Organizational behavior concepts and applications

Business Management & ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR at ISO, INC.

Organizational Behavior and Culture:

ISO is a relatively large, publicly traded corporation based in Jersey City, New

Jersey. It employs approximately 2,000 full-time employees including 1,800 at their

Jersey City headquarters. The acronym represents Insurance Services Offices, but the company implemented a purposeful decision to de-emphasize its full registered name because it suggests a direct involvement with insurance or the sale of insurance (ISO, 2006).

The actual business of ISO is supplying the insurance industry with analytical data through which insurers and insurance brokers set rates at the optimal industry rates.

ISO provides only information and information management systems, but packaged in formats that allow its customers to quantify the risks that they underwrite. Its company brochure characterizes their products and services with the phrase "Data, Decisions,

Analytics" (ISO, 2007).

ISO employs actuaries, statisticians, consultants with licensed credentials in the insurance industry, public relations professionals, project managers, customer service specialists, graphic designers, corporate communications and advertising specialists, administrative personnel and private security. Generally, insurance specialists design packages of information systems useful to various entities in the insurance industry;

department representatives maintain relationships with insurance industry professionals through a regular series of ISO-sponsored conventions; project managers administrate existing customer accounts while soliciting new customers, customer service specialists field technical assistance calls and billing inquiries; corporate communications and public relations professional maintain a corporate voice in internal and external media, a legal staff of attorneys, and advertising and design teams provide advertising and product information literature and implement direct sales solicitation campaigns and product information packages (ISO, 2007).

ISO uses a flexible schedule system that allows most employees to establish their own working hours within "core hour" windows, such as requiring full-time employees to begin shifts by 9:30 and end shifts no earlier than 3:30 (ISO, 2007). This system is becoming somewhat standard in many corporations because it improves employees' quality of life while ensuring that the entire workforce is on premises together for six out of every eight hour shifts between the most productive hours of 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM (Kinicki & Williams, 2005).

The hierarchical structure at ISO is consistent across most of its business areas:

generally, consultants, informational experts and project managers report to business unit managers; business unit managers report to department directors; department directors report to assistant vice presidents; AVPs report to vice presidents; VP's report to senior vice presidents; and SVPs report to executive vice presidents. The executive board of directors consists of the company president and CEO Frank J. Coyne (ISO, 2007).

Under Mr. Coyne's direction, ISO maintains a regular cycle of community relations events with charitable themes emphasizing the corporate focus of benefiting the community. ISO also provides varied opportunities for employees to incorporate their families into ISO functions as well as recreational activities designed to promote good employee relations. At ISO, periodic progress reviews and regular feedback from supervisors allows employees to maximize their career potential by rewarding performance with regular financial raises and opportunities to advance up the hierarchical ladder (ISO, 2007).

Communication, Diversity, and Business Ethics:

ISO welcomes diversity in its workforce and encourages applications from all sectors and academic institutions. ISO corporate policy and employee handbook specifically stress the importance of maintaining a culturally diverse working environment where employees of all backgrounds and cultural practices are equally welcome. While New Jersey does not require employers to offer health insurance and other benefits to non-married domestic partners, ISO does provide full spousal benefits to all domestic partners of employees without regard to their marital status or sexual preference. As part of its ongoing employee training program, ISO promotes a corporate culture of mutual respect and a zero-tolerance toward any form of discrimination or harassment of any kind, with appropriate mechanisms and guidelines for redressing improper conduct (ISO, 2005).

Likewise, ISO upholds corporate standards of honesty, integrity, and ethics across the entire spectrum of its ventures and among its personnel. In that regard, the legal department also provides ongoing training for other ISO departments to ensure that all business solicitations, products and technologies under development, media statements and corporate publications comply to the highest degree with both legal standards and ethical principles applicable to their specific business processes (ISO, 2005).