POM Case study

1. CASE STUDY
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS PAYS OFF AT FARMERS INSURANCE
In this case External Environmental problem was the cause that triggered
change in organizations of California. California was in the midst of increasing
levels of air pollution in an alarming rate. Smog was clouded all around the
surrondings of Los Angeles. Thus by 1989 California passed the Clean Air Act.
Under this act a new concept called “RideShare plan” was introduced. Under
this plan companies with 100 employees or more at one site were forced to
adopt this plan. All organizations accept this new policy. It can be termed as
Legal Posture of an organization. Legal posturemeans organizations can adopt
a posture that they will obey any laws, rules, and regulations about the
environment willingly and without legal challenge. Farmers Insurance Group,
one of the company in California successfully implemented this act. Rideshare
plan can be said as an Indirect-action element. Indirect action elements are
elements of the external environment that affect the climate in which an
organization’s activities take place, but do not affect the organization directly.
The rideshare plans were to be centered on achieving an employee average
vehicle ridership (AVR) of 1.5, or 3 employees to every 2 cars on site. Basically it
means that a car has to be used by more than 1 persons thus reducing air
pollution and traffic. But at starting it was a very difficult task because
employees living at different places, with different social status and also with
different work timings has to get adjusted with this. The stakeholders that are
affected by ridesharing are Internal Stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are
groups or individuals, such as employees, that are part of an organization’s
environment but for whom an individual manager remains responsible.
Environmentalconcerns greatly influenced the policies at farmers Insurance. By
the end of the year the average vehicle ridership of Farmers Insurance group
increased from 1.17 to 1.30 when every others AVR went down. All
organizations where giving special incentives and other special offers to
employees for doing rideshare plan but growth in AVR was only with Farmers
insurancegroup.The reasonbehind this wasthat DebbieDalla wasonly working
at this organization not in any other organization. Debbie Dalla was the
transportation coordinator and under his leadership this growth was achieved.
She aggressively participated for the success of this program. Shemarketed the
program, set up activities and events, published newsletters, put slogan and
jingle contests once in every month. Dala’s efforts have paid off. Ridesharing

2. influenced the organizational environment a lot. Employees enjoys purchasing
goods with the special points they got by rideshare. Employees made friends
with their ridesharepartners. Itreduced someemployees stress, which, in turn,
could lead themto workmoreproductively.Organizationasa systemwill always
have an attachment with the environment. So change in environment can
always affectthe organization. But if there is a person who can control all these
changes like Dala, it can change it as a success.