Results

Companies

12.6 Results

In most of the consulting companies the proportion of female employees was on average around 20 – 30%. However, the percentage of female managers at partner level is not higher than 5%. These results prove the assumption that companies do not take advantage of the potential of their entire internal staff to fill management positions.

Table 12.2. summarizes the results in relation to external and internal commu- nication of the goal of gender diversity, and the implementation of measures to reach the goal of gender diversity. In comparison, the results of the same investi- gation of banks and insurance companies are shown, where the majority of em- ployees are female, but also where on average not more than 7 % of the top man- agement level are female.

Table 12.2. Empirical Results Consulting Companies

Banks Insurance Companies Statements on their

homepage

3 (n=25) 12% 5 (n=50) 7.7% 1 (n=28) 3.6%

Internal communi- cation

7 (n=9) 77.8% 15 (n=18) 83.3% 3 (n=10) 30%

Internal measures to foster gender diver- sity in general

7 (n=9) 77.8% 12 (n=18) 66.6% 3 (n=10) 30%

12.6.1 Importance of the Goal of Gender Diversity

Some companies, especially the larger ones, have partially recognized the need for and the need to pursue appropriate measures. The comparison with banks as a sec- tor with a high proportion of female employees, especially with reference to the larger German banks, shows that consulting companies are on a par with them as far as their activities towards achieving equal opportunities are concerned. The in- surance companies, on the other hand, generally reveal fewer activities within the area of gender diversity. It should be noted here that, especially with reference to the interviews, only a small number of companies could be included. Neverthe- less, there are signs of strategies being introduced within the sectors considered.

The following section will show the extent and type of the measures which are be- ing implemented and pursued.

12.6.2 External Communication of Gender Diversity

The investigation regarding statements of gender diversity on homepages shows that 12% of the investigated consulting companies have placed statements which refer to this topic on their homepage, e.g. how to combine family and work or the

“Total Quality Award” (in comparison 7.7% of the banks and 3.6% of the insur- ance companies). This kind of external communication is completed by a few of the companies with public events and/or articles placed on the internet or in news- papers and magazines (see Table 12.2.).

12.6.3 Internal Communication of Gender Diversity

By analyzing the responses of nine consulting companies with respect to the ques- tion as to whether internal statements which declare the support of gender diver- sity exist and what kind of measures have been established in the companies, the results showed that internal statements regarding gender diversity had been made by 78% of the consulting companies surveyed (in comparison 83% of the banks and 30% of the insurance companies) (see Table 12.2.). Of those companies that do not give evidence of their commitment on their homepage, some limited their communication to internal interest groups. Most of the companies use internal bro- chures to show for example the possibilities of flexible working hours or organize internal road shows to discuss the possibilities and to find individual solutions.

12.6.4 Gender Diversity Initiatives

78% of the consulting companies implement specific measures to achieve the ob- jective of gender diversity (in comparison 67% of the banks and 30% of the insur- ance companies). Here it can be assumed that precisely those consulting compa- nies responded to the qualitative section that has actually themselves already

implemented measures. One of the reasons given by companies declining to take part in our survey was that either they had no interest in this topic or that in prin- ciple their company would not take part in surveys. Furthermore, several compa- nies who took part in our study were large consulting companies who have made themselves well-known in the media. This means that the results we obtained could be quite different in the case of smaller consulting companies, of which there are very many in Germany. This would have to be the subject of further re- search.

In order to gain the advantages of gender diversity the organizations in the sample work on several aspects of human resources management. The most im- portant initiative is the implementation of flexible working hours in connection with part-time work, which has also been implemented to some extent in higher management positions. A few companies have implemented measures to improve the recruitment of female applicants, and also measures concerning personnel de- velopment, such as mentoring and coaching programs, as well as supporting women’s networks within the companies.

