Introduction
Insurance Marketing Group [IMG] is a private limited company that specializes in marketing health and life insurance policies. The company mainly targets independent agents distributed in different parts of the United States. The firm’s strategic management practices are undertaken by a qualified management team, which has experience of over 60 years with regard to life and health insurance.
IMG has managed to foster strong and influential relationships over the years, as evidenced by its past success and steady growth. The firm provides agents within the senior and individual health market segments with high quality and competitive products (Insurance Marketing Group, 2014).
The firm’s success and growth are associated with the implementation of effective strategic management practices. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the organization’s performance with specific reference to organizational behavior.
The paper assesses how the organization’s behavior has been influenced by different components, which include the organization’s culture, internal communication, motivational techniques, nature of authority, areas of emotional quotient embraced by the organization, and the virtual elements adopted by the firm.
Analysis
Type of organizational culture; salad bowl culture
IMG has established its operations in different parts of the United States. The firm recognizes the importance of employees in achieving long-term success. Therefore, the firm has integrated the concept of diversity in its operations (Magala, 2006). The organization’s culture can be defined as being a ‘salad bowl’ culture. This status has been achieved by employing workers from different cultural backgrounds.
The firm does not discriminate employees based on their gender, age, race, nationality, and sexual orientation amongst other demographic variables. The development of this culture has arisen from the recognition of diversity as a source of additional knowledge and experience.
Subsequently, the firm’s employees share diverse information based on their cultural backgrounds, which has led to the development of cross-cultural competence. Its adoption of cultural diversity has improved IMG’s attractiveness in the labor market.
The firm has also succeeded in developing good working relationships amongst its employees. The firm’s employees share a small office space with no conflicts, which has led to the development of a friendly working environment. In an effort to foster strong working relationship, IMG has adopted a flat organizational structure, which has been motivated by the need to promote communication amongst employees.
Consequently, the firm’s employees in different levels of management are provided with an opportunity to participate in the firm’s decision-making process. Therefore, the firm has been effective in promoting a collaborative working environment, thus minimizing the rate of employee turnover.
Collaboration amongst employees has led to the development of teamwork culture. This aspect has led to the elimination of negative competition amongst employees. On the contrary, employees support each other in executing their duties, which has led to the development of effective organizational norms and shared values.
The incorporation of cultural diversity has played an essential role in promoting the effectiveness with which IMG markets its health and insurance products to different customer groups in diverse parts of the US considering the country’s multicultural characteristics.
Moreover, the adoption of the ‘salad bowl’ culture has significantly increased the firm’s ability to operate ethically. Ferrell and Fraedrich (2009) are of the opinion that organizational culture is the foundation of ethical business operations.
Mode of communication
Effective internal communication is a critical element in an organization’s efforts to achieve business excellence. The various departments in an organization are supposed to operate as a unit in order to achieve synergy. However, the desired synergy can only be achieved if effective coordination is promoted. Internal communication influences the level of coordination amongst employees in different departments.
IMG appreciates the importance of effective communication. Subsequently, the organization has implemented an open internal communication system. The firm utilizes both verbal and written channels of communication. Written communication is undertaken through digital mediums such as emails, the company’s website, and social media.
Using digital mediums has improved significantly the effectiveness and efficiency with which the firm communicates to employees because they can easily access information on their wireless devices. Moreover, IMG has also established an intra-net system that provides employees with an opportunity to share information.
On the other hand, the firm also undertakes internal communication through print mediums such as internal memos. The memos are strategically located in the company’s notice board in order to ensure that all employees access the intended message.
Considering the small size of the organization, IMG also utilizes verbal communication. The effectiveness of verbal communication is enhanced by the short chain of command within the organization. Consequently, the intended information is not distorted.
In its quest to promote collaboration between IMG’s management team and the lower level employees, the organization has incorporated both top-bottom and bottom-top communication strategies. One of the ways through which this goal is achieved is by conducting regular internal informal meetings and events. This aspect has led to the development of an organizational culture that advocates constant meetings.
During the informal meetings, the lower level employees are in a position to interact with the top management and communicate any issue with ease. This scenario has played a vital role in eliminating bureaucracy in the organization’s communication process. Verbal communication also provides the top management team with an opportunity to assess the firm’s performance.
The effective interaction between the top and lower levels of management has improved learning quotient greatly within the firm. Additionally, the firm’s top management team is in a position to gain intelligence that can be utilized in the strategic management practices.
Motivational technique
Employee motivation is a fundamental element in an organization’s pursuit for business excellence. Motivated employees are productive and focused in undertaking their roles and responsibilities. IMG is committed to ensuring that its employees are motivated continuously in executing their duties.
The firm’s commitment to promoting a high degree of employee motivation arises from the need to nurture a high degree of organizational identification. Furthermore, the firm recognizes that motivated employees are less likely to leave it. Despite the cultural diversity in the firm, IMG has managed to sustain the employees’ level of satisfaction.
IMG has incorporated both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational techniques. The extrinsic techniques entail providing employees with monetary benefits. The firm ensures that employees are compensated equitably and fairly. IMG has formulated a comprehensive employees’ remuneration package.
