Prudential Insurance Company Research Articles

Review: Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia, by Gregory L. Heller and Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape, by Elihu Rubin

Gregory L. Heller Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, 320 pp., 25 b/w illus. $39.95 ISBN 9780812244908 Elihu Rubin Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2012, 256 pp., 50 b/w illus. $30.00, ISBN 9780300170184 On 9–10 April 1956, the Harvard Graduate School of Design convened a landmark conference on urban design, the intention of which was “to be exploratory, not didactic, and to try to find a common basis for the joint work of the Architect, the Landscape Architect and the City Planner in the field of Urban Design. In the minds of its sponsors, Urban Design is wider than the scope of these three professions, though all have vital contributions to make.”1 Many argue that this convocation initiated urban design as a discipline distinct from both architecture and planning and that the conference solidified the notion that urban design is a radically interdisciplinary field in which foregrounding public needs takes precedence over issues of beauty and scale. One invitee to that conference was the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Edmund N. Bacon, whose plangent call for a more humanistic and holistic approach to urban design underscored the need for a new specialization: “Planners have traditionally considered the design of physical structures as detail. Administrators almost invariably think in terms of specific projects and procedures rather than the underlying correlative relationships. What we need is the architect-planner-administrator, and if we ever get it we will then really have an urban designer.”2 Bacon’s prescient plea for comprehensive interpersonal cooperation in the success of urban renewal was consistent with the views of others at the conference, but Bacon remained isolated in the larger context of American postwar urban policy. He had a history of iconoclasm but also of advocating for community participation as a way of supplementing the work of professional planners with input from members of the public.3 He instinctively understood not only that people make cities but also that cities make people. As simple as that formulation may …

E-Organizing, the Next Frontier? Labor Unions Seek Access to Company E-mail Systems

When organizing new employee groups, unions have relied on traditional, “low tech” means of communication to spread their message. Although these methods remain the core avenues for communication, unions have been exploring other options in recent years. One prime avenue is e-mail. Until recently, no National Labor Relations Board judge had addressed the legal standard governing the use of e-mail during a union organizing campaign in the face of an employer's nondiscriminatory, “business-only” e-mail policy. In November 2002, in The Prudential Insurance Company of America, an administrative law judge addressed that very issue. He held that the company's e-mail policy, which prohibited employees from using the company e-mail system for union-related communications, was an overly broad prohibition that unlawfully infringed on the employees' rights to choose whether to be represented by a union. Furthermore, the administrative law judge held that the company's e-mail policy gave it a substantial advantage in winning a representation election and recommended that the election be set aside.

Scientific Racism, Insurance, and Opposition to the Welfare State: Frederick L. Hoffman's Transatlantic Journey

Frederick Ludwig Hoffman, statistician and insurance executive, was a formidable opponent of the emerging welfare state during the Progressive Era. As a vice president of the Prudential Insurance Company of Newark, New Jersey, Hoffman led a relentless campaign against proposals for government-ran compulsory health insurance between 1915 and 1920. While he acted in the interests of his insurance company employer, Hoffman's opposition also arose from his ardent beliefs about the nature of welfare states. Social insurance and other forms of state-organized assistance, Hoffman claimed, represented “alien governmental theories” based on “paternalism and coercion,” especially since they originated in autocratic Germany, where in 1885 Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had created the world's first sickness insurance system. “In so far as our right to oppose compulsory health insurance is concerned,” explained Hoffman, “it [is] the duty of every American to oppose German ideas of government control and state socialism.” In the anti-German atmosphere engendered by the First World War, his arguments had particular resonance.

With Payment Laws Failing, Physicians Turn to Courts

With Payment Laws Failing, Physicians Turn to Courts

Developing Risk Skills: An Investigation of Business Risks and Controls at Prudential Insurance Company of America

The Prudential Insurance Company was involved in the largest life insurance churning scam of the 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, Prudential had weak business controls, and its corporate culture was characterized as ineffective and loose. However, this scandal is rooted in something deeper than a poor control environment. Prudential was a company facing several risks; many company decisions allowed these risks to have a dramatic impact on the company. As a result, its weak control environment came to the forefront, allowing the churning scam to reach its record levels. This case demonstrates the value of identifying and assessing risks in an organization. Further, the case demonstrates how to build control solutions to match the risks. Learning how to manage risks is a valuable skill for business professionals. In fact, the AICPA's Special Committee on Assurance Services (AICPA 1997), also known as the Elliott Committee, identified risk assessment as one of the emerging assurance services offered by CPAs.

