Integration of a firm’s marketing and sales department is essential for organizational performance. However, empirical research has largely neglected the question of how senior management can steer functional marketing and sales managers to enhance marketing–sales integration. Drawing on principal–agent theory, this study investigates control mechanisms that influence managers to foster an effective relationship between employees in marketing and sales. Using a dyadic data set consisting of 66 marketing and sales managers along with 197 of their employees, the authors empirically show that the implementation of relationship-oriented goals, rewards, and training as well as the presence of job rotation on the managerial level positively influence marketing–sales integration at the employee level. Results reveal that marketing and sales managers’ self-interest impacts the effectiveness of these control mechanisms.
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