The Impact Of Aetna On Corporate Culture

Evaluating his approach to bringing about change in his organization. Comparing his approach with that of Jack Welch.

changes in the nature of running a healthcare business. Lastly, they were able to realize the

Step 2 is forming a powerful guiding coalition. Leadership will have to be on board and on the same page in regards to the change. Kotter and Cohen reveal the core problems people face when leading change. Their main findings are that the central issue concerns not structure or systems but behavior and how to alter it (Farris, 2008). The success of the changes will depend on the ability of the managers to show their commitment to change and motivate the employees to do the same. Without any process to track the implementation, the change can also fail.

“Culture consists of the symbols, rituals, language, and social dramas that highlight organizational life, including myths, stories, and jargon. It includes the shared meanings associated with the symbols, rituals, and language. Culture combines the philosophy of the firm with beliefs, expectations, and values shared by members. It contains the stories and myths about the company's founder and its current leading figures. Organizational culture consists of a set of shared meanings and values held by a set of members in an organization that distinguish the organization from other organizations. An organization's culture determines how it perceives and reacts to the larger environment (Becker, 1982; Schein, 1996). Culture determines the nature

Ronal G. Spaeth currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer for System Development of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) and serves as its President of the ENH Foundation for North Shore University Health System, as well as an Advisor of SA Ignite, Inc. (Bloomberg, 2016). Previously, he served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of both Cole Taylor Bank and Highland Park Hospital before Highland Park Hospital merged with Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. For almost a decade, Mr. Spaeth had served in various positions at Evanston Hospital, such as vice president of administrative services, vice president of corporate services, assistant secretary of the board of directors, senior executive vice president, to include the chief administrative officer he currently serves as (Grazier, 2005). In addition, Mr. Spaeth served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Hospital Association, Board of Governors of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), a Member of the Board of Commissioners of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and Member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association (Bloomberg, 2016).

This Harvard Business Review case is about the company Vitality Health Enterprise. The new CEO, Beth Williams brought in new ideas to revitalize the company and launch it into a new era of growth. The company switched over to relative performance grading from an absolute one. The case give clear insights of the pros and cons of both the systems. The satisfaction for some employees were a reason of discontent for others.

On a snowy January evening, the Midwestern Medical Group (MMG) management team held a retirement party for Judith Olsen, MMG president. During the evening, Olsen reflected back on the years she had worked for MMG with mixed feelings about her experience. Over the course of their eight-year integration

In the healthcare field, there are forces that drive practice and develop change within an organization. There are both internal and external forces in which not one organization is immune to (Kotter, 1996). By establishing a vision of the company, a sense of purpose and direction is created, working towards change within the forces (Huyer, 2014). When people participate in a vision, they work towards a common goal and identify what needs to be changed in order to reach that vision. In this paper, a presentation of Banner Health will be discussed, along with its mission and stakeholders, driving forces, viability, as well as an analysis of forces, a response to change, a vision for change, and an evaluation of change.

HealthSouth Corporation was one of the largest publicly traded owners of rehabilitative hospitals within the Untied States and paved the way for its industry. However, prior to 2003 the company had a very dark secret: fraud. In 2003 HealthSouth was accused of making $2.7 billion in false journal entries in the company’s system (Helios, 2013). These false entries allowed the corporation to inflate its earnings and revenue. While the corporation was dabbling in a fraudulent, aggressive account system, auditors were unable to detect the extent of the fraud occurring. If not for Michael Vines and Weston Smith, HealthSouth Corporation might have continued its false entries and continued deceiving shareholders and even Wall Street itself. HealthSouth serves as a historical example of how corporate culture can use fraud and deception schemes to not only rationalize what it is doing, which is an element of the fraud triangle, but also encourage fraudulent financial statements.

Not only were the leaders impressed by the employees insights, they took action to address all of the problems. As a result, participation increased, communication improved, relationship between employees and management improved, and access to training and development opportunities were wide-spread. But most importantly, once the original change initiatives were introduced, employees embraced the initiatives, offered insights on how to improve their outcomes, and ensured their success.

Ellen Zane had her work cut out for her at Tufts-NEMC. The Tufts University affiliated teaching and research hospital had long been on the decline. It was mired in financial difficulty, was falling behind other teaching and research AMCs, and was not effectively serving its local community. Beginning on the day she accepted her position as CEO, Ellen Zane started on a path of reform. Upon learning that the hospital only had 10 months of cash on hand, she began brainstorming on how to make the hospital financially viable, starting by meeting payroll needs first. She discovered that Tufts-NEMC was being drastically underpaid and began looking for solutions to the problem of reimbursements. One of the more

Aetna’s workplace culture stands as a model to other organizations, regardless if they are an insurance company or not. The CEO’s mantra on having a successful workplace simply states “let’s invest in our people” (Aetna CEO: Let’s, 2015). Bertolini himself was no stranger to struggle in his personal life, having his son beat an incurable cancer as well as he himself getting into a skiing accident where he was given his last rites (O’Donnell, 2015). Having gone through these life altering events, his outlook on how employees should be treated and the resources they should have access to surpasses those of other organizations. This prompted open communication between all employees, allowing for everyone to freely speak what they thought of their work conditions. Enabling employees to have more input on decisions strengthens their alliance to the company and also makes them feel like they are a valued piece of the organization. The most talked about change for the betterment of employees by far was his announcement to raise the minimum wage to $16, in addition to lowering out-of-pocket costs for their health care without having to pay more in premiums (O’Donnell, 2015). This demonstration of how the company cares about its employees went over wonderfully with the low wage workers, as they now have a higher take home pay, as well as better health insurance coverage from their organization which they could not previously afford. To go along with increasing wages,

With an evolving market in the various fields marketing, companies needed to readjust their and update their marketing strategies. Centuries ago, a company that needed to market for its products would just post a paper note at the main town street and if people liked the product it would be sold. In the 21st century, marketing became an essential field and necessary branch in any company that plans to succeed. Aetna recognized this necessity and while analyzing the company’s strategies and structure, one can recognize the un-doubtful organization in identifying their target market. Through the creation of different subsidiaries, Aetna, Inc. is able to organize its target market and classify their various services based on

In 1983, Costco Wholesale Corporation, the fourth-largest retailer in the United States, was founded by former Price Club executive, Jim Sinegal, and lawyer Jeffrey Brotman. Costco focuses on selling products at low prices in bulk packaging and focuses mostly to large families and small businesses. They sell products like flat-screen TVs, gallon jugs of mayonnaise, and coffins. Costco operates 556 stores worldwide: 405 in the United States, 77 in Canada, 31 in Mexico, 21 in the United Kingdom, 9 in Japan, 7 in South Korea, 6 in Taiwan, and 1 in Australia. Costco employs 140,000 employees and accumulates $70 billion in annual sales. It became the first company to rise from zero to $3 billion in sales in less than six years, and reached

In the review of the book, “Making Change Work: Practical Tools for Overcoming Human Resistance to Change,” I decided to summarize the major steps the book establishes. It discusses how to begin the change process by understanding your need for change, to the final step of the change process where an organization needs to implement changes. After summarizing the steps, I am going to show how the book relates to the textbook, Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit, as well as giving a managerial implication.