Relations between Positive and Negative Attributional Styles and Sales Performance as Moderated by Length of Insurance Sales Experience among Japanese Life Insurance Sales Agents

doi:10.4236/psych.2012.312A186

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Psychology

2012. Vol.3, No.12A, 1254-1258

Published Online December 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.312A186

1254

Relations between Positive and Negative Attributional Styles and

Sales Performance as Moderated by Length of Insurance Sales

Experience among Japanese Life Insurance Sales Agents

Yukie Tsuzuki1, Tamao Matsui2, Takashi Kakuyama3

1Seijo University, Tokyo, Japan

2Surugadai University, Saitama, Japan

3Tokyo Future University, Tokyo, Japan

Email: [email protected]

Received August 10th, 2012; revised September 9th, 2012; accepted October 5th, 2012

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, re-

spectively), sales performance and their lengths of sales experience. It was found that relationship be-

tween 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 at-

tributional 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.

Keywords: Attributional Style; Sales Performance; Japan

Introduction

Attributional style is a cognitive personality variable that re-

fers to the habitual ways people explain their positive and nega-

tive life experiences (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978).

Abramson et al. suggested that the three attributional dimen-

sions of internality, stability and globality are crucial for ex-

plaining human helplessness and depression.

The internal-external dimension refers to the extent to which

an individual sees his or her life experiences being caused by

something about himself or herself (internal attributions), as

opposed to something about the situation (external attributions).

The stable-unstable attribution refers to the extent to which an

individual perceives his or her life experiences being caused by

nontransient factors (stable attributions), as opposed to transient

ones (unstable attributions). The global-specific dimension

refers to the extent to which an individual sees cause of his or

her life experience as being present in a variety of situations

(global attributions), as opposed to more circumscribed (spe-

cific attributions) (Peterson, Semmel, Baeyer, Abrahamson,

Metalsky, & Seligman, 1982).

It was also suggested that depression-prone individuals tend

to attribute negative life experiences to internal, stable, and

global factors and to attribute positive life experiences to ex-

ternal, unstable and specific factors (Abramson et al., 1978).

Seligman et al. (1979) examined attributional styles for de-

pressed and non-depressed individuals and found that depressed

individuals make attributions systematically different from

non-depressed individuals on all of the three attributional di-

mensions. Specifically, relative to non-depressed individuals,

depressed individuals attributed positive life events to external,

unstable, and specific causes, and negative life events to inter-

nal, stable and global causes.

Seligman (1990) defined optimistic attributional style as the

tendency to attribute positive events to internal, stable and

global factors and negative events to external, unstable and

specific factors. Pessimistic attributional style, on the other

hand, was defined as the tendency to attribute positive events to

external, unstable and specific factors and negative events to

internal, stable and global factors. Individuals with an optimis-

tic attributional style are more resilient when faced with unfa-

vorable events than individuals with a pessimistic attributional

style (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978).

Past studies have found that an individual’s attributional

style is also linked to work-related outcomes such as work per-

formance and turnover. In their study of attributions made by

newly recruited US insurance sales agents, Seligman and

Schulman (1986) reported that attributional style for negative

events (would be referred to as “negative attributional style”,

hereafter) correlated significantly with sales performance. Spe-

cifically, tendency to explain negative events with internal,

stable, and global causes predicted lower sales performance.

Agents who scored in the good (optimistic) half of negative

attributional style sold 29% more insurance in their first year

and sold 130% more insurance in their second year than did

agents who scored in the bad (pessimistic) half of negative

attributional style.

Y. TSUZUKI ET AL.

Corr and Gray (1996) examined the relationship of attribu-

tional style and work performance among 130 senior male sales

agents in a leading UK insurance company. In their study, it

was attributional style for positive events (would be referred to

as “positive attributional style”, hereafter), rather than attribu-

tional style for negative events, which was related to sales per-

formance. Specifically, tendency to explain positive events with

internal, stable, and global causes predicted higher sales per-

formance.

Proudfoot, Corr, Guest, & Gray (2001) reported that positive

attributional style was more strongly related to job motivation,

intention to quit, learned resourcefulness and psychological

strain, than was the negative attributional style. Furnham,

Sadka, & Brewin (1992) found that positive attributional style

was related to job motivation and satisfaction, whereas negative

attributional style was related neither to job motivation nor to

satisfaction. Using job-rated outcomes as events, Silvester,

Patterson, & Ferguson (2003) reported that positive attribu-

tional style was a better predictor of performance ratings and

job satisfaction than was negative attributional style.