The firm has adopted job description as the basis of the employees’ remuneration. Subsequently, employees are remunerated based on their skills, level of education, and experience. The employees are awarded bonus compensation for their efforts.
In addition to monetary compensation, IMG has also integrated intrinsic motivational techniques by incorporating non-monetary forms of compensation. Some of the intrinsic methods of compensation adopted include recognizing employees who depict exemplary performance. Recognition is a vital component in ensuring that employees are motivated psychologically.
Furthermore, the firm has adopted the concept of teamwork, which provides the top management team with an opportunity to delegate certain tasks to the lower level employees. Therefore, employees have an opportunity to undertake challenging job tasks, hence providing them with the chance to progress through their career path.
Nature of authority
IMG has adopted a flat organizational structure, which has reduced bureaucracy significantly within the organization. Furthermore, the chain of command amongst employees has been reduced remarkably. IMG is focused at achieving business excellence in its operation. In order to achieve this goal, IMG has integrated teamwork as one of its operational practices.
The top management team delegates tasks to employees in different operational levels. This aspect provides employees with the freedom to make decisions on how the assigned tasks will be executed. Therefore, employees gain an opportunity to explore new dimensions on how to complete the task assigned, which improves their skills.
Subsequently, task delegation has empowered the firm’s employees, and thus they have become highly productive in executing their duties.
Furthermore, delegating tasks to the lower level employees has enabled the firm to reduce task monotony amongst workers. However, the top’s management team has developed a culture whereby the lower level employees are required to be accountable for the assigned tasks (Lussier & Achua, 2009).
From the above analysis, it is evident that IMG is committed to promoting a culture of trust and loyalty amongst its employees. Additionally, delegating tasks to employees leads to the development of a sense of value and worth towards the organization. These elements are fundamental in nurturing a high degree of organizational identification amongst employees.
Furthermore, the concept of task delegation has instilled confidence amongst IMG’s employees. Subsequently, the likelihood of employees undertaking challenging tasks is greatly improved. Moreover, employees are likely to stay longer within the firm, hence improving its competitiveness with regard to human capital.
Therefore, one can argue that the nature of authority at IMG has enabled the firm to develop an organizational culture that will enhance the firm’s long-term success in an industry that is increasingly becoming competitive.
Task delegation has also played a fundamental role in ensuring that employees develop leadership skills. Currently, it is imperative for firm’s management teams to be concerned with promoting leadership skills amongst employees.
This assertion arises from the view that the leadership skills will improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which employees are in a position to deal with different work-related challenges such as employees’ conflict (Lussier & Achua, 2009).
Consequently, the firm has been in a position to sustain a good working relationship amongst employees in different departments. Inculcating leadership skills has improved the effectiveness with which IMG adopts a culture of project team. In addition, the firm’s employees communicate with each other effectively, hence exchanging valuable ideas and information specific to the project at hand.
Emotional intelligence in IMG
Emotional intelligence refers to the effectiveness with which an organization’s management team identifies, judges, and manages the employees’ emotions. Emotional intelligence enables an organization’s management to empathize with their employees, which is essential in promoting a strong bond between the top and the lower levels of management.
An organization can adopt different strategies in managing the employees’ emotions. One of the areas in which emotional intelligence can be applied at the workplace relates to situations of conflict amongst employees. Failure to manage conflicts may lead to reduction in the effectiveness of collaboration within an organization’s workforce, hence cutting down the likelihood of achieving the desired synergy.
In an effort to nurture a high degree of emotional intelligence within its workforce, IMG has integrated a culture of mediation whereby conflicting employees solve their differences with the help of selected individuals from the firm’s top management team. Subsequently, IMG has managed to nurture a high degree of collaboration and job satisfaction amongst its employees.
Virtual elements in IMG
The emergence of information communication technology has led to a remarkable revolution in the workplace. Currently, employees are increasingly seeking for job opportunities that provide them with a high degree of flexibility.
Moreover, employees are increasingly anchoring their job satisfaction on the extent of flexibility in their workforce. In the course of its operation, IMG is committed to providing employees with a high degree of flexibility. This decision has arisen from the need to provide employees with work-life balance.
One of the virtual elements that IMG has adopted relates to telecommuting. IMG provides employees with an opportunity to work from home by adopting digital technologies. The firm has developed a secure and effective database that can only be accessed by the employees.
The firm’s employees are thus in a position to work from home and submit reports online. Moreover, the firm has adopted the concept of virtual teams, which allows employees distributed in different parts of the US to work together as a team.
Conclusion
The above analysis shows that IMG has developed an effective organizational behavior. This goal has been achieved by taking into account the various elements of organizational behavior such as effective organizational communication, task delegation, fostering a high degree of emotional intelligence, and adopting digital technology in order to promote the employees experience.
Furthermore, the firm has incorporated diversity as one of its core strategic management practices.
References
Ferrell, O., & Fraedrich, J. (2009). Business ethics; ethical decision making and cases. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Insurance Marketing Group: Supporting agents in both the individual health and senior market. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.insmg.com/
Lussier, R., & Achua, C. (2009). Leadership; theory, application and skills development. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Magala, S. (2006). Cross cultural competence. London, UK: Psychology Press.