Mahesh R. Shukla, Rakesh L. Shrivastava, Tushar. N. Desai
Abstract
Many insurance companies in India have adopted time tested approaches of quality improvement, which include, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Quality Function Deployment, 5S, Kaizen, Quality Circles, Balance Scorecards, Failure Mode Effects Analysis, etc. An attempt has been made in this paper to critically examine the perspectives of the insurance company employees' vis-à-vis quality improvement and linkages that are often ignored within these (service) organizations. This paper highlights the various perceptions of respondents towards Service Quality improvement techniques adopted and practiced by Life Insurance Companies. Profile of Respondents included for the study were, Management cadre of 8 Life Insurance companies from all departments and at all levels, their Agents and their Customers. Data collection was carried out by following the principles of deductive reasoning and informal questionnaire. The informal questions were asked to the respondents as the basic aim of this study was to know the perspectives of insurance company professionals' vis-à-vis quality management in general and utility of Six Sigma in particular. The respondents were the employees i.e. the branch managers, sales managers, agents as well as the customers of eight insurance companies which were in the market for at least ten years. Careful examination of the responses (in view of their system, objectivity, quantification, context and validity) obtained from the insurance company professionals were carried out. Results revealed that though quality management department is present in all the insurance companies, its operations are largely ignored due to performance pressure. Furthermore, none of the employees of insurance companies in Nagpur region has undergone Six Sigma related training. It can be concluded that lack of skills and participation in the Six Sigma training programs are the main reasons for non-implementation of Six Sigma in the insurance companies.
Keywords- Service Quality, Organizational Performance, Six Sigma, Life Insurance