Colombian salesperson

Colombian salesperson
Having read the assigned Reading for last class (Leadership Behavior and Organizational Commitment: A Comparative Study of American and Indian Salespersons), I will make a description of Colombian salespeople, following the factors studied in that research.
First of all, it is important to say that even though Colombian culture tends to seem like a so cooperative culture because of our social practices, I think it is pretty evident that we are so individualistic when we are developing a labor task. But, I think Colombian salespeople are individualistic because they have problems following orders and not because they have better ideas (or at least the perception of having better ones) than those managers that planned corporate policies as it could be the case of the U.S, mentioned in the reading. Obviously, there can be exceptions.
I do not consider Colombian individualism as a good one because it doesn’t improve salesperson´s autonomy to make decisions, for example. It is so common to have a slow bargaining process with a salesperson just because he has to consult everything with his superiors.
To finish with this topic I think Colombian people have problems working together since it is so difficult to recognize someone´s leadership even if that person shows merits to be seen as a leader. I had the opportunity to live among the Latin community in the U.S and I was surprised by the fact that many factories over there preferred Colombian people when they were hiring new personnel, but on the other hand, I can say from my personal experience that inside factories, the most common conflicts were among our compatriots. The last example shows that we are great employees working alone but it is difficult for us to work together
Now, talking a little bit about affective commitment I think it is not so high in Colombian salespeople. They are not willingness to make great efforts to their companies if they are not remunerated and I don´t think corporate values are so important for them, maybe, they care about corporate goals but in a convenience way. I mean, they care about goals because achieving them is the only way to obtain economic benefits from the company. I think salespeople stay in a company while another one offers them a better salary or opportunities. But, I find this so reasonably. When talking about the labor market, we are just focusing on economic incentives, the better you feel you are remunerated, the better disposition you will have to strive yourself on behalf of the company
Finally, assess role ambiguity for the case of Colombian salespeople is very difficult because I think it has more to do with corporate policies than national culture. However, I think role conflict is so common in Colombian corporations given that salespeople normally have to deal with several labor demands coming from different superiors asking for different tasks

Reference

Agarwal, Sanjeev, Thomas E DeCarlo, Shyam B. Vyas, & Source:. 1999. Leadership Behavior and Organizational Commitment: A Comparative Study of American and Indian Salespersons. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(4): 727-43.