Effects of management structure on sales staff performance in publishing companies in Kenya

Abstract

According to the Kenya Publishers Association (K.P.A) there are forty-one companies engaged in book publication and have a clientele base all over East African Community (EAC) and across the world. The companies have a varied combination of organization structures ranging from Functional to Matrix, and clear expectations on the performance of its staff. The main objective of the study is to determine the effects of organization structure on performance of sales staff among Publishers. The specific objectives will be to evaluate the effects of functional structure on the performance of sales staff among publishing companies in Kenya, to investigate the effects of Divisional structure on performance of sales staff among publishing companies in Kenya and to ascertain the effects of matrix organizational structure on performance of the sales staff among publishing companies in Kenya. The literature review shall address the theories of management, empirical literature on related studies and the conceptual framework with a representation of the independent, intervening and dependent variables. The researcher shall employ case study method to collect the views and opinions of the respondents. Researcher-made questionnaires shall be administered and the collected data shall be analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer programme. Descriptive statistics like the mean, percentages and standard deviation shall be used to describe the findings. The findings shall be presented in charts, graphs and frequency tables.