Xenikou (2005) administered the Occupational Attributional

Style Questionnaire (Furnham, Sadka, & Brewin, 1992) to em-

ployees of various organizations such as banks, hospitals, in-

surance companies, and examined the relation between attribu-

tional style and job motivation. It was found that not only the

two attributional styles, but their interaction also was a predic-

tor of job motivation. It was also suggested that length of ex-

perience at a given organization had an impact on the relation-

ship between attributional style and job motivation. Specifically,

only in the case of employees with more than four years of

experience at their organization, negative attributional style was

related to lower levels of job motivation. Xenikou suggested

that becoming a “veteran” employee in an organization was

likely to make people more vulnerable to the negative effect of

the pessimistic negative attributional style on job motivation.

In summary, results of past studies have been inconsistent in

whether attributional style for positive events or that for nega-

tive events is more critical in predicting sales performance.

Whereas Seligman & Schulman (1986) found a good (optimis-

tic) 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 perform-

ance. This inconsistency may suggest an existence of a mod-

erator variable, where in some situations having a good attribu-

tional style for positive events is critical and in others having a

good attributional style for negative events is critical.

The present study was aimed to explore the impact of an

agent’s length of sales experience on the relation between posi-

tive/negative attributional styles and work performance among

Japanese life insurance sales agents. It was hypothesized that an

agent’s length of sales experience would moderate the rela-

tionship between attributional style and sales performance.

Specifically, among novices with a relatively short experience

in insurance sales, negative attributional style would be more

strongly related to sales performance than positive attributional

style would. Among veterans with a relatively long experience

in insurance sales, positive attributional style would be more

strongly related to sales performance than negative attributional

style would. The reason for these hypotheses is as follows.

By contrast to Xenikou’s observation, in Japan’s life insur-

ance sales, being a new sales agent would be more vulnerable

to the impact of negative attributional style. Novice sales agents

are new in the field and do not have “regulars”, and thus are

destined to repeatedly encounter failure, rejection, and indif-

ference from prospective clients. Reflecting these situations, the

turnover rate among life insurance sales agents in an early pe-

riod of employment is very high in Japan. 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. Thus, for novices to survive in life insurance sales,

having a pessimistic negative attributional style puts them at a

vast disadvantage in terms of their work performance. There-

fore, among novices, work performance would be related pre-

dominantly to negative, but not positive, attributional style.

Situations are different for Japan’s veteran sales agents.

Typically, veterans do not have to encounter as frequent fail-

ures and rejections as novices do. Veterans tend to have their

own regular customers. Those regulars refer their sales agents

to their friends and acquaintances. Therefore, veterans may

obtain new clients through introduction by their old customers.

This reduces their chances to feel hurt and rejected by prospec-

tive customers. In addition, veterans usually have a thorough

knowledge of insurance commodities they sell and can offer

commodities that meet their customers’ needs, thereby resulting

in higher sales performance in general. Attributional style for

positive events would influence the degree to which they savor

their success. Thus, positive attributional style, rather than

negative attributional style, would be more relevant to the con-

tinuation of their success as veterans. Therefore, among veter-

ans, their performance would be related predominantly to their

positive, but not negative, attributional style.

In summary, the present study examines an agent’s length of

experience as a moderator of the relation between sales per-

formance and positive/negative attributional styles. More spe-

cifically, it was hypothesized that positive and negative attribu-

tional styles would differentially affect sales performance de-

pending on an agent’s length of experience in insurance sales.

Method

Participants

Participants of this study consisted of 360 Japanese female

life insurance route sales agents of a nation-wide life insurance

company. Participants worked on a complex commission sys-

tem that was basically determined by their performance but is

complicated by changes in the rate of conversion based on the

number and value sold by the participants over the last three

months. Participants ranged in age from 22 to 78 years with a

mean of 47.2 years (SD = 11.09). The length of sales experi-

ence on their present jobs ranged from 1 to 40 years with a

mean of 8.6 years. About 80% of participants were married, the

remainder being unmarried or widowed.

