From Competency Management to Organizational Effectiveness: Evidence for Live Insurance Industry in Central Europe
From Competency Management to Organizational Effectiveness: Evidence for Live Insurance Industry in Central Europe

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to indicate and test, basis on developed model, the relation between the level of agents’ competencies and life insurance company effectiveness. Based on competency management literature and scientific and practice partnership, the author developed and tested a model of how the competency level of life insurance agent determines the life insurance company effectiveness. Data collected from Poland and Lithuania – based on surveys conducted in the years 2008–2014 with 796 most effective agents out of four biggest insurance companies in Poland. The tested model established the existence of an optimal level of competency which contributes to maximum extent to operational organizational performance. The study explicates the implications of competency management and it simultaneously reveals its importance for life insurance industry effectiveness. Conclusions clarify customer and insurance agent sales relations, as a key factor of the competitive advantage of an organization. It supports the organizational effectiveness theory and reveals that the competency management can be a source of the organization’s competitive advantage. Thus, it makes a contribution to human resource management and marketing literature and it offers practical implications for those institutions that are striving for excellence in the sale of life insurance policies.

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