...ALLSTATE INSURANCE (CASE STUDY) TABLE OF CONTENTS Question 1: Operational audit opportunities (areas) …………………………………..3 Question 2: The audit program for Allstate insurance ………………………………....3 Question 3: The assertions to be tested and whether they can be audited effectively and efficiently………………………………………………….........5 Question 4: The policies and procedures in Allstate insurance ……………………....7 Question 5: Controls and weaknesses in Allstate insurance ………………………….7 Reference …………………………………………………………………………….............8 QUESTION 1: OPERATIONAL AUDIT OPPORTUNITIES (AREAS) 1. Auditing the legal Expenses to attorneys representing policy holders. This should include the comparison between legal fees incurred by Allstate staff attorneys and outside attorneys representing clients and scrutiny of time cards and bills 2. Audit of Allstate policyholder contracts. To find out about the terms of reference between Allstate and policy holders, and address questions of whether the legal services offered by lawyers are in accordance with the terms specified in the contracts and To what extent do contract terms cover the policy holders 3. Audit of legal Services to Policy holders; to address the following questions: Is the office receiving appropriate value for the dollars spent?, are policy holders satisfied with the legal services offered by the company?, are the legal services offered in conformity with applicable laws and standards...
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...Assignment #2 Case: “Allstate Insurance Company” Krystal Goodin October 31, 2010 Leadership and Organizational Behavior Professor: Dr. LAURA POGUE Allstate has an effective goal-setting program because the company is the world's largest publicly held personal lines insurer. It has operations in 49 states and Canada. Allstate sells 13 lines of insurance with auto, property, life and commercial insurance as the major lines. Allstate offers retirement and investment products and banking services. With all these products and services this shows you that they are very effective. They keep growing. Challenging goals have been set. Allstate set goals for diversifying the company. The goal has two major points the internally focused goal which is “unlocking the potential for excellence in all workers by providing them the tools, resources, and opportunities to succeed.” (pg 215) The second goal Allstate insurance set out to achieve is external. Allstate insurance wants to create a more diverse workforce that matches the experiences, background, and sensitivities of the markets it serves. The ability of Allstate Insurance diverse employees can be found in step two. The employees have to master new skills and they are provided with a road map of the critical skills necessary for advancement. (pg 216). The Allstate Insurance diversity employees have to be motivated and exhibit goal commitment in order for achieve their career advance employees have to commit to attending career...
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...Allstate Case Study Ryan Fluharty Midway College Dr. Ashe Allstate has made the bold decision to focus its efforts on the United States and Canada. This move shocked many people and argued whether or not it was a good strategic decision. With all of the turmoil that Allstate has faced over the last decade, the leadership of the company had to make a strategic move that they believed would push the business forward, not create any more flak. Focusing efforts on two areas of the world, especially ones that the company already had a good market power over made sense. This was a perfect strategic move. Positioning the company in a place where they are comfortable without any unforeseen or uncomfortable external macro environmental challenges could only leave room for growth, or better yet, time to breath. Allstate went through phases the last decade where they couldn’t decide whether or not they were an insurance company, bank or retail store. This confusion slowly, and then quickly, put Allstate behind their competitors. If you glance at State Farm, they have always been an insurance company. So in order for Allstate to compete more effectively with their competitors, it is time they decide what they want to be. If they want to be an insurance company, they need to be all in and create strategic plans to be the best at that one thing. The fault doesn’t fall completely in Allstate’s hands for the turmoil that they have faced over the past decade. The internet boom has...
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...STRAYERUNIVERSITY CASE STUDY: ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY SUBMITTED TO DR. DEMETRIUS CAROLINA IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE COURSE-BUS 520 BY MORLU DUWOR STRAYERUNIVERSITY LOWER BUCKS CAMPUS, PHILADEPHIA SEPTEMBER2011 Table of Contents BACKGROUND /INTRODUCTION 1 USING THE MODEL OF GOAL SETTING 1-2 ALLSTATE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FROM THE DIVERSITY INDEX 3 HIGH PERFROMANCE REWARD SYSTEM THAT MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES3 -4 MOTIVATION BY THE DIVERSITY INDEX AND QLMS4-5 CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATION5 REFERENCES CITED 6 Assignment #2 – Case Study: “Allstate Insurance Company” . Introduction/Background Allstate Insurance Company is America’s second largest personal insurance carrier, insuring one of every eight homes and automobiles in the country. Of its 50,000 employees, 52.2% are women and 24.7% are minorities--14.3% of whom are African American. Allstate boasts a minority representation among executives and managers of 21%, with 66% of that number being African American. In1993 when its president and CEO backed diversity as a "strategic imperative." Allstate officially launched effort. The effort of Allstate Insurance centers around two goals: 1) expanding career and advancement opportunities for women and minorities; and 2) fostering greater customer...
