Problem Identification:
Yes, Deloitte and Touche, apart of international group Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu international, is encountering with a problem.The problem takes place in 1991; the total percentage of women in the nomination for partnership in this year is only 8%. The problem does not seem to be stopping in this year. It is projected that the percentage of women nominated for partnership in year 1992 will reach 10% and same percentage is projected for the year 1993.This is a low percentage. It is not justified to have such a lower participation of women at higher levels of management. The change envisioned in the 1980 s about bringing change to the workplace dynamics is not being achieved in reality.
Yes Mike Cook, Chairman and CEO of Deloitte and Touche, is rightly concerned about this problem. In 1980, he took the steps to ensure that the hiring of the women would be done at an aggressive rate. He wanted to bring diversity in the work place. He came to realize that there were a lot of women coming to join the professional services, including accounting, tax and consulting. This can be judged from the fact that in 1974, the total number of female accountants out of the total number of all accountants was 24% and this percentage has reached to almost 50% in 1990. With such a huge number of availability of female professionals, the reality that only 8% of the total nominations for partnership at Deloitte and Touche are women cannot be digested easily. Mike Cook knows that the numbers do not lie and there is a serious problem going on in the firm.
No, he is not moving very fast. It takes 8-12 years for a new hire in audit and tax departments to reach to the level of partner at Deloitte and Touche as the percentage of women joining the professional services like accounting is on the rise since 1974.The 8% women ratio is not acceptable and Mike Cook needs to do some measures in order to change the situation.
Case Analysis:
The problem is that the company has a very less number of women to consider for the higher management posts. This is a setback to a visionary CEO who had envisioned having a percentage of women professionals joining the firm matched with the number of females graduating in accounting and business studies and then retaining them up to the top level of management. However, the reality is that after joining, the women are leaving the firm at a very high pace. The high turnover of the female professionals is an alarming situation for the CEO. Moreover, the industry dynamics have also changed due to recession. The companies are thinking of outsourcing jobs which are not the essence of the business. Therefore, the business of Big 6 gains more importance. The increase competition leads to the need of retaining experienced and trained employees. However, Deloitte’s turnover rate for women is increasing.
The main causes of the high turnover of the female employees are:
- The women do not feel valued in the organization.
- The women mostly feel that the minute they will announce that they will be marrying or going to start maternal life, they will be left off. They do not feel anybody interested in investing the resources on them.
- They do not have mentors who can guide them to climb up the ladder of professional lives.
- They do not know about the right track,which can lead to the path of progression in their professional lives.
- They do not know about the right choice of career depending upon their personality.
- They do not have role models as females who can provide motivation and inspiration to them.
- The current female role models who have reached to a height are those who have lead very hard professional lives or they have not married nor have a child. This is not inspiring to most women as they are not in favor of this.
Recommendation and Action Plan
The task force recommendations are the right step in the right direction. The recommendations of the task force can be said of as having the right way to overcome the issues discussed in the previous question. The recommendations of the task force and the action plan for the recommendations to be implemented are given below:
FY 1993 FY1994 FY1995
Establish a Leadership Position
Winning the implementation strategy
Appoint a National Partner for women problems
Make Women’s Advisory council
Re-compose the women’s Task Force..................
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