INTRODUCTIOn

Alliance insurance was founded in Berlin on 5 February 1980 then director of the
Munich Reinsurance Company Carl von Thieme(a native of Erfurt,whose father was
director the of Thuringia) and Wiilhelm von Finck(co-owner of the Merck Finck & Co
bank).The joint company was listed in Berlins trade register under the name Allianz
Versicherungs Aktiengesellschaft.The first Allianz products were marine an accidents
policies first sold only in Germany,however in 1893 Allianz opened its first international
branch office in London.It distributed marine insurance coverage to German clientele
looking for coverage abroad.

In 1900 the company became the first insurer to obtain a license to distribute corporate
policies.In 1904,Paul Von Naher took over the sole leadership of the company,as it
moved into US and other markets.Markets entered by 1914 included the
Netherlands,Italy,Belgium,France,the Scandivanian countries and the Baltic States,and
Allianz had become the largest maritime insurer in Germany.The company suffered an
early disaster in expansion,when the 1906 San Fransisco earthquake caused the
company to sustain 300,000 marks in losses.In 1905 the company acquired Fides
Insurance Company,a firm that had innovated the first form of home invasion
insurance.Other places it would expand into during the 1910s and 1920s included
Palestine,Cyprus,Iraq,China,the Ducth Indies,Ceylon and Siam.
 BACKGROUNd
Since the 1940s,the use of asbestos in building materials and other products has led to
many claims for damages as a result of personal injury or wrongful death.The
procedure for those making claims is complicated and time-consuming.Insurance
companies employ groups of employees trained to process the claims from each
particular industry.The employees are given information on the history,use and current
medical research result on the product The processing of each individual claims
application form is tedious but very important :any mistakes may affect the total amount
paid the claimant.

Land Rock Alliance Insurance has successfully bid for the contract to process the
claims for over 213,000 asbestosis-related chest impaired cases(ACD) and vibration
white finger (VWF)victim,their parteners or decendants
 The company
Land Rock Alliance Insurances main is based in Sheffield,England.The company has
decided to open a branch office in Edinburgh to manage the new contract.It will be
dedicated to processing the asbestosis and VWF claims.The plan is to hire 60 new
employees including supervisors and line managers.Senior managers at head
office,however,disagree on how the work should be organized at the new office.
 Planning meeting
At the meeting to review how the work will be organized at the Edinburgh office,Eleanor
Brennan,the HR director,suggested it would be more affective and efficient to create
four temas of around 15 employees,with each team processing the claims according to
geographicalarea :Scotland,Wales,northern England and southern England.She
explained that each application from would be processed by team members,to enable
each memberto complete the whole processing task and to contribute to the
recommendation of the final settlement.Presenting some of the advantages of
teamworking,Eleanor commented,The synergy generated by teamworking and
communication will enhace effiency and motivate employees to actively participate in
reaching a decision in optimum time.She argued that there was direct link between job
enrichment and high performance.

However,the director of facilities,Thomas Campion,stongly disagreed.He informed the

assembled management team that in his opinion,self-regulated teams were bull
shit!Besides,work teams required a much longer training period for
employees.Moreover,it was his belief that ;increased communication impeded decision
making rather than enhanced it.Campion,continuing to dominate the meeting,outline an
alternative work arrangement for the processing of claimants forms.The work,he
said,was to be devided into three major steps :

Step 1: Scutine and verify biographical details,DOB,gender

Step 2 : Scutine and verify employment details,start/end/job description

Step 3 : Scutine and verify medical history including lifestyle (such as smoker or non
smoker,or whether there was evidence of exposure to second-hand smoke ).

Of the 60 new employees,would be trained to complete task one,20 to complete task

two,and 20 to complete task three.Each major step in the claim process would also
have supervisor,a technical advisor and section manager.organizing the work this
way,Campion insisted,would optimize training time,and enable the easy replacement of
any employee resigning from the company.Individual employees would be assigned a
target to achieve each month,which would determine an annual bonus payment.Every
six months,their section manager would appraise each employee based on how quickly
he or she successfully processed the application forms.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.workteams.org;
www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar/2004wers.htm
www.sony.com
http://ptcpartners.com/team/home htm
www.dti.gov.uk /er/emar/2004 wers.htm
TASK
Workings individually or in teams,provide a written recommendation for or against
teamworking at the Edinburgh office.

SOURCES OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Francis,H.(2003)Teamworking and change :managing the contaditions,Human
Resource Management Journal,13(3),pp.71-89.

Kuipers,B.S and de Witte,M.C(2005)Teamwork : a case study on development and

performance,International Journal of Human Resource Management ,16(2),pp.185-201.

Websites : Centre for the study of work groups:www.workteams.unt.edu;Studies of

social loafing:www.theabc.org/work.htm

Notes
This case study was written by Carolyn Forshaw,Thompson Rivers
University,Kamloops,Canada.