Persuasion, Probity, and Paltering: The Prudential Crisis

In July, 1996, the Prudential Insurance Company agreed to pay a record fine of $35 million for misleading sales practices (Scism, 1996). This agreement followed a series of accusations of fraud and misrepresentation which have plagued Prudential since the late 1980's. After a 30-member task force with representatives from 11 states and the District of Columbia concluded that agents communicated improperly, Prudential Insurance is paying millions of dollars in restitution to over 10 million policy holders to settle allegations of impropriety. When evidence was uncovered showing agents had persuaded customers to convert the built-up cash value of older policies to finance newer, more expensive ones, it became clear that some customers did not fully understand the (Merrill Lynch, 1995; Gilpin, 1996). Prudential was guilty of misrepresentation and paltering. Persuasion, whether executed individually, or as the collective behavior of individuals in an organization, is the act of motivating an audience to voluntarily change an attitude, belief or behavior (O'Keefe, 1990). According to Aristotle, coercion and manipulation, the sometimes subtle deviants of persuasion, occur when communicators lack character, goodwill, and the desire to be virtuous (Oswald, 1962). Paltering, or talking in an insincere, equivocal manner, occurs when communicators ignore ethical values. Character, goodwill, and virtue comprise the core of communication ethics, which attempts to distinguish normatively the roles and responsibilities of the ethical communicator and the boundaries of ethical communication. Reinsch's definition of management communication ethics as 'the study of the rhetorical rights and duties of persons performing the role of manager in business transactions (1996, p. 350) focuses on both the obligations and the privileges inherent in communication. This essay explores communication ethics, including the rhetorical rights and duties of managers, by examining discourse and actions of The Prudential Company. Its corporate communicative behavior is contrasted against the fretwork of assumptions which lie behind ethical behavior. Documents which address Prudential's recovery from the ethical crisis have been analyzed to examine how the company has addressed the crisis and attempted to repair its reputation. Organizational Crises Like Union Carbide (Ice, 1991), Exxon (Tyler, 1997) and NASA (Suchan, 1995), Prudential suffered an ethical crisis. Because organizations build and maintain numerous relationships with diverse publics (Katz & Kahn, 1978), an ethical crisis, particularly if it is handled poorly, can strike a severe blow to the organization's reputation. Crises require that an organization manage its legitimacy (Allen & Caillouet, 1994) and restore its external image (Benoit & Brinson, 1994). In order to avoid a recurrence, the organization must develop effective external communication strategies along with a necessary cultural change in the organization (Ross & Benson, 1995). Corporate discourse, used to shape public perceptions of the corporation (Crable & Vibbert, 1986), is especially important in a crisis, yet the crisis management literature frequently neglects the communication component (Hearit, 1994). Public opinion must be managed to produce positive impressions and minimize damage (Sturges, 1994); different audiences must be addressed individually. If insufficient attention is paid to rhetorical strategies across diverse publics, organizations may not recover from their crises. Ice's cogent analysis of Union Carbide's Bhopal incident reveals its failure to analyze various audiences and respond accordingly (1991). In reviewing corporate accidents and crises, Marcus and Goodman found rhetorical strategies of accommodation useful to both victims and shareholders and evidence that stock prices responded positively when both were given due consideration (1991). Scandals, perhaps the most organizationally devastating kind of crises, are events which disgrace, discredit, and compromise the organization's reputation. …

Establishing customer‐focused transaction standards at prudentil

AbstractDo your customers want to do business with you? How easy is it for them to complete a simple transaction? Putting customers' interests first and viewing what is best for the customer and the company form the foundation for decision‐making at Prudential Insurance Company. By driving customer‐focused improvements, Prudential is creating best‐in‐class operating standards. This article explains how Prudential's Marketing Performance and Information unit incorporates customer research and financial analysis to create operational transaction standards designed to consistently satisfy customers.

A balanced set of measures points the way to customer satisfaction at prudential

AbstractCompanies have long realized that they cannot improve what they cannot measure. To obtain valuable customer input on company policies and practices. Prudential Insurance Company has established a new business measurement philosophy founded on a balanced set of measures. This article explains how Prudential's Voice of the Customer team consults with business managers to make good on the company's commitment to put customer needs and expectations at the forefront of all business decisions.

