Motivational factors during continuing professional education that enhance professional practice among selected Taiwanese life insurance agents

Life insurance agents constantly participate in continuing professional education to fulfill a requirement to update expertise and renew a license or certification. Since continuing professional education is increasingly playing a critical role in the knowledge-based economy, it is necessary for management to monitor the motivational factors that motivate those adult learners to perform their jobs effectively.; The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the motivational factors of continuing professional education that will inspire those agents to perform their sales jobs employed in one American life insurance company's Taiwanese branch. The sample for the research was comprised of 500 randomly selected part-time and full-time life insurance agents of this company. A 40-item survey was used by the investigator. The survey primarily employed a five-point Likert scale format. Three hundred and eighty-one (76.2%) completed surveys were received by the researcher. Descriptive and inferential statistics were computed to determine the relative importance of relevance, meaning, and competence as motivational factors of continuing professional education. The responses were also compared on the basis of the agents' position, gender, age, educational background, and years of service.; Results of the data analyses indicated that agents considered relevance, meaning, and competence to be important factors during continuing education. The most important individual factors within the area of relevance were seeing how other agents close their cases and organize their time; the least important factor was seeing how other agents earn more money. The most important individual factor within the area of meaning was seeing other agents get feedback on using ways to close cases; the least important factor was seeing colleagues use ways other agents use to earn more money. The most important individual factor within the area of competence was practicing new ways to close cases; the least important factor was practicing new ways about how to use the telephone. Analyses of variance found that the demographic variables of agent's gender, educational background, and years of service had significant influence on perceptions regarding the importance of the motivational factors of relevance, meaning, and competence.