Supervising Outworkers: The Case of the AMP and the Sale of Industrial Life Insurance 1905-1940

The development of labor management practices in the financial services sector provides an interesting insight into how the problems associated with agency issues were overcome. Within financial institutions and other white collar occupations, the use of internal labor markets emerged as an effective means of both controlling and motivating employees. However such management techniques were only effective in cases where work tasks could be internalised. The business of some types of organizations necessitated a division between work tasks between those undertaken within the office and those undertaken outside the office. The management and sale of insurance products is a case in point. This paper explores the development of processes implemented to resolve a specific type of labor management issue, namely the control of workers under conditions of uncertainty. Using the example of the Australian Mutual Provident, (Australia’s largest life insurer) it analyses how and why particular work relations procedures were developed.