Perceptions of Gender Stereotypic Behavior: An Exploratory Study of Women in Selling

Abstract

This study explores sales managers' perceptions of the relationship between saleswomen's stereotypic behavior and their functional effectiveness in selling. The results show that sales managers do perceive negative stereotypic behavior to have some deleterious associations with performance. Moreover, sales managers' knowledge of the sex role identities of saleswomen is helpful to them in recognizing those saleswomen who are least likely to be perceived stereotypically.