Psychological features of the structural organization of professionally important qualities of sales managers

The professional activity of a sales manager is characterized by high intensity in terms of both tasks and social contacts at various levels, active promotion of goods or services on the market, as well as the individual nature of the activity with a fairly clearly defined responsibility for its final results. The aim of the empirical study was to identify the structural organization of professionally important qualities of sales managers necessary for them to solve professional tasks of a strategic nature. The study sample consisted of 157 people, of whom 71 were senior managers (top managers, executive managers) and 86 were middle managers (line managers) of sales departments of construction industry enterprises who participated in the international specialized conference in September 2021 (Moscow). To achieve the purpose of the study, psychodiagnostic techniques, correlation analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient), and the χ2 method (an express method of structural and psychological analysis according to A.V. Karpov) were used. Using the method of structural analysis of the organization of psychological indicators, it was possible to determine the coherence index, the divergence index, the index of system organization and to build a structure program that reflects the interrelationships of the structure of professionally important qualities of sales managers. Middle-level managers (line managers) have the greatest burden in the structure program on the criteria of social communicative competence, entrepreneurship, as well as on the specifics of relationships with others. Senior managers have a balanced structure of psychological markers of professional competence, connections are evenly distributed, and all professionally important qualities are involved. The conducted study of the structural organization of professionally important qualities of managers necessary for solving professional tasks of a strategic nature has made it possible to fill in a number of theoretical and practical gaps that have existed so far in labor psychology and in the future lays the foundation for the implementation in practice of a systematic approach aimed at psychological support of the professional activities of sales managers at various stages of professionalization.