Implementing Knowledge Management Strategies At Ceylinco Insurance PLC Essay Example

Limited. Ceylinco Life is the arm of life insurance of Assurance of Ceylinco. Ceylinco Life is the leader of the market in the life insurance to Sri Lanka. Ceylinco Life has one of the bigger financess of confidence and the highest proportion of creditworthiness in the industry. Ceylinco Life has more than 175 subdivisions through the island to function its clients better we are the fastest claim settled Life Insurance Company in Sri Lanka.

Problem Domain

Competition in the Insurance industry is stiff and fierce in Sri Lanka with more than 10 major and recognized companies play with several broking agents are viing at each other. Harmonizing to a study carried out by Insurance Board of Sri Lanka in 2007, it was revealed that the competition in doing insurance sphere is worse than the other.

Some beginnings extracted from the IBSL studies are given below and they prove the degree of competition in Sri Lankan life insurance industry. Ceylinco insurance company has the biggest part in the Market portion as per the consequences in 2009 study. Beginning: IBSL Report - 2009

With the above, it clearly demonstrates that Life Insurance suppliers should see bettering Service Quality to increase the client satisfaction with paramount of importance. Insurance suppliers should implement tools to place service quality spreads reach and every procedure that caters to clients ' demands as it represents more than 50 % . As insurance is going a flourishing industry in Sri Lanka it is really of import to concentrate on high client quality. Therefore, this survey would be of involvement as it investigates the execution on Knowledge Management systems and provide a good service to their clients.

Few ailments

made by bing life insurance policyholders are as follows:

• Lack of information on obtaining an insurance policy
• Lack of information from different insurance policies Benefits
• Excessively much of conditions and clients have non been educated on those information, when there is claim the issues originate due to that ground

Since policy benefits have non been given in a clear cut format, policyholders are acquiring into a problem to do the claim.

The survey tries to propose recommendations for Ceylinco Insurance PLC to better their services by work outing issues such as above and doing the clients satisfied.

Topic Justification

Insurance companies survive in the concern strictly by client satisfaction. The participants in the market can non significantly differentiate through monetary value or merchandise. Therefore, they ever try to retain their clients by holding a close relationship. Ceylinco performs assortments of undertakings to keep a good relationship with their valued clients. Customer Satisfaction which should travel in analogue with client relationship. The service provided should do and experience the client satisfied in order to beef up the relationship between the client and the company.

Therefore Ceylinco uses many tactics to keep a good client satisfaction. A particular client dealingss officer is used to go to for client issues Customers are made feel place, through many attractive services such as supplying magazines and amusement and even refreshments.

They encourage their clients to come out with their ain suggestions & A ; developmental demands thorough keeping a 'Suggestions Box '

To fulfill their clients beyond their outlooks they maintain a 'Loyalty gift strategy ' . Those who quickly pay their premium over five old ages will be awarded with valuable gift merchandise to promote their

involvement on insurance. This non merely supplying fiscal satisfaction to the clients but besides the mental satisfaction to them.

A extremely sophisticated database system is maintained to place the client name, day of the month of birth, household members, business, work topographic point, faith, telephone figure and avocations.

Greeting cards are sent for festivals of several faiths. Customers are invited for particular occasions organized by the company. Customers are invariably contacted via electronic mail to update on latest services. Though English is the corporate linguistic communication ; clients are treated in their native linguistic communication to do them experience easy.

Research Question

Based on the reappraisal of literature and the research job, the following inquiry has been formulated in order to find the relationship that exists between the assorted dimensions of client outlook and the service quality by the insurance companies for Life insurance policyholders in Ceylinco Insurance PLC. It is of import to understand this relationship as it would enable the companies in the insurance sector to better their service quality through Knowledge Management systems and to fit and to transcend client outlooks and make a cognition base in order to remain in front in the market.

The undermentioned research inquiry could be arrived based on the analysis of the research job and the reappraisal of the literature.

How to better client outlooks in Ceylinco Insurance PLC by implementing Knowledge Management schemes?

