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The Violations of conversational maxims among insurance agents

Cooperation is very important in conversation. People should follow certain
principles or maxims to keep the conversation going smoothly and satisfactory to all the
participants. According to a linguist, HP Grice, the maxims are Quantity, Quality,
Relation, and Manner. However, there are times people violate those principles due to
certain purposes, such as to be blunt or forthright, to deceive, to make jokes, or to change
subject. Since the writer has never found any study of conversational maxims in the field
of business conversation, particularly on insurance, she made this research. The writer
conducted this study in order to find out the flouting and fulfilling Grice?s Maxims
occured in the language of insurance agents when they are prospecting. Furthermore, the
writer also wanted to discover the reason of the floutings as well as the purpose of doing
it.
In conducting this research, the writer used qualitative-descriptive approach to
study the floutings of conversational maxims which occur in the conversations of four
insurance agents with their prospects. The writer used discourse analysis approach and
insurance theory of sales cycles as well. The writer collected data in a natural setting by
using a tape recorder. The data, then, were analyzed based on Grice?s Conversational
Maxims.
The findings of the study show that the most obeyed maxim in each stage of
conversation was maxim of relation. Meanwhile, the most flouted maxim in stage four
and five was the maxim of quantity, whereas in the third stage it was relation maxim that
was flouted most. Based on this, the writer concluded that the maxim of relation and
quantity were dominant in the conversations between the agents and the prospects. The
maxim of relation was mostly obeyed for it was very important in keeping the
conversation and the interaction going smoothly. In contrast, the maxim of quantity was
mostly flouted due to the purpose of providing extra information, as detail as possible, to
arise the need of the prospect to buy insurance product. Thus, these two maxims played
an important role in determining the success of the agents to sell insurance products.