I realise it is not a perfect solution, and I will do something about it for the next release (I have just released some bug fixes today though), but you should be able to do the following:

1. download the bibtex file from the front end (if necessary i.e. if you have done any editing or manual adding)
2.clear your database (delete all)
3. change the configuration setting "full names" to off
4. load up your bib file

Then only the surnames will be displayed in the tables in the front end and the back end, so the sorting will produce more useful results.  I will have to put in some code so that changing that configuration setting automatically changes what is displayed without going through all those steps.

Let me know if that is of any use.

Mark