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...| A More Diverse Allstate | Lenora Gumbs | | Petrina ShatteenLeadership and Organizational Behavior | October 29, 2011 | This paper describes a successful goal setting model and how to effectively implement the model to increase productivity. It also describes Allstate insurance and their mission to have a diverse company and the measures they put in place in order to achieve that mission. | Introduction Goal setting is absolutely essential to having a successful business. In order for a company to have effective goals they have to make sure the goals are clearly understood by the managers and the employees. The company should also provide incentives for meeting and exceeding expectations. Allstate provides a model of how they are creating a more diverse company. Their ultimate goal is to have a company that is diverse internally and can reach the diverse culture that surrounds us. Goal Setting Model The goal setting process starts with the challenge phase. When a company decides to set goals for their organization, the goals need to be clear and concise and provide an opportunity for the employee to be challenged to achieve the goal and create a better company. Hellriegel and Slocum states that, “Employees with unclear goals or no goals are more prone to work slowly, perform poorly, exhibit lack of interest, and accomplish less than employees whose goals are clear and challenging” (2011). “The two key attributes of challenging goals are: Goal difficulty...
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...Allstate Insurance Company. Mohammed Baba Strayer University Dr. Yemer.H Bus 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior 04/27/2011 Using the model for goal setting, evaluate Allstate’s goal setting process to determine whether or not Allstate has an effective goal setting program. Goals are future outcome or result that both the individual and organizations desire and strive to achieve. Goals setting is the process of specifying desired outcomes toward which individual or organization will strive and is intended to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency.(Don Hellriegel and John W. Sloucum, Jr). Some key elements to consider in an effective organizational goal setting are; Goal direct attention. That is basically focusing on all attention on what is relevant and important. Goal regulate effort, this is putting motivational tools in place foe employees and management to work towards achieving the desire goal. Goal increase persistence, this is the effort extended on a task over an extended period of time, and last but not the least is fostering a goal strategy. Allstate define inclusive diversity as the collective mixture of all of their differences in the workforce, marketplace and community. It defines who they are and what they believe in, holding each other personally and professionally accountable to welcome all as they strive to win in a diverse, global marketplace. As a result of these efforts, Allstate...
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...Assignment #2 – Case: “Allstate Insurance Company” October 30, 2011 The goal setting seems in line for managers to create and foster a diverse employee arrangement to complete all the company missions. Allstate is a company with a diverse clientele and therefore requires a diverse workforce. One reason is to get a full understanding or appreciation for cultures and people they service and to be able to connect with them on a more personal level. This is the goal for management to achieve. It is the employee’s goal to penetrate their respected market segments. Allstate accomplishes their goals by understanding the strength and importance of a diverse work force. Allstate’s workforce is a multi cultural and multi lingual company which gives them the competitive advantage they need to remain successful. By applying the model for goal setting, we see the companies challenge is to be able to reach a wide and diverse market. The goal is clear for management; they are to assemble a diverse group, penetrate market areas, and complete company objectives. To reduce the difficulty of this, mangers will recruit and hire direct matches for the objectives at hand. The ability of the assembled group to penetrate the market segment solidifies the goal commitment and can reduce the task complexity. With the continued feedback from employees, mangers can assess how they are reaching these markets and how effective their groups are in reaching those goals. Managers can also...
