Salesperson Lone Wolf Tendencies: The Roles of Social Comparison and Mentoring in a Mediated Model of Performance

Despite contemporary shifts in sales organizations toward more collaborative work, the sales profession tends to comprise many individuals with a psychological preference to work alone, known as "lone wolf tendencies" (LWT). For this reason, theory about LWT has been almost exclusively developed in the sales literature. The current literature has largely assumed that lone wolfism is an innate characteristic, and results have been mixed with regard to the relationship between LWT and sales performance. This study considers an alternative to this prevailing assumption and proposes a nurture model of LWT in which one's level of exposure to social workplace interactions (i.e., social comparison and career mentoring) may influence LWT. Our research questions are tested in a sample of 279 business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) salespeople using structural equation modeling. Results support our social learning-based hypotheses and reveal a positive association between LWT and job involvement and performance via the mechanism of concern over mistakes. These results suggest an extension to the current understanding of LWT at work and open a dialogue concerning the influence of social context on creating and reinforcing the lone wolf phenomenon.