Measures

Attributional style measure. Based on the Attributional Style

Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson, Semmel, Von Baeyer, Abram-

son, Metalsky & Seligman, 1982), a Japanese version of at-

tributional style questionnaire was developed by the authors (A

written permission of Dr. Seligman was obtained). Majority of

Y. TSUZUKI ET AL.

items were based on the ASQ except for a few items that were

modified to adjust to Japanese settings. Two of the authors who

are Japanese natives but familiar with English language and

culture independently translated the items of the English origin-

nal ASQ. They decided on the best translation by joint consen-

sus. Next, a bilingual English native speaker was asked to in-

dependently translate the Japanese version back to English.

When the back translation differed from the English original,

the final translation was chosen by consensus between the au-

thors.

The questionnaire consisted of 12 hypothetical situations, six

positive (e.g., “You apply for a position that you want very

badly, and you get it”) and six negative (e.g., “You give an

important talk in front of a group and the audience reacts nega-

tively.”). Participants were asked to imagine the event happen-

ing to them and to fill in the most likely cause. They were then

asked to rate the cause they supplied, on a one-to-seven scale,

for internal (7) vs external (1), stable (7) vs unstable (1), and

global (7) vs specific (1). This measure yields two sets of scores:

composite positive attributional style and composite negative

attributional style. The composite positive attributional style

was the composite score for the six positive events, summing

across internal, stable and global dimensions. The score was

higher to the extent that participants attributed positive events

to more internal, stable, and global factors. The composite

negative attributional style was the composite score for the six

negative events summing across internal, stable and global

dimensions. The score was higher to the extent that participants

attributed negative events to more internal, stable, and global

factors.

Performance data. Performance was measured by the num-

ber of policies sold by participants for the last three months.

The data was obtained from the company records.

Procedure

Participants were presented with a questionnaire consisting

of the attributional style measure and a few demographic ques-

tions (e.g., age, length of sales experience). They were asked to

write their individual code number assigned by the company on

the cover of the questionnaire so that their performance data

could be obtained from the company records afterward. Par-

ticipants were assured that their individual responses to the

questionnaire would not be disclosed to the company. After

completing the questionnaire, participants were asked to en-

close the questionnaire into the attached posted-envelope and

send it directly to the research team.

Results

Table 1 presents the means and standard deviations of the

research variables and their intercorrelations. The means and

standard deviations of attributional styles were M = 14.8, SD =

2.33 for positive attributional style and M = 11.4, SD = 2.17 for

negative attributional style. The reliabilities, as estimated by

Cronbach’s alpha were modest: .70 for positive attributional

style and, .69 for negative attributional style, which were com-

parable to Seligman & Schulman’s (1986) data. There were no

significant differences in attributional style scores by length of

sales experience (positive attributional style r = .04, ns; nega-

tive attributional style r = –.07, ns), indicating that experienced

sales agents did not have a better attributional style compared to

Table 1.

Means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations of research variables.

M SD 1 2 3 4

1) Positive attributional

stylea 14.82.33 (.70)

2) Negative attributional

styleb 11.4 2.17 –.02 (.69)

3) Sales experiencec 9.2 9.53 .04 –.07

4) Performanced 7.3 3.78 .16** –.11* .52** (.65)

Note: N = 360. *p < .05. **p < .01. The numerals within parentheses are cronbach

reliabililty coefficients. aExplaining positive events with internal, stable, and

global causes; bExplaining negative events with internal, stable, and global causes;

cNumber of years of sales experience; dNumber of policies sold for the last three

months.

relatively new agents. This was also consistent with data in

Seligman & Schulman’s study.

The correlation between positive attributional style and nega-

tive attributional style was –.02 (ns), thereby indicating that the

two attributional styles are independent. Some previous studies

(e.g., Peterson, 1991) also reported no relation between positive

and negative attributional styles. Length of sales experience and

performance were strongly related (r = .52, p < .01).

Attributional style for positive events was related signifi-

cantly and positively to sales performance (r = .16, p < .01).

Thus, insurance sales agents who attributed positive events to

internal, global and stable factors were more successful than

those who attributed positive events to external, specific, and

unstable factors. Using the median cutoff, agents were divided

into two groups according to their scores for positive attribu-

tional style. Agents who were in the optimistic half sold 11.5%

more insurance policies for the last three months than agents

who were in the less-optimistic half (t = 2.10, p < .05). This

result was consistent with that of Corr & Gray’s (1996) study.