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...Assignment #2 – Case: “Allstate Insurance Company” Ashley Tevis April 28, 2011 Professor Lathan Using the model for goal setting, evaluate Allstate’s goal setting process to determine whether or not Allstate has an effective goal-setting program. From the case study, Allstate seems like a great company to work for. They have the goal setting and employees in mind at all times. Goal setting isn’t always easy, but it is very important for individuals and organizations to set goals. It is important for individuals to set many goals, career goals and personal goals. I know I have set many long and short term career and personal goals. If you work for an organization and you are on a team, the teams set long and short term goals as well. When you are in a team setting, everyone is there for each other; no one is set out on their own to reach that goal. You do it by working together and pushing for the best. By setting goals, it gives the team or individual something to strive for. I think Allstate’s goal setting program is very effective. They have specific steps, Succession programming, development, measurement, and accountability and reward. Each of these steps plays a role in their goal setting. Allstate takes the time to track career development and opportunities among all of their employees through their management information system. Then each employee receives an assessment of their current job skills. This is to determine in the employee needs any skills...
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...Assignment #2 – Case: “Allstate Insurance Company” The goal setting seems in line for managers to create and foster a diverse employee arrangement to complete all the company missions. Allstate is a company with a diverse clientele and therefore requires a diverse workforce. One reason is to get a full understanding or appreciation for cultures and people they service and to be able to connect with them on a more personal level. This is the goal for management to achieve. It is the employee’s goal to penetrate their respected market segments. Allstate accomplishes their goals by understanding the strength and importance of a diverse work force. Allstate’s workforce is a multi cultural and multi lingual company which gives them the competitive advantage they need to remain successful. By applying the model for goal setting, we see the companies challenge is to be able to reach a wide and diverse market. The goal is clear for management; they are to assemble a diverse group, penetrate market areas, and complete company objectives. To reduce the difficulty of this, mangers will recruit and hire direct matches for the objectives at hand. The ability of the assembled group to penetrate the market segment solidifies the goal commitment and can reduce the task complexity. With the continued feedback from employees, mangers can assess how they are reaching these markets and how effective their groups are in reaching those goals. Managers can also use the feedback to update...
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...3/11/2013 | | Memo | | | | To CEO From Elementary Division Manager Re Constructive Discharge Complaint Comments: Earlier this quarter a former employee voluntarily terminated their employment with our company but has since filed a claim against our company alleging that the employee’s rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically constructive discharge, were violated. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was designed to protect the rights of employees within the workplace from instances of discrimination with relation to race, religion, sex, national origin and religion (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). With this law came about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) whose responsibility it is to enforce the provisions within Title VII and provide oversight and guidance to employers and employees with regard to this law. The EEOC has sent us notification that this former employee has made a claim under the constructive discharge area of Title VII. Constructive discharge is an employment situation whereby the employee feels that due to changes their employer has made with regard to any Title VII covered entity; they have no option but to resign. This act is relevant to the claim in that the claim stated that the employee felt he had no alternative but to resign. The employee believed that with the company’s new policy reflecting work/shift changes he would not be able to observe the Holy days required by...
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...ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY USING THE MODEL FOR GOAL SETTING, EVALUATE ALLSTATE’S GOAL SETTING PROCESS TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT ALLSTATE HAS AN EFFECTIVE GOAL-SETTING PROGRAM. Setting a goal provides structure to direct actions and behaviors to improve the unsatisfactory performance. Locke and Latham (2002) found a direct linear relationship between goal difficulty, level of performance, and effort involved. Their goal setting theory states that several conditions are particularly important in successful goal achievement. These include goal acceptance and commitment, goal specificity, goal difficulty, and feedback (O'Neil & Drillings, 1994). These conditions have been extended and edited by other researchers, such as Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson's Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-based (SMART) goals, which are conditions that need to be met to make goals effective. Allstate’s goals are specific. Specific goals answer what to do, where to do it and how to do it. That is, employees must have the ability and knowledge to attain the goal. Allstate achieves this through its assessment of current job skills, a roadmap for developing skills for advancement, educational training, coaching, and mentoring. These provide employees with a roadmap for developing critical skills necessary for advancement. Again, the goal-setting program of Allstate makes it measurable and assignable respectively. A measurement will give a feedback on the progress of...
