Aetna Corporate Culture

Aetna is “an American managed health care company, which sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance plans and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans” (Wikipedia, 2016). Aetna is a company that has experienced a turnaround in many areas due to a change in corporate culture.

In 2000, Aetna could be described as a company plagued by inefficient processes, huge overhead and unrealistic mergers. At this point, the company was losing $1M per day. The organization had seen four CEO’s in five years and expecting the same inconsistent results when welcoming the latest. John W. Rowe, MD was that fourth CEO and what he brought to the company was not what anyone

The mission of Aetna would now be to gain a position in the marketplace by becoming a strong force in the industry and providing superior service to patients and physicians.

2. The next step in the shift in culture involves focusing on a select few behavioral changes.

Rowe had the Aetna team focus on two specific areas. First, each and every team member focused on the commitment to his or her customer and secondly, all employees were encouraged to commit to their loyalty and pride in the organization. Rowe used the sense of pride felt in the organization as the very reason for the culture shift.

3. The third aspect of the change process was to emphasize what was right with the organization before the change had taken hold. This helped to increase morale and assured team members that they have been successful in the past and proved their capabilities and competencies. It sent the employees a strong message of belief in some aspects of the organization and intercepted as a positive. In the beginning of the change process, Rowe focused on Aetna’s ability to care well for patients and physicians, the company’s loyal team of employees, the company’s long standing history and

It is the fastest way to put employees into fear mode, resulting in resistance to change and less productivity. Aetna would have been better off finding an alternative to dismissing such a large number of workers and might have restructured job responsibilities as an alternative. The lack of morale as a result of job eliminations greatly hampers the change process resulting in a lack of efficiency.

Recommendations

The changes that have been made at Aetna are monumental in the long term as the company continues to improve on an ongoing basis. This is evident in the continuing increase in revenue and gross profit and diminished employee turnover rate. The most successful aspect of Aetna’s culture shift process was the inclusion of employees, an inclusion that remains strong to this day.

This is the number one aspect a company facing a high turnover rate could learn from. Because

Rowe investigated where the company and beliefs of employees was during his introduction to the organization, included them in the changes and made that a priority, his changes took a stronghold and resulted in success. Aetna is a leader in the insurance industry and an