TEAM EFFECT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PROPERTY AGENTS

Abstract

The concept of peer learning within a team is underutilized and underappreciated in the field of real estate agencies despite its proven efficacy and widespread acceptance in academic and many functional fields. Geographical separation, traditional conservative mind-set, and reluctance to adopt aggressive marketing policy are few dominant factors that discourage cooperation and detrimentally affect business-oriented socialisation and sharing. The real estate industry promises huge opportunity for the agents in learning from peers through proliferation of shared and cooperative environment. The study supports the idea of teaming real estate agents to create positive learning environment, where agents will benefit from peer learning activities and take necessary initiatives and proper winning strategies. To transform peer pressure into cooperation, real estate agents need to divide their agents into various teams to encourage socialisation for transmitting knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This study analyses the impact of the concept of team dynamics in peer learning on the income of property agents. The study evaluates the social interaction as a predictor of their success in peer learning. A sample of 276 real estate agents from a Singapore-based leading property agency was studied in treated and control groups. Those who were working in a team under a leader were considered as the treated group, while those who were working without a team were taken as the control group. The results of the study show that there is a positive impact of 18.3% to 18.7% increase in the annual commission for agents that joined a team. Also, a 36.8% increase in the annual commission for new entrants with a team over a period of 5 years.