Developing a Strategy for Managing Change

Developing a Strategy for Managing Change

Introduction

Christine Brooks is the regional claims manager of a national insurance company. Christine Brooks is in charge of zone organization. The manager is responsible for consolidating four offices into one location. The company she worked for is one of the most prestigious insurance companies (Lester & Parnell, 2007). However, due to industry deregulations and other changes in the industry, the company needs to take diverse cost cutting measures. One of the cost-cutting measures that the company is deciding is the Westchester Zone Reorganization.

In order to make this strategy effective, Christine Brooks has planned to bring all managers together. The downturn of the technology sector that took place in 2000 resulted in the recession of the financial sector. The overall market conditions resulted in a decline in the company's portfolio (Hofstede, 2001). The decline caused the company to loss its noninsurance affiliates. The lion' share of the company's loss came from diverse underwritten insurance losses. The economy in 2002 was also stagnant. The premiums paid by policy holders were insufficient. In addition, the lower interest rates were also hurting the investment income. In order to deal with these hardships, the company decided to increase the auto insurance rates.

The 2003 was yet another troublesome year for the company. During this period, the corporate management decided to reorganize company's zones (Baghai et al, 2008). It was decided that different claim offices in the Westchester region would be consolidated into a single claim office.

Reorganization Strategy

The main challenge for the manager is to consolidate diverse claim offices that have different identities. The manages of the company are anxious about how the employees would respond and adjust to this consolidation (Raiszadeh, Helms, and Varner, 1993). The smallest claim office was the Chappaqua claim office. In this office, there are approximately 75 employees. The job descriptions and functions of employees and managers are similar in all offices. The Chappaqua claim office is located at the furthest north in Westchester. The Fordham claim office is at the furthest South. The New Rochelle Claim office is in a busy commercial area. The White Plains claim office is located in a growing industrial corridor (Lester & Parnell, 2007). It is located in Westchester County. Christine Brook's office is also present in the White Plains Office.

In order to identify the views of employees, the manager decided to conduct a survey. The survey was distributed among all managers (Hofstede, 2001). The survey revealed that managers were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the decision. Similarly, employees were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied. It was found from the managers' survey that approximately 52% manages are somewhat satisfied with their jobs. However, 46% managers are very satisfied with their jobs. When managers were asked about the level of satisfaction of their employees, it was found that 70% employees are somewhat satisfied with their jobs. However, 15% employees are very satisfied with their jobs.

Another survey question was about the ...