South Africa. 2020. Direct Selling Association of South Africa. http://www.dsasa.co.za/modules_fe/layout2/default.asp
Dison, L., Y. Shalem, and D. Langsford. 2019. “Resourcefulness matters: Student patterns for coping with structural and academic challenges.” South African Journal of Higher Education 33(4): 76‒93.
Dominguez-Whitehead, Y. 2017. “Food and housing challenges: (Re)framing exclusion in higher education.” Journal of Education 68: 149–169.
DSA see Direct Selling Association.
EDHE see Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education.
Elo, S., M. Kääriäinen, O. Kanste, T. Pölkki, K. Utriainen, and H. Kyngäs. 2014. “Qualitative content analysis: A focus on trustworthiness.” Sage Open 4(1): 1–10.
Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education. 2018. Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education 2018 Lekgotla. http://www.dhet.gov.za/SiteAssets/Minister%20Speech%202018/ Entrepreneurship%20Development%20in%20Higher%20Education%202018%20Lekgotla.pdf.
Forbes Coaches Council. 2018. “11 skills every entrepreneur needs to up their sales game.” Forbes February 22. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/02/22/11-skills-every-entrepreneur-needs-to-up-their-sales-game/#667a892f3a9c.
Fusch, P. I. and L. R. Ness. 2015. “Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research.” The Qualitative Report 20(9): 1408–1416.
Gagné, M. and E. L. Deci. 2005. “Self-determination theory and work behaviour.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 26(4): 331–362.
Hornsby, D. J. 2015. “How South African universities are governed is the biggest challenge.” The Conversation September 8. https://theconversation.com/how-south-african-universities-are-governed-is-the-biggest-challenge-47075.
Howard, J., M. Gagné, A. J. S. Morin, and A. Van den Broeck. 2016. “Motivation profiles at work: A self-determination theory approach.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 95‒96: 74–89.
Lepper, M. R., D. Greene, and R. E. Nisbett. 1973. “Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the ‘overjustification’ hypothesis.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 28(1): 129–137.
Lopez, V. and D. Whitehead. 2013. “Sampling data and data collection in qualitative research.” In Nursing and midwifery research: Methods and appraisal for evidence based practice, ed. Z. Schneider, D. Whitehead, G. LoBiondo-Wood, and J. Haber, 123–140. 4th Edition. Sydney: Elserivier. https://www.academia.edu/25502575/.
Mabelebele, J. 2015. HE in South Africa: Emerging challenges and implications for universities. https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/he-conference_the-future-of-higher-education-in-south-africa.pdf.
Malele, I. 2011. Access to higher education: Challenges: Higher Education SA briefing. https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/12495/.
Mayring, P. 2014. Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical foundation, basic procedures and software solution. https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/39517.
Mushemeza, E. D. 2016. “Opportunities and challenges of academic staff in higher education in Africa.” International Journal of Higher Education 5(3): 236–246.
Nippert-Eng, C. 1996. “Calendars and keys: The classification of ‘home’ and ‘work’.” Sociological Forum 11(3): 563–583. doi:10.1007/BF02408393.
Nkomo, S. M. 2015. “Challenges for management and business education in a ‘developmental’ state: The case of South Africa.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 14(2): 242–258.
Peters, P. and R. J. Blomme. 2019. “Forget about the ‘ideal worker’: A theoretical contribution to the debate on flexible workplace designs, work/life conflict, and opportunities for gender equality.” Business Horizons 62(5): 603–613.
Pettijohn, C. E., L. S. Pettijohn, and A. J. Taylor. 2007. “Does salesperson perception of the importance of sales skills improve sales performance, customer orientation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and reduce turnover?” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 252(1): 75–88.
Radipere, S. 2012. “South African university entrepreneurship education.” African Journal of Business Management 6(44): 11015–11022.
Saldaña, J. 2009. The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: Sage.
Schrank, H. 2006. Border and boundary theory: A concept paper for NC 1030. http://www.montana. edu/extensionecon/nc1030/Concept-Papers/borderandboundarytheory.doc.
StatsSA. 2019. Unemployment rises slightly in third quarter 2019. October 29. http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12689.
Strydom, B. 2016. “South African university history: A historiographical overview.” African Historical Review 48(1): 56–82.
Urban, B. 2018. Entrepreneurship is on the agenda again: More hype or real action? April 10. https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/in-their-own-words/2018/2018-04/entrepreneurship-is-on-the-agenda-again-more-hype-or-real-action.html.
Vaismoradi, M., H. Turunen, and T. Bondas. 2013. “Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study.” Nursing and Health Sciences 15(3): 398–405.
Waghid, Y. and N. Davis. 2016. “Educational leadership as action: Towards an opening of rhythm.” South African Journal of Higher Education 30(1): 123–137.
Walwyn, D. 2016. “Universities are becoming major players in the national system of innovation.” South African Journal of Science 112(7/8): 1–8.
Wepfer, A. G., T. D. Allen, R. Brauchli, G. J. Jenny, and G. F. Bauer. 2018. “Work-life boundaries and well-being: Does work-to-life integration impair well-being through lack of recovery?” Journal of Business and Psychology 33(6): 727–740. doi:10.1007/s10869-017-9520-y.
Wilson, P. H., D. Strutton, and M. T. Farris, II. 2002. “Investigating the perceptual aspect of sales training.” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 22(2): 77–86.
Copyright (c) 2021 Marius Wait, Beate Stiehler
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
