Female Management Quota Discussion
Deutsche Telekom has recently set a 30% female management quota, spurring a national and international debate over the most effective approaches to get more women into the executive suite and thus making the most of gender diversity in an organisation. The supporters of this move argue that the many programmes of the past years were not enough to effectively change the gender-specific make-up of management ranks and therefore, binding targets, i.e. quota, were an appropriate (and necessary) means to achieve set goals. Deutsche Telekom’s CHRO, Thomas Sattelberger, assessed the situation as follows “We were only seeing women representation climb every year by tenths of a percent, … And that’s the big lie (…) to convince yourself that you’ve done everything you can—from women mentoring to day-care—to solve the problem.” He is a convinced promoter of change for one clear reason: “The base for our success is a balance between male and female employees”.The counter-discussion from leading human resources and legal experts say meeting a quota is not the way to create a working environment without gender biases. “Nobody wants to go into quotas, that’s a negative way of achieving something that’s imperative. Companies need to set up strategic objectives,” said Myrtha Casanova, founder of the Madrid-based European Institute for Managing Diversity. She argues that a workplace more inclusive of women is inevitable, as decision-makers need to be flexible to a changing environment. Other critics said committing to quotas could force companies into bad business decisions. “Who knows who the best managers will be in 2015. It is absolutely crazy for a company to commit to such targets without any visibility,” said Will Draper, a telecoms analyst with Execution Noble in London, who covers 22 European telecommunication companies. “It may be the case that they will have to employ people who are not good for the job just to meet their quota.”
A global Diversity manager of a leading multi-national company told European Diversity, “I would not want to be the next woman to be promoted at Deutsche Telekom”. Expert discussions suggest that helping managers to understand the current situation including inter-gender dynamics in the workplace and their role in removing biases from HR processes and in the work environment will create more positive, sustainable change. However, this will only influence decisions up to a certain level. For the very top ranks, talent management policies often do not apply as tight circles behind closed doors select candidates. This is the issue that has been addressed in Norway, Spain and other countries through legally enforced quotas. The effects of these legislative decisions will filter down in many organisations as they move forward.
