Situational Aspects of Need for Autonomy As a Moderating Variable in the Autonomy-Performance Relationship Among Insurance Agents‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Studying the autonomy-performance relationship for insurance agents is important. Primacy is usually given to the personal selling side of the promotional mix (over sales promotion and advertising) in the insurance industry due to the complexity and diversity involved in the requirement to identify likely prospects, interest them in the product best suited for them, handle complex objections, and provide effective follow up after the sale (Dubinsky and Yammarino, 1985). Agent supervisors have a vested interest in maximizing agent production since agent performance has a direct bearing on agency revenue. Insurance agent supervisors should be particularly interested in any variable over which they have direct control that increases agent performance. One such variable is agent perceived autonomy (Yammarino and Dubinsky, 1990).