Introduction
Oracle Corporation is one of the largest companies in the information technology sector. In the third quarter of 2015 it reported earnings of $9 billion in revenues, mostly unchanged from the previous year and a steady growth in its Cloud Services . It has corporate policies on non-discrimination in terms of race, gender and is an equal opportunity employer . Yet its board remains mostly male, with only 3 out of 13 board members comprised of women . From the list of company executives found on the company website, it is found that only 4 out 30 executives, including co-CEO Safra Catz, are women . It is also one of the few companies in this sector that does not make public its data on its gender distribution and other such data. Being in a sector that has some of the largest attrition rates among women, it presents an opportunity for Oracle to evaluate its gender awareness and understand how the process can contribute to better financial success.
Problem/Opportunity Statement
Oracle has an opportunity to understand how building gender awareness in the company can reduce financial impact arising from high rates of attrition of women.
The disparity of gender in the Information Technology companies is well established as more and more companies publish statistics related to the subject . More women are joining information technology sector but a very small percentage continue. Women are more likely to leave professions in this sector than men . The reasons are many and quite universal. According to the National Center for Women in IT or NCWIT, this level of gender disparity in the technology sector will result in the IT industry facing short staffing by 2018 .
Companies, especially in the IT sector, need to have more gender awareness in order to be able to sustain their employee base. However there is very little empirical research on directly correlating gender awareness or sensitivity to the financial success of a company. The purpose of business is to make money and unless this financial correlation can be established, it is highly unlikely that companies will invest in gender sensitive policies. There is also evidence that companies appear to think that there are no barriers to women in the sector . To initiate the process of quantification, it is essential to first understand how much gender awareness is present in companies both at management and employee level, since policies are driven by perceived needs. Second, through study of attrition trends and related financial changes the relationship between retaining women and the financial savings can be established. This research will establish the attitude of management and employees toward gender awareness and its impact on financial performance of the company.
Background Review
Starting in 2014, IT companies started publishing statistics about the diversity of their workforce . Google was the first to publish that only 30% of its workforce was female. This was closely followed by Linkedin, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter. All of them averaged between 30% and 40% of workforce as women and all of them had less than 30% women leadership. The only firm larger than Oracle in terms of revenue, Microsoft Corp, also released their diversity statistics later that same year which revealed that women made up only 17% of its workforce although 40% of leadership positions were occupied by women . Like all companies who released this data, Microsoft agreed that lot of work needed to be done in improving the situation. At Oracle Corporation only 29% of the workforce is female and only 25% of managerial positions are occupied by women . This shows that Oracle too will face the same staffing issues as other companies if gender awareness is not addressed.
In the last several years, there has been a growing body of research centered on women in Information Technology and their workplace trends. In 1990, the business mainstream was almost entirely male with women and racial minorities accounting for small percentages of the workforce . It had been predicted then that the male workforce would increase by only 15% in the following decade while women and other minorities would occupy close to 50% of the workforce. Even in 1990 it had been observed that the recruiting pool had become diverse. Even then it had been predicted that while there would be no dearth of women in the recruitment pipeline, retention of women would become a problem in the coming years if adequate planning was not in place. The need for mentoring and advancement policies was clear even then. Thomas wrote that many companies have an underlying belief that the ‘cream rises to the top’ but in reality good employees have to be nurtured to rise to the top. He also wrote that any future inclusivity policies must be tested to answer whether the policy actually helped the target population.
A 2003 study found that while women had become part of the workforce in large numbers, they were facing bias that emanated from traditional ideas of gender. Even if women have the same designation as men, men still associate them with historical professional roles like answering the telephone (secretary) or even subordinate positions as decreed by social and religious beliefs. Women also faced a different kind of bias. Even when more qualified than men, they were passed up for projects stating that they did not make the time to market their abilities and socialize with superiors after working hours. Although companies had incorporated non-discriminating policies, gendered practices or gender practices that have been inculcated for centuries are difficult to overcome and present significant barriers in the workplace. A pervading attitude was that whatever little work men did was work, and women, even if they are in superior positions cannot challenge this claim.
