Insurance sector dynamics: Towards transformation into learning organization

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to study the influence of five critical factors on service quality in the insurance sector. Having studied the influence of these critical factors, an attempt has been made to obtain a generic solution to enhance the quality of service by proposing a holistic framework of learning organization. As globalization and IT revolution have made the insurance sector highly knowledge-intensive, customer expectations and perceptions have also grown exponentially. Hence, this research is timely and goal-focused. Design/methodology/approach - The research is based on system dynamics methodology, which involves sequential phases including: Problem identification, conceptualization, model formulation, simulation and validation, and policy analysis and implementation. Meta-analysis of existing literature and rationalization are also a part of the framework development. Findings - The results have indicated that the key parameters, e.g. past experience, personal needs, external communication, word of mouth, and active clients have significant influence on service quality of the insurance sector. Practical implications - The outcome of this study can be directly implemented in the insurance sector to enhance the quality of service, as it provides a means to convert the tacit knowledge in the organization into an explicit form. The knowledge managementsystem, as a component of the learning organization, acts as a central repository of organizational knowledge and enables the service providers to minimize the "service quality gap" as best practices, past experience, and solutions to problems of common occurrence will be available for common use. Originality/value - This research is unique in the sense that it uses a system dynamics approach to service quality enhancement in the insurance sector. The research has immense value to the insurance sector, as its growth is a function of service quality.