In the banks and insurance companies measures had been implemented con- cerning more flexible job organization schemes, providing the opportunity to work at home, or telework, as well as special services for families, such as child care support, active contact during parental leave and guidelines for coming back after parental leave, and, albeit rarely, supporting women employees in their applica- tions for expatriate positions. Based on the above presented framework and these results the companies can be subdivided into five different intensity levels related to the goal of gender diversity.

These intensity levels, described in a previous section (especially levels 1, 2 and 3) depend on the kind and the number of measures which have been realized in the company, and on the effectiveness of the measures implemented. According to the results there are only a few companies which implement activities designed to promote equal opportunities, and that these companies very seldom reach the highest intensity level. This means that they will not reach their potential level of success (in terms of gender mix and organizational success).

Table 12.3. Categorization of the Companies Surveyed Intensity Very high

1

High 2

Middle 3

Low 4

Very low 5 Consulting com-

panies (n= 9)

0% 33.3% 44.4% 0% 22.2%

Banks (n=18) 5.6% 16.7% 44.4% 16.7% 16.7%

Insurance compa- nies (n=10)

0% 0% 30% 0 70%

It is striking that the consulting companies who do actively support women employees usually implement several measures to do so. Here there are differ- ences to the banks and insurance companies studied. Banks on average achieve a somewhat lower level of intensity; however, there are more banks in this investi- gation and therefore also smaller companies have been included. The difference in comparison with the insurance companies is more obvious: only 30% of insurance companies can be classified in the medium group and they therefore pursue gender diversity to a lesser extent on average.

In the interviews with the consulting companies it was also established that in principle there should be no distinctions made between men and women in per- sonnel policy, but that only the qualifications should count. This finding is also supported by interviews carried out in 2002, where representatives of the largest consulting companies were also interviewed on the subject of women within the consulting sector (Hördt 2002). In spite of this, measures were implemented, as the proportion of women managers at top management level was and still is ex- tremely small. In addition it was stated that resistance was particularly strong from women, once special programs had been introduced, with the reasons for this be- ing given as the fact that these measures would instead have the opposite effect and hinder women’s progress.

This evaluation reveals the special culture which seems to predominate in con- sulting companies: the focus is on the high qualifications of the employees and on their level of involvement with regard to the company’s clients and the projects that have been taken on. It is at precisely such high level positions that a part-time position is untenable, thus making the combination of family and profession more difficult, and thus leading to there being fewer women in higher positions, even though in principle the opportunities for men and women are equal. The roles al- located by society or by the family are decisive here, whereby in most cases the traditional form of the division of labor in the family prevails. Nevertheless there would still be other ways in which consulting companies could provide more sup- port, thus enabling concurrent family and professional commitments to be a feasi- ble prospect, even in senior positions. The project work to be done could be dis- tributed among more people or simply distributed differently, so that both men and women would be able to develop their careers successfully within a consulting company, irrespective of the fact that they have a family as well. Hördt’s study (2002) on the topic of women in the consulting sector provides similar findings.

Her investigation shows that the only significant criteria for working in this sector are performance and efficiency, which are supposed to be non-gender specific.

The small proportion of women is explained as being due to the smaller propor- tion of women on the labor market. However, other criteria were also identified which were explained by internal factors, such as, for example, gender specific as- signment procedures and a lower level of access to informal networks. Problems with acceptance of women among clients were also mentioned (Hördt 2002).

This points very clearly to the fact that although there are no official barriers for women, internal unofficial barriers do prevail, which could be related to the al- location of roles within the family and to the everyday attitudes toward and inter- action with women in the workplace; these are therefore factors which are not compatible with the working conditions in the consulting sector.

One possibility would be to consider the concept that there are no differences regarding gender within the companies questioned and therefore that no measures need to be implemented. Instead the goal to promote more women to senior posi- tions should be actively integrated into personnel policy, with all departments ori- ented towards this goal. This would call for changes to the company culture in such ways that behavior and attitudes, management style and career opportunities would be explicitly analyzed for discriminatory aspects and amended in the sense of a change process. In addition, the goal of gender diversity should be communi- cated clearly and pursued using those methods described in the introductory sec- tions of this paper.