Sales force development in health services organizations; a boundary spanning perspective

Sales force development is of growing importance to HSOs in their increasingly competitive and heterogenous health care markets. There is always some danger that, under such circumstances, strategies new to HSOs will be adopted without sufficient attention to how they function and how they might best be integrated into the organization's overall mission. The sales force is becoming an important part of administration in the modern HSO. Ensuring that sales personnel effectively meet the needs of clients and of all relevant units of their HSO calls for attention to a number of concerns raised in organization-environment theory. Concepts from the literature on organizational boundaries and boundary spanning used here organize and illuminate major issues in sales force development. The approach taken is one which underscores the importance of these issues, illustrates some possible responses, and encourages HSO administrators to reflect on organizational implications of sales force development. The perspective offered provides a base for more detailed design considerations in planning and implementing a sales force.