Attributional style for negative events was related signifi-

cantly and negatively to related sales performance (r = –.11, p

< .05). Thus, insurance sales agents who attributed negative

events to external, specific, unstable factors were more suc-

cessful than those sales agents who attributed negative events to

internal, global and stable factors. Using the median cutoff,

agents who were in the optimistic half of the negative attribu-

tional style, sold 11.1% more insurance policies for the last

three months than agents who were in the less optimistic half (t

= 2.00, p < .05). This result was consistent with Seligman &

Schulman (1986)’s findings.

As the present study was concerned with a moderating effect

of length of insurance sales experience on relations between

work performance and two types of attributional style, partici-

pants were classified into two groups based on their length of

life insurance sales experience. One was named as a “novice”

group (n = 183), and the other was named as a “veteran” group

(n = 177). The novice group consisted of those whose length of

life insurance sales experience was less than three years, while

the veteran group consisted of those whose length of insurance

sales experience was three years or more. The company records

indicated that about 80% of newly hired employees quitted

their jobs within two years of their employment, whereas the

reminder tended to continue their jobs for very long years (M =

17.1 years).

To determine the moderating effect of the length of life in-

surance sales experience on the relation between the two types

1256

Y. TSUZUKI ET AL.

of attributional style and performance, three-step multiple re-

gression was performed. In Step 1, performance was regressed

on positive and negative attributional styles and length of in-

surance sales experience, and then on the three variables and

their two-way interactions in Step 2. In Step 3, performance

was regressed on all the variables above entered and the three-

way interaction of two attributional styles and length of insur-

ance sales experience. Increments in R2 from Steps 1 to 3 were

estimated. Table 2 presents the results. It is indicated that R2

significantly increased from Step 1 to 3. These findings sug-

gest the possibility that positive and negative attributional

styles were related to sales performance differentially, depend-

ing upon the length of insurance sales experience.

As the three-step multiple regression supported length of

sales experience as a moderator of the relation between the two

types of attributional style and performance, subgroup correla-

tional analyses were performed. Correlations of positive and

negative attributional styles to performance were computed for

each of the two groups.

Table 3 indicates that for the novice group, performance was

correlated significantly and negatively with negative attribu-

tional style, r = −.22, p < .01, whereas it was not related to posi-

tive attributional style, r = .05, ns. By contrast, for the veteran

group, performance was correlated significantly and positively

to positive attributional style, r = .26, p < .01, whereas it was

not related to negative attributional style, r = −.04, ns. These

findings support the hypotheses that relations between per-

formance and positive and negative attributional styles would

be largely different depending upon an agent’s length of life

insurance sales experience.

Discussion

The findings of the present study showed that the positive

and negative attributional styles differentially impact sales per-

formance between “novice” sales agents and “veteran” sales

agents. Specifically, among novices, negative attributing style

Table 2.

Three-step multiple regression predicting performance among japanese

life insurance sales agents.

Steps Variables added R2 ΔR2 df F p

Step 1 .33

Positive attributional

style (A)a

Negative attributional

style (B)b

Length of sales

experience (C)c

Step 2 .35.02 1.352 7.64.001

A × B interaction

B × C interaction

A × C interaction

Step 3 .36.01 1.350 4.62.001

A × B × C interaction

Note: N = 360. *p < .05. **p < .01; aExplaining positive events with internal,

stable, and global causes; bExplaining negative events with internal, stable, and

global causes; c1 = novices whose life insurance sales experience was less than

three years. 2 = veterans whose life insurance sales experience was three years or

more.

Table 3.

Correlations of positive and negative attributional styles to sales perfor-

mance for novice and veteran groups.

Correlation with performance (r)

Novice group

(n = 183)

Veteran group

(n = 177)

Positive attributional stylea .05 .26**

Negative attributional styleb−.22** −.04

Note: N = 360. **p < .01. aExplaining positive events with internal, stable, and

global causes; bExplaining negative events with internal, stable, and global

causes.

impaired sales performance, whereas positive attributional style

had no relationship with sales performance. By contrast, among

veterans, positive attributing style was related to higher sales

performance, but negative attributional style had no relationship

with sales performance.

