Transformational leadership of sales managers and job satisfaction of sales associates in the fast moving consumer goods industry in Taiwan

Literature review in sales content supported the theory that sales manager's transformational leadership has a vital influence on the job satisfaction of sales associates, while job satisfaction has significant influence on the sales associates' work behaviors. Very limited studies have extensively examined the relationship between sales managers' transformational leadership and sales associates' job satisfaction, while recent research has focused on how transformational leadership applies to sales management situations.;The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership of sales managers and job satisfaction of sales associates in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry in Taiwan. In addition, this study also analyzed the relationship between sales associates' demographic variables and sales managers' transformational leadership and sales associates' job satisfaction. The population in this research was identified as sales associates from four multinational sales organizations in the FMCG industry of Taiwan, resulting in 123 individual surveys for analysis. The design of this proposed research was a quantitative, non-experimental, and correlation study with regression analysis. Transformational leadership and job satisfaction questionnaires were applied as the instruments to conduct this research.;The findings supported the hypothesis: there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the sales managers' transformational leadership and sales associates' job satisfaction in the FMCG industry in Taiwan. The result identified the predictors of sales managers' transformational leadership on the sales associates' job satisfaction through regression analysis. The analysis also revealed several differences between sales associates' demographic variables and their perceptions of the sales managers' transformational leadership and job satisfaction.