An experiment in changing corporate image in the financial services industry in the UK

The increasing deregulation of the financial services sector in the UK in the 1980s greatly intensified the competition between firms in the industry. One company affected by this was the Prudential Insurance Company, which decided to diversify its product range and to change its corporate image in order to gain competitive advantage. As part of its corporate identity program the company was concerned with modernizing its distribution system through the mass acquisition of estate agencies which it viewed as being ideal bases for this purpose. After only six years, however, it withdrew completely from the business. Examines not only why estate agencies seemed so attractive to the Prudential as distribution systems, but also its acquisition program and why it abruptly decided to sell out. In particular, highlights the problems that arose from using acquired businesses as a key part of a corporate identity program.

The Pachysandra Project: A public — private initiative in supported employment at the Prudential Insurance Company of America

The Pachysandra Project: A public — private initiative in supported employment at the Prudential Insurance Company of America

The Politics of Empowerment

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in a component of social work and community development practice that has not received wide attention since the 1960s: the of low-income populations. Although to poor people have traditionally been associated with liberal reformers, recent calls for its use have come from an ideologically diverse group of policymakers and funders seeking solutions to social problems including poverty, drug abuse, and crime. In an ironic turn of events, conservative Republicans have been among the most vocal and enthusiastic of its recent proponents. Members of the Bush administration repeatedly used as a central theme in their speeches on urban issues, with Vice President Dan Quayle calling the heart of the Republican agenda (DeParle & Appelbome, 1991). Former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp declared that his vision for a new War on Poverty could be summarized in one word: empowerment. And President Bush regularly maintained that his domestic proposals would empower people to make their own decisions and control their own destinies (DeParle & Appelbome, 1991, p. A18). The Republicans have not been alone in their interest; the Clinton administration has also picked up the theme. In his first State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton pledged to the whole focus of our poverty programs from entitlement to (President's Address, 1993, p. A14). He has described a goal of his National Service program as the of young people and has promoted an urban development initiative that funds economic planning and social services in neighborhood empowerment zones (DeParle, 1993). Other recent supporters of strategies have been foundation and corporate funders. Over the past few years millions of dollars in grant money has been offered from sources including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Prudential Insurance Company, and the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) for social welfare projects that and develop the capacity of low-income populations to solve community problems. Does carry the same meaning among these diverse advocates? Many of the social welfare professionals who are attempting to respond to calls for the implementation of and capacity-building strategies are, not surprisingly, perplexed. They have few sources on which to draw to clarify the definitions and methods of programs that low-income groups - a situation due in part to the variety of voices calling for their use and to a paucity of information in the literature on their recent use in social work. Meanwhile, the number of foundations and federal granting agencies that are requesting the incorporation of strategies into community programming make such information imperative. This article describes how has been defined by the social work community and discusses how the concept is currently being interpreted and applied by various policymakers. Community Development and Empowerment in Social Welfare As a mode of social welfare planning, community development involves efforts made by professionals and community residents to enhance the social bonds among members of the community, motivate the citizens for self-help, develop responsible local leadership, and create or revitalize local institutions (Barker, 1991, p. 43). With the goal of improving the social, physical, or economic conditions of a neighborhood or community, the development process consists of two core intervention components: promoting the participation of community members in the change process with a focus on self-initiative and providing technical assistance to enable leadership development. Defining Empowerment Empowerment represents a means for accomplishing community development tasks and can be conceptualized as involving two key elements: giving community members the authority to make decisions and choices and facilitating the development of the knowledge and resources necessary to exercise these choices. …