These findings seem to make sense considering situations in

which life insurance sales agents find themselves in Japan. In

life insurance sales, it is likely that new sales agents repeatedly

encounter failure, rejection, and indifference from prospective

clients. Therefore, new sales agents are vulnerable to a variety

of emotionally painful events. Under such circumstances, an

attributional style for negative events, rather than for positive

events, would exert strong influence on their sales performance.

If novice agents explain bad events with internal, stable and

global causes they would likely be too discouraged to live up to

their full potential.

For veteran sales agents, situations are likely to be quite dif-

ferent. Veterans usually have a number of regular customers.

Veterans are likely to get referrals from their old customers and

it gets much easier for veterans to contact prospective clients

through introduction by their regular customers. Thus, for vet-

erans there may be much smaller chances of outright failures

and rejections. In addition, the company records indicated that

the number of policies sold by veterans for recent three months

(M = 9.51) was about twice as much as the number of policies

sold by novices (M = 5.28). Under these circumstances, an

attributional style for positive events, rather than that for nega-

tive events, would be more relevant to their work performance

for veterans. Specifically, those with an attributional style that

fully appreciates positive events by explaining them with inter-

nal, stable, and global causes, would be at advantage. Internal-

izing and generalizing success would increase self-efficacy and

thus would be the key to continuous success for veterans.

The finding of this study may account for inconsistencies

observed in past studies. Whereas Seligman & Schulman (1986)

found attributional style for negative events to be critical in

predicting sales performance, some other studies (e.g., Corr &

Gray, 1996) suggested that attributional style for positive

events was most predictive of sales performance. This study has

shown that there is a third variable (i.e., length of sales experi-

ence) that moderates the relationship between sales perform-

ance and positive/negative attributional style.

The present study’s findings are in conflict with those of

Xenikou’s (2005) study. Xenikou found that an attributional

style explaining negative events with stable and global causes

had impaired job motivation only in the case of employees with

longer than four years’ employment, which was equivalent to

“veterans” in the present study. In contrast, the present study

Y. TSUZUKI ET AL.

1258

found that an attributional style internalizing and generalizing

negative events impaired sales performance only in the case of

novices with less than three years employment.

Although it is difficult to determine the exact cause of these

conflicting findings, at least two points should be taken into

consideration. First, there are differences in participants’ occu-

pations between the two studies. Participants of Xenikou’s

study were employees from various organizations such as banks,

hospitals, and insurance company, presumably including nurses

and office workers. The participants of the present study were

all female life insurance sales agents. Thus, work situations of

the participants are likely to be vastly different between

Xenikou’s study and the present study. For example, Xenikou

suggests that the longer employees work at the same organiza-

tion, the more difficult and harsh their challenges and obstacles

posed on them tend to become. By contrast, the longer Japanese

sales agents work, the less harsh their work tends to become as

they have already obtained their own regular customers. An-

other point to be considered is the difference in criterion mea-

sures used between Xenikou’s and the present study. Xenikou

(2005) used seven-item self-ratings of “intrinsic job motive-

tion,” whereas the present study used “the number of policies

actually sold” by agents for recent three months.

The result of the present study seems to suggest the impor-

tance of distinguishing attributional style for positive and nega-

tive events when applying the concept of attributional style in

real-life contexts. As positive and negative attributional styles

are not significantly correlated, they are relatively independent

dimensions. Thus, having an optimistic attributional style about

positive events does not necessarily mean having an optimistic

attributional style in terms of negative events. Someone who

thinks and acts like an optimist when he or she is in normal and

decent life conditions, may fall apart and start to think like a

total pessimist when he or she finds him/herself in difficult

situations. Thus, managers should not assume that someone is

either an optimist or pessimist. People’s attributional style can

change depending on their situations. For novice life insurance

sales agents, having a pessimistic attributional style about nega-

tive events has a detrimental effect on their work performance,

as their work life is likely to challenge them with many inci-

dents of failures and rejections. It is advisable that managers

should carefully monitor how their subordinates are attributing

their sales experiences, success or failure, and pay special at-

tention to their subordinates’ attributional style about negative

events. For those subordinates who tend to attribute their fail-

ures with internal, stable and global causes, managers should

encourage them to examine if their attribution is realistic and if

their attributional style can be changed into a more adaptive,

optimistic one. For veteran workers, it is advisable that manag-

ers encourage them to “own” and savor their success by attri-

buting their achievement with internal, stable and global causes.

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