Aggressive sales culture in banking practice

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore the effects of aggressive selling of Consumer Banking Products (CBP) on front-line sales staff working in the Commercial Banks and Financial Institutions in the context of urban Karachi, Pakistan. This study which will examine the connections that may exist between aggressive selling versus aggressive behaviour, unethical conduct, bullying practices, and psychopathy by salespersons was determined based on qualitative data acquired through in-depth interviewing of seven frontline bankers selling CBP. Research results indicate that aggressive selling unethical practices, bullying, and psychopathy were directly related. Aggressive selling and unethical practice were inversely associated with the presence of ethical and moral values in the financial institutions in Pakistan that formed part of this study. Management pressurises salespersons to sell aggressively by setting challenging sales targets by linking salespersons' salaries and bonuses with the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) (Bela's, 2012; Haron, Ismail, & Razak, 2011; Roma'n, 2003). The findings indicate that the main reason behind this policy in Pakistani banking institutions is to maximise the Bank's profit in a short period. Industry regulators and media critics have criticised the banks for adopting aggressive sales strategies that damage banks' image, influences unethical behaviour in employees and damage customer confidence. The review of the literature relating to this study revealed that sufficient empirical evidence was lacking in this area, and that ample opportunity existed for further research. This exploratory research is applying a qualitative methodology by conducting in-depth interviewing. The author proposes initiatives to alleviate the harmful effects of aggressive selling on frontline sales staff adopting the conceptual frameworks of Agency Theory, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Grounded Theory.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English