Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Studies

Abstract Performance appraisal of sales teams plays a critical role in organizational effectiveness; however, many existing appraisal systems suffer from subjectivity, inappropriate weighting of indicators, and a lack of role-specific competency prioritization. In particular, limited empirical research has applied structured multi-criteria decision-making approaches to prioritize sales competencies across different organizational levels. To address this gap, this study develops a competency-based performance appraisal framework and empirically prioritizes sales competencies for managers and sales experts in commercial firms located in the Isfahan Science and Technology Town using the Best–Worst Method (BWM). Based on an extensive literature review and expert consultations, performance indicators were identified across four competency dimensions: technical, behavioral, core, and managerial. Expert judgments were collected from twelve experienced sales professionals through pairwise comparison questionnaires, and the BWM was employed to derive indicator weights, while the geometric mean was used to aggregate expert opinions and ensure consistency. The results reveal clear role-specific differences in competency priorities, with managerial competencies emerging as the most critical dimension for supervisors, whereas technical competencies were assigned the highest importance for sales experts, highlighting the need for differentiated performance expectations across hierarchical roles. This study contributes to the human resource management literature by providing a quantitative, role-specific, and replicable framework for competency-based sales performance appraisal and offers practical guidance for designing fair appraisal systems, aligning training and development programs with weighted competencies, and supporting data-driven human resource decisions to enhance employee performance and organizational effectiveness.

Abstract Identifying and evaluating the key parameters of resilience on the evaluating of suppliers in order to select the best resource supplier in the industry is very important. For this purpose, in this study, after a comprehensive review of the literature and the application of fuzzy Delphi technique and using the opinions of petrochemical upstream industry experts, six key and general parameters of supplier resilience (including key performance factors, supplier responsiveness, supplier risk reduction, supplier technical support, supplier stability, information technology management) were identified in eighteen factors. Then the weight of the parameters was determined using the best-worst method (BWM). The output of this method indicates the extraction of "supplier risk mitigation systems" and "key performance factors" as the most important parameters, respectively. Then, the five suppliers of the mentioned industry were evaluated and ranked using TOPSIS (technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) technique and based on the extracted weight of the parameters. The output showed that the fourth supplier was in the first place and the second supplier was in the last place. Thus, the proposed model of this research can be a good guide for upstream petrochemical industries in the successful and future evaluation of potential suppliers in order to improve supply and achieve competitive advantage and further satisfy customer needs.