Guaranteed Coverage with Multiple Insurers: Closing Gaps and Easing Transitions

The U.S. health insurance system today rests overwhelmingly on employment-based coverage for children as well as adults. However, gaps in the system make it difficult to ensure adequate and continuous coverage. Because of these gaps, previously insured families may find themselves uninsured or underinsured. Coverage problems result from insurance industry practices such as exclusions and limitations, medical underwriting, waiting periods for people changing jobs, and disputes over coordination of benefits. Although many of these gaps in coverage may affect all people, a few primarily affect children, whose insurance coverage may be particularly sensitive to changes in family status, parental employment, and other factors. In this article, Kevin Haugh of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions and Gary Claxton, formerly with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), explore the causes and consequences of a number of the more important gaps in the employment-based health insurance system. They also examine a number of proposals to close these gaps, ranging from insurance reforms aimed at the small-group/small-employer health insurance market to broader and more fundamental reforms intended to restructure the way health care is financed and delivered. This paper grew out of a seminar held for U.S. congressional staff in which Claxton was joined by Mark Peavy, an NAIC actuary, and Kim Bellard of the Prudential Insurance Company. Although a substantial number of uninsured children have ties to the work force, Haugh and Claxton identify some important limitations for expanding coverage based solely on reform of the present employment-based health insurance market. First, because inadequate financial resources are the key reason many children are uninsured or inadequately insured, simply encouraging or requiring employers to offer coverage for employees and their dependents may have limited impact. Subsidies for employers and employees may be required if insurance premiums are to be affordable for low-wage workers disproportionately represented among the uninsured. Second, reforms that seek to expand coverage by restricting insurance company practices which limit coverage for sick people will likely increase the cost of coverage for healthy individuals. This increase in cost may cause some firms and individuals to reduce their coverage, although in the long run the hope is that expanding coverage will help keep costs down. Third, many reform proposals apply only to health insurance provided by small employers. Large employers tend to self-insure and, under federal ERISA legislation, are immune from most insurance regulation, which is the province of state governments. Finally, the movement of employment

Opening up learning in the Prudential

In this article Naomi Stanford, now Training Manager with the Price Waterhouse Company, describes the introduction of open learning into the Prudential Insurance Company, principally with the Open University's Effective Manager course. She describes training as both reflecting and being able to change the company culture and examines the particular role open learning can play. The article will be included in a book to be published later this year, ‘Self Development in Organisations’, editors Mike Pedler and Tom Burgoyne.

Yields on Privately Placed Corporate Bonds

The Journal of FinanceVolume 35, Issue 1 p. 23-29 Article Yields on Privately Placed Corporate Bonds BURTON ZWICK, BURTON ZWICKI am extremely grateful to Cathy Randazzo for research assistance and to J. Robert Ferrari, Michael Hamburger, William Melton, Vance Roley, Charles Sivesind, Charles Wolf, and Edward Zinbarg for helpful comments. The paper solely reflects my own views and not those of the Prudential Insurance Company of America.Search for more papers by this author BURTON ZWICK, BURTON ZWICKI am extremely grateful to Cathy Randazzo for research assistance and to J. Robert Ferrari, Michael Hamburger, William Melton, Vance Roley, Charles Sivesind, Charles Wolf, and Edward Zinbarg for helpful comments. The paper solely reflects my own views and not those of the Prudential Insurance Company of America.Search for more papers by this author First published: March 1980 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1980.tb03468.xCitations: 15 Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume35, Issue1March 1980Pages 23-29 RelatedInformation

Symposium on Research Priorities on Alcohol. Introductory remarks.

First, I want to thank those whose special financial aid made this symposium possible. They are the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Prudential Insurance Company of America. Next, this symposium required organizers, and I owe them a hearty thank you. They are, Geraldine Howell, managing editor of the JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL; Timothy Coffey, editor of the JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL; and Richard Driver, one of the division directors of the Center of Alcohol Studies.

Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Prudential Insurance Company of America.

From Three Cents A Week: the Story of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. By William H.A. Carr. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975. Pp. 361. $10.00.

From Three Cents A Week: the Story of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. By William H.A. Carr. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975. Pp. 361. $10.00.

DIRECTION IN RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

DIRECTION IN RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

Perspective on malaria today.

WHETHER or not malaria was a truly indigenous disease in the United States is not known, but it certainly was introduced by some of the early settlers from Europe. This seed-bed must have been immeasurably enhanced later by the importation of infected Negroes from Africa. At the turn of the century, malaria occurred throughout the eastern half of the country and was carried to the Far West as settlers migrated in that direction. The first suggestion of eradication of malaria was made in 1915 by Dr. Frederick L. Hoffman, the statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company. He read a paper titled A Plea for a National Committee on the Eradication of Malaria1at the Southern Medical Association and followed it up the next year with another presentation to the same association entitled A Plea and a Plan for the Eradication of Malaria.1This resulted in the organization

LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LENDING TO SMALL BUSINESS

The Journal of FinanceVolume 16, Issue 2 p. 291-303 Long-Term Small Business Financing LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LENDING TO SMALL BUSINESS Gordon W. McKinley, Gordon W. McKinley Prudential Insurance Company of AmericaSearch for more papers by this author Gordon W. McKinley, Gordon W. McKinley Prudential Insurance Company of AmericaSearch for more papers by this author First published: May 1961 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1961.tb02827.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume16, Issue2May 1961Pages 291-303 RelatedInformation