The  Conflicts  of  Gender  Diversity  Within  a   Company  

MGT 352 – Human Resource Management

Topic of the Group Research Project

The conflicts of gender diversity within a company “Evaluation of gender conflicts between women and men demonstrated by an example of the company Mercedes Benz.” Employee: Christian Koeck

Group 2 Yannic Roehrer Christian Koeck Felix Steinbeck Jakob Seeger Thomas Wick

Table of content

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 2. Gender conflicts between men and women ....................................................... 2 2.1 Unequal payment of men and women ......................................................... 2 2.2 Adverse career opportunities for women..................................................... 3 3. Appropriate solutions ......................................................................................... 4 3.1 Proposals to decrease discrimination in particular professions ................... 4 3.2 Female quota in senior management positions ............................................ 5 3.3 Gender mainstreaming ................................................................................. 7 4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 8 5. List of references.............................................................................................. 10

1. Introduction
To achieve liberation from religious, legal, sexual and economic oppression, women have been fighting for their rights throughout the 20th century. In fact, it took tremendous efforts and a long struggle to achieve sexual equality. Finally, the image of women in our society has changed. While women are no longer considered to be housewives who support her hard working husbands and raise the children they are now seeking for career opportunities. Moreover they are even entering jobs traditionally dominated by men. This development implies some serious issues for today’s economy and its corporations. To deal with gender diversity conflicts, companies are seeking for solutions in order to achieve sexual equality in terms of payment and to reduce discrimination.

In fact, throughout the last decades diversity management has become a significant issue within Human Resource Management. Diversity management includes ethical, cultural and religious differences, age conflicts and the role of disabilities. As one of the main issues of diversity management in our group research project we put an emphasis on gender diversity conflicts within the company Mercedes Benz. During his apprenticeship one of our group members made the experience that women felt disadvantaged in terms of salary, career opportunities and acceptance although they considered their performance equal to their male colleagues.

This paper outlines the importance and conflicts of today’s diversity management and offers solutions to companies dealing with this issue. The first step is to give an overview of current developments in the field of human resource management. The next step is to illustrate conflicts that appear with gender diversity by using particular 1

examples from our group’s experiences in the world of business. Finally we focus on potential solutions to those conflicts by addressing a female quota in senior management positions, improvements of work-life-balance, equality of payment and proposals to decrease discrimination in professions considered to be typical female.

2. Gender conflicts between men and women 2.1 Unequal payment of men and women
This part of the paper outlines one of the biggest problems within a company in Germany, the unequal payment between men and women in management positions as well as in normal jobs. This big human resource issue is called „Gender Pay Gap“. There is almost no other European country where the pay gap is as big as in Germany. In fact, many women carry on the same profession as their male colleagues but earn less money for the same performance. In Germany women earn averaged 21 percent less money than men (Park 2012). One reason for the lower salary is, that women are traditionally considered as secondary wage earner. Strongly linked with this problem is the fact, that women are still often seen as housewives. Women also have more family responsibilities. Furthermore women are more defensive in negotiations of their salary and do not urge offensively for more money as their male colleagues do. Besides women do not have the same opportunities to promote as men have. All those facts cause significant differences in payment between men and women (Holst 2006). During his apprenticeship at the German car manufacturer Mercedes Benz Christian Koeck, one of our group members, had exactly these experiences. Women working in his and other divisions always complained about their lower payment and the missing opportunities to promote as fast as men, although they performed at the same level or sometimes even better. These conditions caused significant conflicts within the 2

divisions’ working atmosphere and performance. Therefore several crisis talks were scheduled, but did not lead to the required success. Furthermore different scenarios to solve the problems and to improve the atmosphere and the performance of the division failed. In the following there are several solutions outlined to avoid and to solve the problems in the future.

2.2 Adverse career opportunities for women
Besides the problem of unequal payment of men and women described above, this paragraph deals with another big issue concerning gender conflicts – adverse career opportunities for women. During his internship at Mercedes Benz most of Christian’s superiors were male, which is consistent with the low share of 10.6% women in the company’s senior management. There are several reasons why women do not have the same career opportunities as their male colleagues. One important argument is that women in average do not have experienced the same educational track as men. In general universities are attended by a bigger percentage of men whereas if women are willing to attend university they often choose course of studies associated with bad career opportunities like social sciences, humane sciences or educational sciences. It is common knowledge that this aspect is linked to the traditional view of women where they are considered as housewives, so their responsibility does not include the duty to earn one’s living even in today’s attitudes towards this issue. But after all this is not sufficient to explain why there is such a big difference between career opportunities of men and women (Faugoo 2011).

