Case Study: Evaluating H&H Financial's Strategy, Job Design, and Employee Development

Background

H&H Financial was founded in 1997 as a local insurance and investment consulting firm specializing in financial, estate, and retirement planning. The business started as a part-time consulting practice given Mr. Blake’s dissatisfaction with his full-time job working for a franchise office affiliated with a large insurance agency. Mr. Blake found that his agency’s focus on productivity and numbers precluded his ability to do what he really wanted to do for his clients: provide personalized service that they could trust. He wanted his clients to be faces, not names and numbers. He wanted to offer them the optimal products and services that would best fit their needs, not just the selling needs of a corporation hyping their latest product through their franchises.

Mr. Blake bid his time and learned “the ropes to skip and the ropes to know” about running an agency. He obtained several key financial and insurance licenses and professional certifications (CFP, CFA, CFT, CTEP, etc.) as well as financial product suppliers. When he had developed a sizable private client base, he opened H&H as an independent agency to replace his consulting practice.

The firm started with just Mr. Blake operating out of a cheap storefront, and he was quickly overwhelmed with the paperwork side of the business. Mr. Blake was great at selling and knew the product lines in and out, but he was not an expediter or comfort- able with details.
Mr. Blake’s solution was to hire a part-time administrative assistant to handle phone calls, deal with foot traffic (what little there was), and do some light computer work. Times were not easy, and Mr. Blake squeaked by on a very limited income.

Early Success Leads to Growth
Mr. Blake’s formula for success (personalized service) quickly caught on, and he found that he needed full-time assistance in order to help handle phone calls, process policies, and assist with claims. His office expanded quickly, and he replaced his one part- timer with three full-time employees who buffered him from the mundane paperwork and day-to-day office duties. He remained the sole agent providing sales and expert advice and counseling while the staff provided his clients with all of the support needed (processing bills or claims, answering questions about policies, etc.). His office staff consisted of one office staff person from Mr. Blake’s old agency (Ms. Jane Sutton) and Ms. Johnson and Mr. Hayes (two “raw” college graduates: Jen Johnson and Kenneth Hayes). For the most part, they all worked independent of Mr. Blake.

Although Mr. Blake never gave any of them titles, job descriptions, or formal authority, it was clear to everyone that Ms. Sutton was the informal leader of the office given her expertise and prior experience in an insurance office. All three employees became flexible generalists, part of a self-managed work team. Work was parceled out through  volunteerism and cooperation. Mr. Blake was proud that his team operated so well without his input.

As the business grew, Mr. Blake realized that he would need to bring in new agents (consultants) to help him deal with the increasing flow of customers, and  there was just no place to put them in his small back office. Mr. Blake and his team moved into a newly renovated office complex, which had more offices, a main office area that could hold more employees, and a separate waiting area for his clients.

1.Critically evaluate the organization’s strategy and structure (complexity, formalization, and centralization) in your answer. How does this structure seem to affect Ms. Matthews’s behavior?

2.There are four primary approaches to job design: mechanistic, biological, perceptual, and motivational. How might each approach be employed to better fit Ms. Matthews with her job?

3.Using the Job Characteristics Model, describe the impact Ms. Matthews’s job design is having on her work motivation.

4.Suggest how the firm could redesign Ms. Matthews’s job so it would increase her work motivation. Ms. Matthews may decide to stay at H&H if a more flexible work environment is created for her. Describe some alternative ways her job could be redesigned for greater flexibility.

5.Describe how formalized training and/or employee development might help Ms. Matthews better fit her job at H&H.

6.How you would you assess Jane Sutton’s need for training and development? What training methods you would recommend given her actions in this case?

7.If Mr. Blake hired you as a consultant, summarize your recommendations based on the above six questions for which you found answers.