Abstract
Past studies have shown that a sales agent’s attributional style for positive and negative events is related to sales performance. The aim of the present study was to examine an agent’s length of sales experience as a moderator of the relation between sales performance and attributional style for positive/negative events. 360 Japanese life insurance sales agents were assessed with attributional styles for positive and negative events (would be referred to as positive attributional style and negative attributional style, respectively), sales performance and their lengths of sales experience. It was found that relationship between sales performance and the two types of attributional styles was largely different depending upon length of an agent’s insurance sales experience. Among “novices” (n = 183) whose lengths of insurance sales experience were less than three years, sales performance was related significantly to negative attributional style, whereas it was not related to positive attributional style. By contrast, among “veterans” (n = 177) whose lengths of insurance sales experience were three years or more, sales performance was related significantly to positive attributional style, whereas it was not related to negative attributional style. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Highlights
Attributional style is a cognitive personality variable that refers to the habitual ways people explain their positive and negative life experiences (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978)
Whereas Seligman & Schulman (1986) found a good attributional style for “negative” events to be implicated in successful insurance sales, other studies (e.g., Corr & Gray, 1996) suggested that a good attributional style for “positive” events was most predictive of high sales performance
There were no significant differences in attributional style scores by length of sales experience, indicating that experienced sales agents did not have a better attributional style compared to
Summary
Attributional style is a cognitive personality variable that refers to the habitual ways people explain their positive and negative life experiences (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978). Whereas Seligman & Schulman (1986) found a good (optimistic) attributional style for “negative” events to be implicated in successful insurance sales, other studies (e.g., Corr & Gray, 1996) suggested that a good (optimistic) attributional style for “positive” events was most predictive of high sales performance. The present study was aimed to explore the impact of an agent’s length of sales experience on the relation between positive/negative attributional styles and work performance among Japanese life insurance sales agents. About 80% of the life insurance sales agents hired in Japan quit within two years of sales experience, and only less than 10% remain in 10 years Under these circumstances, new sales agents whose work life tends to be full of rejection and failure are likely to be more vulnerable to the impact of attributional style for negative events. It was hypothesized that positive and negative attributional styles would differentially affect sales performance depending on an agent’s length of experience in insurance sales
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