Purposes

The chief end is to better the client satisfaction within Ceylinco Insurance group and better the service quality and propose them the methods to confront the competition in the industry.

Aim

The chief aim of this research is to better the Customer satisfaction at Ceylinco Insurance Corporation in the Life Insurance

sector.

The Research attempts typically focus on organisational aims such as public presentation, competitory advantage, invention, the sharing of lessons learned, integrating and uninterrupted betterment of the organisation to offer high-quality client service by utilizing Knowledge direction schemes.

Introduction

The Literature reappraisal nowadayss several definitions and account on what cognition direction is and how the life insurance industry can increase the Service Quality and client satisfaction through cognition direction by different people.

What Is Knowledge Management

There has been a turning acknowledgment in the concern community sing cognition as a critical resource cognition resources matter more than conventional 1s e.g. Lan & A ; capital ( Wu & A ; Wong, 2006 ) . The knowledge-based position provides a theoretical base on why knowledge-based resources are important resources are important in making the sustainable fight of the house ( Choi & A ; Lee, 20003 ; Spender, 1996 ) . Knowledge direction ( KM ) patterns enhance the flow of insight and advice between employees and hence they can profit from other 's expertness ( von Krogh et al. , 2000 ) . The thought that enterprises can better employees ' usage of cognition via K has been widely accepted among practicians, whilst few organisations have tackled KM every bit successfully as they should. Parlby ( 20000 ) reported that many organisations still faced serious jobs in pull offing cognition, including deficiency of KM policies, trouble of capturing silent cognition and cognition overload.

An invention is described by Rogers ( 1995 ) as an thought, pattern or object that is perceived as new by an person or another unit of acceptance. As stated above following and using KM is a comparatively

new phenomenon in any state for the life insurance industry. Ajzen and Fishbein ( 1980 ) 's Theory of Reasoned Action ( TRA ) posits that a individual 's behaviour is a map of the individual 's purpose determined by the attitude toward the act and the beliefs about the outlooks of others, viz. societal normative beliefs. Technology Acceptance Model ( TAM ) ( Davis, 1986, Davis, 1989 ) suggests that a individual 's connotation to utilize engineering is determined by sensed usefulness and sensed easiness of usage. Perceived usefulness refers to the grade to which a individual believes that utilizing a peculiar system would heighten his or her occupation public presentation, while sensed easiness of usage refers to the grade to which a individual believes that utilizing a peculiar system would be free of attempt. The propositions of TAM can be applied in analyzing what benefits KM would be free of attempt.

In this survey cognition is defined as the apprehension, consciousness, or acquaintance acquired through survey, probe, observation, or experience over the class of clip ( Bollinger and Smith, 2001 ) . In the instance of life insurance concern, `` Knowledge `` refers to the acquaintance and professional capableness in new policy design underwriting, claim, and client service and so on. Carlsson ( 2001 ) suggest that KM is the procedure of identifying, managing and leveraging single and corporate cognition to back up the house to go more competitory and supply a good service to the clients. Gupta et Al. ( 2000 ) propose that K is a procedure that helps organisations find, choice, systematise, disseminate and reassign of import information and expertness necessary

for activates. KM is besides referred to pull off the corporation 's cognition through a specified procedure for geting, forming, prolonging, using, sharing and reexamining the cognition of the employees to heighten organisational public presentation and make value ( Davenport and Prusak, 1998: Alavi and Leidner, 2001 ) . Harmonizing to Horwitch and Armacost ( 2202 ) , we defined KM as the creative activity, extraction, transmutation and storage of the right cognition and information in order to plan better policy, modify action and deliver consequences for both the employees and organisations in the life insurance industry.