Ahuja (2002) proposed a model for the factors influencing women’s careers in the IT sector. One was social factors like external biases like stereotyping and internal biases of women’s self-limiting perceptions . The other was structural factors - companies even now structure themselves in limiting ways. Globalization has added to the challenge with women being perceived as less able to contribute to traveling and longer hours since they have caregiver responsibilities at home. Work-family conflict is a regular stressor and stems from social expectations of women as caregivers. The IT sector routinely involves long hours and travel which clash with the expected role of primary caregiver for women. The stressor is heightened when men and women are in dual-career relationships. The expectation then is that the woman will give up her career to take over care-giving responsibilities.
This domestic responsibility role is echoed in other studies of women in IT who had or did not have children . However the study also found that at individual levels women used different coping mechanisms while pursuing their careers. It also revealed that IT is perceived predominantly as a masculine profession and female assertiveness is not viewed favorably. It puts the position of women, in spite of making up a large proportion of the workforce, as an undeserved community. The subordinate perception of women and their social expectations in caregiving has led to lack of acceptance of women leadership and significant differences in responsibilities and pay for women who hold same designations . This in turn is reflected in the policy making of companies in this sector.
The 2010 report by the NCWIT revealed that these issues continue to affect the workforce in the Information Technology sector . While it is the fastest growing industry and there are more qualified women for this industry, it is failing to attract them in large numbers. In fact, women who are already in the industry are leaving in large numbers. In 2008, although women formed 57% of the US workforce, they occupied only 25% of the IT-related jobs. Given the shortage of employees in this sector, the low utilization of women in IT exacerbates the problem of short staffing. The NCWIT studies showed that teams that comprise of adequate mix of men and women were more productive, likely to share more ideas, and fulfill tasks better. More than half of the women in the IT industry leave when they complete 10 years or reach mid-level in their careers. Most leave to start their own firms or seek government and non-profit jobs. Lack of gender awareness was the most common reason for women to leave. Lack of gender awareness is reflected in company policies around compensation (women are paid less than men of same designations), lack of leadership mentoring that reduces women’s chances of attaining management positions, and policies that do not support women’s other roles as caregivers at home. Studies that point to the effectiveness of women in leadership positions , can lead to the ‘tokenism’ effect. Companies feel pressured into promoting women who are not qualified yet to leadership positions and then companies suffer financial downturn . This further weakens the position of women in this sector. Instead women need to be nurtured on par with men employees. Thus there are significant financial incentives for companies to retain and nurture women employees or prepare for financial fallout when they try to compensate for lack of women talent through foreign hiring, replacement trainings, losses in innovation, and losses through customer dissatisfaction.
Oracle Corp provides several benefits to employees like 401K, flexible holidays and flexible work schedules . It also provides an Employee Assistance Program to address issues in the work-life balance of employees. The company also provides information resources and assistance for working parents. In addition to these, several options are provided for alternate work-schedules, teleconferencing, and telecommuting that employees can use while attending life events. Yet women are not able to rise in ranks at a comparable rate to men. This shows that there is a need to identify how gender awareness can lead to better financial outcomes for the company.
Goals for Research
At Oracle Corporation, that employs over 100,000 employees , there is a clear need to identify means to reduce the risk of financial losses through attrition. This research aims to find whether gender awareness is present in the organization both at management level and what their perceptions of the role of gender differences in the organization. Do they view it as a hindrance or an opportunity for the company? In either case, to move forward to create better opportunities for workplace growth, the company must acknowledge the different needs of its employees and provide an environment that is conducive to greater output from each individual. As output from each individual increases, so shall the performance of the company as a whole. This research hopes to initiate the process of establishing a connection between attitude to gender awareness and company’s financial performance.
