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The executive staffing problems facing the life insurance industry are becoming more complex and critical. Both external and internal forces exert increasing pressure on those responsible for executive manpower planning. External forces such as new products, population growth, and expansion of governmental programs are considered. Internal forces such as the impact of electronic data processing and changing organizational structure also receive attention. Executive manpower problems are of concern to many groups. Solving these problems is of vital concern to both present and potential managers. The academician has need to understand the stresses that will be placed on his product. Finally, the insuring public will be best served by a life insurance industry that is well managed and efficiently staffed. No more pressing problem faces the life insurance industry in the coming decades than that of manpower. A senior vice president of a large eastern life insurance company recently stated: If we assume that the 40 to 60 age group will continue to contain almost all of our top management personnel, as it now does, simple arithmetic leads us to conclude that the 1970's and 1980's will find us short in management manpower. The desire to improve the quality of life insurance company management personnel is enhanced both by current pressures on the industry and by the increasing complexity of the life insurance business. Pressures on the industry arise from increased competition, increased government regulation and involvement in the industry, and extensive internal changes. The increasing complexity of the life inJerry L. Jorgensen, Ph.D., C.L.U., C.P.C.U., is Associate Professor of Finance in the University of Utah. He also serves as Vice President and General Manager of the Utah Management Institute. This paper was presented at the 1971 Annual Meeting of A.RL.A. surance business can be attributed to factors such as the adding of new (and sometimes unrelated) product lines, the merging with other industries, the changing of marketing methods, and the introducing of electronic data processing. The pool of manpower from which the life insurance industry must draw is constantly changing in size, make-up, and skill level. The youth of today, although better educated, are more demanding in the requisites they establish for choosing a vocational pursuit. Whether the bureaucratic structure of the life insurance industry can adapt to assimilate the available manpower poses one of the most difficult questions facing this industry. The purpose of this article is to explore some of the major executive manpower planning problems currently facing the life insurance industry.' 1 Much of the material for this article comes from a series of interviews with executives of twelve randomly selected life insurance companies. Extensive interviews were held with 210 executives in 1965 and then on a longitudinal basis were updated in the summers of 1970 and 1971. |
