Healthco Case Study Essay

A case study on Healthco

The case study of private health insurance company, Healthco, addresses key issues related to bureaucratic leadership, weak organisational culture and insufficient communication.

1)
One key issue Healthco face was the problem of bureaucratic leadership. The CEO of Healthco is well-respected in the healthcare industry. He had established Healthco’s reputation for its extremely competitive and aggressive approach towards price and expansion. These traits had allowed Healthco to be an organisation that is pragmatic, opportunistic and productive. Under the leadership of Healthco CEO, it gave them a competitive edge in the industry of health care insurance. However, the CEO had been described as “top-heavy and autocratic”

Organisational culture is described as the shared values, principles, traditions and the ways of doing things that influence the way organisational members act. It is shaped by the actions of the organisation’s top executives and can influence what employees can do and how they view, define, analyse and resolve problems and issues. Looking at the five dimensions that capture the essence of Healthco’s culture, we are able to understand that Healthco is more outcome-oriented, more inclined to remaining status quo, and take into account of organisation’s overall wellbeing more than considering the effect it has on its

Managers had described their staff as “low-skilled clerks” and consider them “economic conscripts” whose “level of satisfaction is related only to money as a motivator”, while employees disagree readily that “[it was] far from the truth, but a typical management attitude as they do not understand what a clerk does.” Employee had also criticised that the management did not know what customers wanted. Despite so, the management of Healthco still did not what staff had to say. They resisted changes and discouraged new ideas, innovations and risk-taking in emphasis of maintaining status quo. This is evident from the article where a recruit suggested new ideas, she was quickly shut down by her supervisor who said “she liked things the way they were and showed no interest.” Some employees claimed that “the job has become more difficult because we have not been allowed to introduce change” and that “we have been doing it that way for so long that the CEO can’t see a reason to change.” This belief in traditional values, unwillingness to adapt and lack of good communication practices had resulted in several employees leaving due to frustration over not being heard nor allowed to use their initiative for the better of the company. It is therefore, essential in understanding that organisations are changing due to globalisation and the dynamic environment that surrounds them.