Research methods
The following 2 methods of research are proposed.
1. Interviews on gender awareness with the management teams (senior and middle level) at Oracle Corp.
2. Analyzing company records on attrition and project reports to assess impact of women’s resignations at different levels.
Rationale for method 1: Management attitude to the need for gender awareness and management’s awareness that its absence is a problem is crucial to moving forward in addressing the opportunity for financial benefit. Questions are designed to understand if management views gender differences as an opportunity to the company’s overall growth. Management is responsible for policies, and their attitude will determine what kinds of policies are put in place and from there on retention and benefits for the company. The interview method will reveal the underlying attitude of the management towards gender awareness.
Rationale for method 2:
Once the attitude is identified, then corresponding data must be identified to prove that lack of gender awareness results in financial losses caused by women employee attrition. Company records on resignations will be checked to identify the reason for the resignation. In parallel project financials will be checked to see if there was corresponding negative impact on finances/project due to the departure of the employee. If quantitative impact cannot be identified, an attempt shall be made to identify qualitative impact. If the relationship can be shown between financial loss due to lack of gender awareness, then it proves the hypothesis that gender awareness can increase financial output for a firm.
Describe the two methods (including sample size)
Method 1: Sample size 30 comprising of Oracle’s Executive team including the CEO, CFO and other executives.
The interviews shall be in-depth and include both open-ended questions and closed-ended questions with average time of 45 minutes per interview. This translates to 22 hours of interviews which can be conducted over 1 week. The closed-ended questions shall be derivatives of the open ended questions and asked with the aim to quantify the findings at a later time.
The question list is as follows:
Open ended Interview Questions:
What do you think about the increasing number of women in the workforce? Do you think your company will be affected by the trend? Why?
Do you think that company policies must be aligned to gender differences? Why? Please provide some examples.
Do you think that a gender aware company can perform better financially? What are the major financial plus points?
Are you able to recall instances where women in leadership positions have made decisions that boosted the financial profile of a project or the company? If so, which ones?
Does your company offer channels to employees to express their requirements so that they can function at peak levels?
Regardless of your company policy, do you think gender should be taken into consideration when hiring a person for a particular post? Can you think of a position which you think is better suited for men and why?
Do you think women ask for specific policies because of their unique challenges they face as women? Do you think it’s fair to men?
Do you think men would like equally friendly policies if they got a chance? Why?
Do you think that it is difficult for men to report to a woman? Is there a social barrier that needs to be addressed? Have you disagreed with a person because of their gender?
Close-ended questions with Yes/No responses:
Do you think women are undeserved in the IT sector?
Do you think women make better leaders than men?
Do you think women face any barriers in entering the IT sector?
Do you think women face any barriers in growing within this profession?
Do you think your company policies adequately address gender awareness?
Do you think high attrition of women has an impact on the company’s financial status?
Do you think attrition in general affects the financial status of the company?
Do you think company policies should reflect gender differences?
Do you think attrition could be reduced by introducing gender friendly policies?
Method 2:
Research using company records to understand trends in women employee resignations.
Sample size: 20% or 50 (whichever is greater) of women’s resignation records for each year from 2005-2015.
Types of records:
Resignation records
Involuntary attrition records
For each woman resignation identify record corresponding to replacement hire
Process:
Access resignation records going back 10 years
Identify reasons for leaving and segregate into groups
Involuntary attrition records going back 10 years
Classify records according to gender and reasons attributed for attrition
For each woman resignation identify record corresponding to replacement hire records with salary details to identify difference in cost to company
Project reports of the projects the women were involved in to correlate loss of employee to changes in project level profits.
Conclusion
In the information technology sector, there has been observed a ration of attrition among women employees. There is a need to understand how gender awareness can reduce attrition and improve financial outcomes for the company. With the research approach proposed, we shall be able to perform analysis at both qualitative and quantitative levels as to the impact of gender awareness on the company.
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