Barreiro, Celine Basadre, Danielle Batang, Janica Corral, Nicole

Lasa, Christopher Lopez, Miguel Lordan, John Paul Manalo, Alyssa

Manaois, Isaiah Matibag, Patricia Mendez, Abby Salvador, Pia Valle, Mikee

BA 101 WFW Prof. Mark S. Bernal Team 3

Case 2: Deutsche Telekom Background Deutsche Telekom AG is the largest telecommunications company in Europe today. The telecommunications company started in Germany under the government monopoly of the Reichspost (the postal service in the Holy Roman Empire). On July 1, 1989, a post office reformation occurred, where the Bundespost was divided into three divisions: Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst (postal service), Deutsche Bundespost Telekom (communications service), and Deutsche Bundespost Postbank (postal bank). On the 1st of January 2005 all the divisions were fully privatized and became: Deutsche Post AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Deutsche Postbank AG. Deutsche Telekoms headquarters now is located in Bonn, Germany and it is run by its CEO, Rene Ohermann. Given their importance for globalization and diversity, Deutsche Telekom has established other institutions in about 50 countries worldwide. During their last financial year, Deutsche Telekom had 58.2 billion euros as revenue and 3,050,000,000 euros as net income. As expected from a multi-national and diverse company, Deutsche Telekom also has a large workforce. As of December 31, 2012 it has 229,686 employees. 118,840 of them work in Germany and 110,846 work internationally. A more unique culture in Deutsche Telekom is their particular importance for diversity especially with regards to women empowerment. Since the womens quota took effect at the start of 2010, the percentage of female executives worldwide has increased from 19 percent to 24.7 percent. There are now seven women in the 66-strong management team, below the Group Board of Management, the Business Leader Team. As of May 3, 2012, women have held two of Telekoms seven Board of Management positions. 24.7% of the middle and upper managers in the company are also women.

Problem Formulation The quota system increases the possibility of under qualified women employees to be put in higher management positions, thereby decreasing company efficiency. SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses

more women in the company - broader perspectives enhance worker productivity of women in particular - empowerment of female employees women promoted into positions of power can act as positive role models for others

conflicts involving work attitudes of men and women - discrimination might depreciate value of women - implying their successes can be ascribed to quotas may lead to underperformance if the quota proves ineffective - higher turnover (counterproductive)

more complacent female employees insufficient or uncertain planning after lifting the quota (probably after 2015)

Opportunities

Threats

broader management and leadership style promote diversity beyond gender good publicity to attract better and talented employees - increase market share in the long run, female employees may perceive themselves to be more engaged in social interaction due to increased ratio of female board members - this can change internal expectations - to believe that they can perform equally as men and they may be able to perform better as well

competitors (without quotas but performing just as well or even better) loss of skilled male employees due to dissatisfaction Other groups (such as marginalized or socioeconomic groups) can also be underrepresented in reserving positions for women

the increased percentage of women on each board is still not manifested with the supposed increase in the number of female leaders

Solution The group proposes to remove the quota because it creates the possibility of under qualified female employees getting promoted and put into top management just because the company needs to reach their quota. In addition, according to Kim Scartelli, Multiple Franchise Owner and Consultant for Curves for Women, having a quota could make women feel demoralized as they could be chosen on the basis of their gender rather than their capabilities. As an alternative, the company could use on-the-job training methods like simulations and apprenticeships during the recruitment process. Once accepted, promotions should be based on employees' performance through a metric system. Moreover, the company could enhance the literacy, technical, interpersonal and problem-solving skills of their employees through intensive training. In order to motivate their employees, Deutsche Telekom could provide incentives for top management by retaining flexible hours and their work-family programs. These methods would eliminate biases towards any gender by providing equal opportunities for both men and women while ensuring the productivity and efficiency of the employees.

Answers to Case Questions 1. The quota approach may strive to lessen the gender gap in higher management positions but it

may not be the best approach. The pros that it has are: it creates a more diverse work environment, it provides women with more opportunities into getting ahead in their careers and that due to the increase in diversity, it may improve the companys efficiency due to the increase in different ideas. On the other hand, it may be detrimental to the companys status because it may promote and employ possible under qualified women just to be able to reach the quota. This may cause for complacency in the workplace amongst the women since they might feel that they wont have to work as hard to be able to get ahead.

Lastly, this quota approach may serve as bias towards women in that it will lessen the possible work and promotion opportunities for men. 2. An issue that the company might have to deal with is much like the previously mentioned

problems with the quota approach in that the company may employ under qualified women and/or it may lessen possible opportunities for the male university graduates. In line with our proposed solution above, the way to address this might be to totally scrap the quota system and instead, place better measurements of ability and performance both in the selection process and in the actual workplace (internships, performance tests, metrics system, etc.) 3. One issue that may arise from these is that some employees may abuse the leave programs in place. Due to this possible abuse, it may cause for the companys work efficiency to suffer. A way to solve this would be to ensure that the employees reason for going on leave is valid and tracking their leave patterns. If the leaves taken by the employee have a certain pattern or frequency, it may be a cause for concern of the company. Another issue that may arise from these programs, specifically the flexible working hours, would be in the companys deciding factors on who is eligible fo r this. These flexible working hours may be applicable only to the top managers and not for the middle and front-line managers. The front line managers need to be on-site to be able to monitor the technical aspects of the work being done and to make sure that its being done right. The middle managers need to provide a more hands-on supervision of the front line managers and in turn need to report to the top managers on what is happening in the work environment. The top managers are eligible for these flexible working hours because this gives them the freedom to meet possible clients where it is convenient and that this flexibility and degree of freedom may help their creativity in creating strategic and beneficial plans for the business. Moreover, top managers look after the entire business process and lay out strategies; these tasks do not require a full-time engagement within the business place. An issue with these flexible working hours though is in determining whether or not the top manager is really working. Asking for regular feedback from the top managers team on the performance of their manager may possibly monitor this issue. Having this set of feedback and reviews on the managers performance will keep tabs on the matter of whether or not the manager is doing his/her work and if his/her presence is being felt. 4. The two diversity initiatives that seem apt for Deutsche Telekom are the Top Managements

Commitment to Diversity and Diversity Skills Training. Regarding the former initiative, Deutsche Telekom might still be able to maximize the companys diversity as an effort to improve efficiency. The company may conduct research in order to find out which certain components of diversity work together in creating a culturally sound and more efficient environment. This could entail finding out what certain ages produce certain types of ideas, or what people with certain backgrounds can bring to the table of new ideas and strategies for the company. This initiative, though, would go hand in hand with the training on diversity skills. To improve equality in all aspects (gender, age, etc.), the employees need to be educated on the importance of diversity. The workforce needs to be informed on how having a diverse work environment has its benefits that can contribute to the companys efficiency and effectiveness as a whole business.