Personality and cognitive ability as predictors of the job performance of insurance sales people

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether personality and a measure of cognitive ability (’verbal reasoning ability’) would significantly predict the job performance (’managerial ratings’) of sales people in a large South African insurance company.The Customer Contact Styles Questionnaire (CCSQ 5.2) and the Verbal Evaluation Test (VCC 3)were administered to 170 broker consultants, and their managers rated their job performance on the Customer Contact Competency Inventory (CCCI). By making use of multiple regression analysis it was found that certain personality dimensions significantly predict job performance, and that ’verbal reasoning ability’ did not have any significant predictive power. These findings, the implications thereof and suggestions for possible further research are discussed. Opsomming Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal of persoonlikheid en ’n meting van kognitiewe vermoe (’verbale redeneervermoe«’) beduidende voorspellings van die werksprestasie (’bestuursbeoordelings’) van verkoopsmense in ’n groot Suid-Afrikaanse versekeringsmaatskappy, kan maak. Die ’Customer Contact Styles Questionnaire’ (CCSQ 5.2) en die ’Verbal EvaluationTest’ (VCC 3) was op 170 makelaarskonsultante afgeneem, en is deur hul bestuurders,met behulp van die ’Customer Contact Competency Inventory’ (CCCI), beoordeel. Deur gebruik te maak van meervoudige regressie analises is daar bevind dat werksprestasie beduidend deur sekere persoonlikheidsdimensies voorspelword.Ook is bevind dat ’verbale redeneervermoe«’niewerksprestasie beduidend voorspel nie. Hierdie bevindinge, die implikasies daarvan en voorstelle vir moontlike verdere navorsing, word bespreek.