Life Insurance can be seen as an agreement through which the hazard of specific persons can ne portion by the general bulk of people ( Hsiao, 2003 ) . Different from other industries, the merchandises sold by the life insurance are relatively `` unseeable '' and `` untouchable '' ( Hsiao, 2003 ) . `` Peoples '' play an of import function in conveying the cognition and service to the clients in the life insurance industry. The Life insurance industry sells life insurance policies which are composed of the duty, image, service and cognition of the companies. K would be imperative for life insurance companies to heighten public presentation and derive competitory border ( Wang, 2005 ) . Although KM has employed in the concern universe for decennaries, its acceptance and applications have been merely lunched in Sri Lankan life insurance concern late. Invention Diffusion ( ID ) has drawn much attending of researches in several countries ( Baptista, 1999 ; Carter et al. , 2001 ; Wolcott et al. , 2001 ) . However, there is literature found

on the acceptance and diffusion of KM, peculiarly in the life insurance sphere. Therefore, this survey lays accent on the acceptance and diffusion of invention to place motives and barriers among the employees who are of import in set abouting KM activities in life insurance endeavor.

Attitude Toward Knowledge Management Adoption

`` Attitude Toward the Behaviour '' is suggested by Ajzen and Fishbein ( 1980 ) to be the personal factor that is critical in act uponing a individual 's purpose which is viewed to be good forecaster 's behavior. The personal factor is the person 's positive or negative rating of executing the behavior. A individual 's attitude refers to his or her judgement that executing the behavior is good or bad and that he or she is in favor of or against executing the behavior ( Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980 ) . Harmonizing to the innovation-development procedure ( Rogers, 1995 ) , after organisational acknowledgment, research and development of KM, the invention would necessitate the employees to follow the construct and methods of KM and so implement the related activities.

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

In this subdivision our attending would be to reexamine literature which has recognized the relationship between service quality and client satisfaction. In other words the impact of service quality on the client satisfaction procedure. Customer satisfaction will be an result of the interaction between client outlooks vs. client experience.

When sing the relationship between service quality and client satisfaction, the work of Zeithaml and Bitner ( 2000 ) needs to be highlighted. In their theoretical account they have illustrated that the merchandise quality or service characteristics and monetary values paid are besides of

import variables other than the service quality, in the client satisfaction procedure. But their attending was chiefly on the service quality. The theoretical account presented by Zeithaml and Bitner ( 2000 )

Therefore, this theoretical account forwards that service quality is one important facets of client satisfaction. Additionally merchandise quality and pricing besides has equal proportion in deriving client satisfaction. However, service quality could be found as a critical aspect in lending towards client stratification degree.

Data Collection

This research was chiefly conducted based on the information gathered through World Wide Web. In add-on to that interviews with different clients and with employees at Ceylinco insurance administration was carried out to obtain an penetration into assorted thoughts. Questionnaires were besides used to garner information on client sentiments. The Questionnaire was designed to look into the degree of satisfaction and countries to be improved in the administration. A sum of 50 questionnaires were distributed amongst different clients in the Ceylinco insurance in the life insurance sector. The questionnaires used a combination of both unfastened ended and near ended inquiries with the connotation of obtaining extra information.

Method of Data Collection

In this survey the primary informations will be collected through a self completion questionnaire from clients of the selected five Insurance companies. The secondary information was collected from secondary beginning such Government publications ( IBSL Annual Report ) Ceylinco Insurance Annual Report studies and from other publications.

Choice of Sample

For the intent of garnering informations on using cognition direction for bettering client outlook and client experience, a entire figure of 50 questionnaires were distributed, from which a sum of 50 were selected.

Conceptual Framework

In an attempt to better the efficiency and effectivity of

client service, many taking endeavors have turned to knowledge direction. Companies that are able to capture and leverage the cognition of their employees, capable affair experts, clients and spouses most efficaciously achieve legion benefits, including:

• Enhanced employee productiveness and satisfaction
• Improved concern procedures throughout the organisation
• Greater profitableness
• Increased client satisfaction and keeping

Although there is no cosmopolitan definition of Knowledge Management ( KM ) , by and large it 's a processA through which organisations generate value from their rational and knowledge-based assets. Most frequently, value coevals involves capturing what employees, spouses and clients know and sharing that information among employees, sections to deduce best patterns. First of all, with the right procedures and engineerings in topographic point, companies can capture and portion cardinal cognition from employees, spouses and clients, including:

Intra organisation

• Collaborative Associations
• Collaboration methods & Standards
• Skills development
• E-Business webs

Organization

• Knowledge based concern
• Best pattern KM procedure
• Personal development plans Eg. E-learning
• Corporate portals

Teams

• Undertakings and results
• Virtual working
• Team functions
• Collaborative workplace

Persons

• Career/ life planning
• KM Fortes
• Professional Development
• ICT/Internet proficiency

How the Dimensions work in the Knowledge Management

Policy/Strategy - By using KM policies into this dimension, the organisation will be able to better the Policies, concern schemes within the organisation. The good policies and schemes will better the relationship with the clients and it will do easy for the client to make the company for their demand.

Peoples ( Individual/Group/Organization ) - Once the KM schemes have been implemented within the organisation, it will be easy for the staff within the organisation to maintain the relationship with the clients the client and to better their on the occupation demands.

Technology - Technology is the

easiest topographic point to use the cognition direction schemes. This will assist to better the efficiency of the organisational concern procedures within the organisation.

Process - Ultimately through all the points that are mentioned above will increase the concern procedure within the organisation.

The intent of cognition direction is to do organisations more efficient and effectual, and to be aligned with organisational scheme for the support of accomplishing organisational aims. By implementing the above schemes as an organisation by Ceylinco insurance, they will decidedly be able to better the concern and straight or indirectly the client satisfaction.

The Results Regarding Perceived Usefulness

Our empirical survey identified the importance of these variables as per centum of respondents holding with the several variables being of import. Table below represents the respondents ' sentiments sing how they think KM will increase the client satisfaction. 93 % of the respondents agreed that KM would heighten their `` Customer Service Quality ''

Questionnaire was developed based on the following countries since the linguistic communication should do for the client easier to understand.

The Results Regarding Complexity

The consequences sing the complexness involved in KM is shown in Table 1. From this empirical survey, it was found that more than 80 % of the reacting from Customers perceived that the information systems for KM were non friendly to utilize and non easy accessible, it took excessively much clip to happen the information demand, the message was non clear, there was non instant aid available when they had jobs in using cognition direction, and KM was non easy to utilize in pattern. These findings indicated that there still remained several hindrances in following and using KM in the life

insurance companies such as Ceylinco Insurance. To successfully implementing KM, the life insurance endeavor should acknowledge these obstructions and work out acknowledge these obstructions and work out the associated jobs.

But by bettering the KM systems and schemes within the organisation and doing them more strong will decidedly give the best consequences for the organisation was the chief thought from all the clients in general.

Decision

This survey enlightens our apprehension of the client 's perceptual experience on Knowledge direction, their attitudes toward KM acceptance and their KM activities in pattern. Findingss besides help life insurance endeavors, peculiarly those shiping on KM in Ceylinco insurance, realize that they should good advance KM undertakings, work out the possible jobs involved in using KM, and bring forth the subjective norm in which Ceylinco is encouraged and motivated to follow and use KM schemes within the inception.

Recommendation

Following recommendations can be made through the survey for Ceylinco Insurance PLC to better the service quality, efficiency and effectivity to supply a high-quality client service to do their client satisfactions high,

Implementing Knowledge direction schemes will assist Ceylinco to increase the client satisfaction and by making so will better the market portion every bit good. And it will recognize that they should good advance KM undertakings, work out the possible [ jobs involved in using KM

Ceylinco will bring forth subjective norm in which employees are encouraged and motivated to follow and use KM. Strongly advised to acquire fullest corporation from the Staff members and add their input while following these schemes

It can be recommended to follow the scheme section by section as the advantageous that additions by one section will distribute across the organisation and

it will ease the procedure of implementing the schemes in the other sections.

As mentioned above under job statement, it can be recommended to hold a high-quality CRM ( Customer Relationship Management ) system, to enter all client ailments and subsequently the company will be able to garner all the information in one topographic point and analyze between squads and do right determination to forestall them ( Customer ailments ) . Further the company can develop the staff ( agents ) in house and direct them to educate the clients suitably, carry out Email runs with the relevant information etc.