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...failing textile mill into a very successful holdings company. Berkshire Hathaway’s main investments are insurance companies such as GEICO, financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, goods companies such as Coca-Cola, and newspapers such as The Washington Post. The company’s financial situation is very strong, with increasing assets, equity, and revenue. The company has several large competitors such as The Allstate Corporation and BlackRock, Inc., as well as many others. However, Berkshire constantly outperforms not only its competitors, but also the market. Berkshire Hathaway is a holdings company that owns businesses in a variety of business activities. The company was founded in 1839 as a textile mill known as The Valley Falls Company and through a series of mergers became known as Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett, the world’s greatest investor, started buying stock in the company in 1962 (Finkle 2010). By the mid 1960’s, Buffett owned enough of the company to change the management and basically take control of the company. Buffett realized that the textile industry was in a decline, so he used the company as an investment vehicle in addition to its textile operations. In the late 1960’s, Buffett bought two insurance companies through Berkshire Hathaway. These companies were National Indemnity and National Fire and Marine Insurance (Livy 2013). Buffett eyed insurance companies because they charge premiums for events that may or may not happen (Miles 23). This generates...
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...Constructive Discharge. The company’s change of the working plan to a rotating shift system led to the violation of the employee’s rights or religious holiday leading to the litigation. It is in this regard that I write this memo to notify you about the finding of the case. Summary of the Findings Part A: How Constructive Discharge Legal concept is relevant to the scenario The company implemented a new workplace shift policy in the production department to meet the company’s growth needs. The workplace policy was implemented at the beginning of the New Year. The policy required that employees in the production department work 12 hour shifts with 4 days of work and then 4 days off in a rotating shift. This implied that somehow some of the working days would fall into the employees’ religious holiday. As a result, the former employee resigned from work after the implementation. The former employee is claiming a constructive discharge, which is a discriminatory workplace practice wherein an employee is compelled to quit the job due to the intolerable work environment (Thomson, 2007). However, to claim, constructive discharge, the courts must require evidence of deliberate discrimination on the basis of religion. In cases of religion discrimination, the employee needs to prove three important aspects which include: a) that he had a genuine belief that conflicted with the conditions of the work; b) that he had informed the employer about the belief; c) that the employer deliberately...
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...The split of Insurance Products and Services in the Market Place E-1600 Economics of Business Professor R. Wayland Authors Steven Washburn Glenn Tam Derio Chan Anupam Raman Robert Rothschild Varun Malhotra Tiffany Hart December 9, 2014 Hypothesis On several levels, the Internet and related advances in technology have significantly affected financial services broadly, and insurance markets more specifically. When combined with globalization and regulatory reform, these advances have forced the insurance industry to become more competitive. We will discuss here specifically the split or disruption in the insurance business with a focus on the auto insurance product and less complex personal insurance products. These two products are on a trajectory to become fully commoditized with little or no agency interaction within 30 years. To the extent that the Internet reduces transaction costs, it also creates opportunities for new intermediaries as well as existing ones. It also has a natural influence on product design. For example - in some cases it is economically attractive to unbundle and repackage various forms of coverage. We will discuss this further in reference to driverless cars and bundling the insurance with the product later in the paper. This paper is organized in the following manner. First, we will briefly look at internet trends as the introduction. Next we will summarize the traditional insurance business, and the reduction of transaction...
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...THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM Centre for Risk & Insurance Studies Privatization of the Insurance Market in India: From the British Raj to Monopoly Raj to Swaraj Tapen Sinha CRIS Discussion Paper Series – 2002.X Privatization of the Insurance Market in India: From the British Raj to Monopoly Raj to Swaraj by Tapen Sinha, Ph.D. ING Comercial America Chair Professor Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México Mexico City, Mexico and Professor, School of Business University of Nottingham, UK tapen@itam.mx, tapen@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract We examine the institution of insurance in India. Over the past century, Indian insurance industry has gone through big changes. It started as a fully private system with no restriction on foreign participation. After the independence, the industry went to the other extreme. It became a state-owned monopoly. In 1991, when rapid changes took place in many parts of the Indian economy, nothing happened to the institutional structure of insurance: it remained a monopoly. Only in 1999, a new legislation came into effect signaling a change in the insurance industry structure. We examine what might happen in the future when the domestic private insurance companies are allowed to compete with some foreign participation. Because of the time dependence of insurance contracts, it is highly unlikely that these erstwhile monopolies are going to disappear. Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Rebecca Benedict and Samik Dasgupta for their input in...
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