Organization, Work and Emotional Alienation: Study of Life Insurance Agents in Xiamen

Abstract

Based on a study on life insurance agents in Xiamen in 2006 involving 20 interviews and a survey, this thesis found that there are several factors contributing to the high degree of stress and unhappiness among Chinese life insurance agents. Firstly, high sales targets and frequent rejections often make life insurance feel frustrated. Secondly, life insurance companies ask their agents to be very aggressive in achieving high sales targets by utilizing their own personal family and friendship networks, and this brings heavy social and emotional costs to many agents. Thirdly, because of its unique working ideology, life insurance agents' work has a tendency to blur the boundary of life and work, and thus the ethics of work and life are often conflicted. This thesis argues that life insurance agents' emotional ambivalence and coping strategies reflect rapid social, cultural and economic change in China's transition from a planned to a more liberalized economy. This thesis concludes that ironically, the most successful life insurance agents must effectively master "emotional alienation", even though it brings heavy emotional costs and damages their interpersonal relationship and social acceptance.