SERVING A HOSTILE WORLD : HOW LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS COPE WITH REJECTION

Abstract

Encounters with Life Insurance agents are common these days. We are often approached by these individuals who offer to explain to us the benefits of owning a Life Insurance policy to protect our families from financial loss in case of our mishap, while at the same time, describing it as an attractive investment vehicle. Most people find it difficult to reject these agents and often wonder how these agents cope with constant rejection. This thesis, through a case-study of an agency consisting of 14 Life Insurance agents, attempts to explore the reasons behind these individuals who take up the Life Insurance career despite the stigma and their way of coping with the experience of rejection. It also seeks to uncover the fundamental relationship between rejection and the Life Insurance agent. Through exploring the interaction between long-range perspectives of the agent (his goals and aspirations) and the perspectives of his reference-group (fellow-agents and managers), this thesis demonstrates how the agents develop an informal and eclectic way of looking at the world -- an Ideological Complex -- through which the agent cope with a unique problem in their work, the experience of constant rejection. Consisting of four elements, namely autonomy, monetary rewards, altruism and a system of work habits and attitudes, the Ideological Complex is constantly reconfigured to remain compatible with the goals and aspirations of the agent. Among the agents involved in this study, the desire for autonomy and freedom seem to be predominant aspiration. The Ideological Complex -- a consequence of the negotiation and interaction between the agent and the other actors of his social world, namely potential clients, fellow-agents, and managers -- may also be seen as consciousness emerging from the praxis of Life Insurance work. It is not wholly determined by the agent himself, nor by the institution of which he is a part. Also, by embodying the antinomy of substantive and formal rationality, it provides a meaningful and coherent framework through which the agent makes sense of his hostile world. Lastly this thesis attempts to uncover the fundamental relationship between rejection and the Life Insurance agent -- a dialectical relationship that is contingent on historical and cultural conditions. Through a brief historical analysis of the development of the role of the Life Insurance agent, this thesis argues that rejection and the Life Insurance agent are in a simultaneously mutually negating yet interdependent relationship. Although the career appears to offer an escape from the shackles of stifling work environment, and a leap across the chasm that broadly divides the capitalists from the proletariat, further analysis reveals only an illusion. In essence, the illusory elements of autonomy and freedom that are so attractive to the agent may fade, as new developments of the Life Insurance industry point to the obsolesce of Life Insurance agents.