Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work 14th Edition by John Newstrom

Exercise 13

The New Sales Procedures
The Marin Company has more than 100 field sales representatives who sell a line of complex industrial products. Sales of these products require close work with buyers to determine their product needs, so nearly all sales representatives are college graduates in engineering and science. Other product lines of the Marin Company, such as consumer products, are sold by a separate sales group.
Recently, the firm established a new companywide control and report system using a larger computer. The system doubles the amount of time the industrial sales representatives spend filling out forms and supplying information that can be fed into the computer. They estimate they now spend as much as two hours daily processing records, and they complain that they now have inadequate time for sales effort. A field sales manager commented, "Morale has declined as a result of these new controls and reports. Sales is a rewarding, gratifying profession that is based on individual effort. Sales representatives are happy when they are making sales, since this directly affects their income and self-recognition. The more time they spend with reports, the less time they have to make sales. As a result, they can see their income and recognition declining, and thus they find themselves resisting changes."
What alternative approaches to this situation do you recommend? Give reasons.