Political skill and insurance mis-selling: dual behavioral pathways and the moderating role of product complexity

Purpose This study examines how political skill is associated with insurance mis-selling through two distinct customer-facing behavioral orientations – customer-oriented and selling-oriented behaviors – and how salespeople's perceived product complexity conditions these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data from 196 insurance salespeople in South Korea, we test a moderated mediation model using Hayes' PROCESS macro. Findings Political skill is not directly associated with the retention-based proxy for insurance mis-selling but shows a negative indirect relationship through customer-oriented behavior and a positive indirect relationship through selling-oriented behavior. Product complexity significantly strengthens the positive indirect relationship via selling-oriented behavior, whereas its moderating effect on the customer-oriented pathway is not significant. Originality/value These findings extend research on political skill by showing that the same interpersonal capability can be associated with both customer-oriented and selling-oriented behaviors, which have opposing implications for insurance mis-selling, while product complexity selectively strengthens the selling-oriented pathway.