Natasha Tageja, Vijit Chaturvedi, Namita Rajput
The unique nature of a sales job subjects sales executives to extreme pressures resulting in impacting their mental and physical well-being and sometimes inducing negative coping behaviours. The purpose of this research is to study the impact of specific job stressors (role-based stressor and techno-based stressor) on emotional exhaustion which results in salesperson’s frontline deviance behaviour. The research also aims to determine the impact created by emotional intelligence as a significant personality trait to attenuate the ill effects of these specific job stressors on emotional exhaustion. The sample consisted of 205 sales executives involved in direct sales of insurance products from 3 private insurance firms. A structural equation modelling technique was applied to establish causality between job stressors and emotional exhaustion ultimately resulting in frontline deviance behaviour. Findings indicate that both role-based stressors and techno-based stressors had significant direct effects on emotional exhaustion and the more emotionally exhausted a salesperson is, the higher the chances of indulging into frontline deviance behaviour. Emotional intelligence acts as a significant moderator between techno stress and emotional exhaustion.