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There is a second point why women are disadvantaged in relation to their opportunities of being promoted. From a company’s point of view women always carry the peril of getting pregnant and consequently if this becomes a matter of fact they cannot contribute to a company’s success in the same pattern as their male colleagues. German law guarantees expectant mothers the right of paid maternity leave and gives them the choice of unpaid parental leave up to three years. After the maximum of three years companies have to reemploy the women to comply with the law. Particular concerning higher management levels these circumstances are a hurdle for women to be promoted, but unfortunately this leads to a ‘pregnancy discrimination’ of female employees in general (EHRC 2011).

3. Appropriate solutions 3.1 Proposals to decrease discrimination in particular professions
Hundreds of millions of people suffer from discrimination in the world of employment. That problem does not only influence individuals. It affects the success of the company as well. A good and fair work environment is important for everyone, people who like their place and work are even better in the job than people who feel discriminated and unfairly treated. To create a good working atmosphere is one of the tasks of a human resource manager. The only resource that makes a difference to other companies is people in an enterprise. But what could be possible solutions to decrease discrimination in particular professions? The first proposal is to have a good human resource manager. He should assemble a team that fits together. It is also his task to solve any issues - if the collection of employees failed – and to hear the problem between them. Mostly it is useful to talk about the different views and to pay attention to people who felt discriminated. 4

In case of a bigger problem, employees have the chance to address their problems to a union. It is their task to represent the values and interests of employees. Moreover they try to create better working conditions in cooperation with the enterprise. Finally there would be the possibility to treat with judicial consequences against the employee who discriminates others. The company as well should induce legal actions against someone like that. It shows interest of the company in their own employees and implies their standing and values. Discrimination against women at the present time is inappropriate and men should understand that women in higher positions will be common in the future.

3.2 Female quota in senior management position
One first approach to minimize the conflict related to gender within a company could be the women quota. Approximately 90 percent of the leading companies in the European Union including Mercedes Benz have mostly men in their top management positions. With the exception of some individual countries this situation has not improved in the past few years. Women are not only underrepresented in top management positions but also earn less money than their male colleagues in these positions (Campbell 2008). However, especially in the U.S. many companies have learned that diversity in their workforce has a positive effect and improves the performance. People with different qualifications and living arrangements bring different expertise to a company. Moreover women have different perspectives enabling new views for organizations and therefore offer potential for change. There are various positive aspects for a larger women quota in senior management positions (Lansing & Chandra 2012).

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First of all, career prospects improve motivation and performance. If women have to constantly watch their male colleagues, as they pass up the career ladder, it will most likely have consequences leading to negative result for the company. Skills and competencies lie fallow and working below your capabilities leads to demotivation in the job and thus to lower performance and productivity (Smith 2006).

Secondly, more women in management positions improve the working environment. The collaboration between men and women increases efficiency, flexibility and creativity. Mixed-sex teams are better in accomplishing tasks, since they have a wider scope for action and problem solving available. Women bring different approaches and a diverse perspective into a male-dominated work structure (Nielsen&Huse 2012). Nevertheless there are also some negative aspects to be considered. For instance, women climbing up the career ladder only due to the quota might face envy within their male colleagues. Consequently this might lead to discrimination. They might even consider themselves as token women (Burgess & Tharenou 2002).

Particularly those countries which announced laws to women quotas, have a higher women percentage in leadership positions in comparison to all EU countries. Norway leads the ranking with almost 40 percent of women in leadership positions and mostly has good experiences concerning the quota (Sweigart 2012). Daimler for example aims to have a 20 percent share of women especially in management positions by 2020. Currently they are at 11 percent and since the beginning of 2011, Daimler has employed its first woman on the Board of Management.

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All in all, thus some negative aspects, a women quota in general can be a good solution to improve the workforce, helps to prevent discrimination between genders and leads to narrow the gender pay gap. The next part of the paper includes another possible problem-solving approach.

3.3 Gender mainstreaming
Within diversity management, gender mainstreaming is a long-term strategy for promoting equality between women and men in firms and therefore it is an appropriate way to prevent conflicts inside the workforce. Gender mainstreaming means to observe all planning and decision-making processes of gender issues and to take over responsibility for their implementation. Goal of the gender mainstreaming process is to question the causes. It is important to analyze the reasons for differences between men and women, the mechanisms by which they are driven and what consequences they have for each other. The application of gender mainstreaming will eliminate discrimination of women and men in the areas where their gender is currently unable to participate on equal terms. Gender mainstreaming assumes that both, women and men have their strengths and weaknesses. The key strategy of gender mainstreaming is not to eliminate the disadvantages of either sex but rather to create terms and conditions for which the strengths of both genders can be applied the most precisely.

The topic of gender equality and the merging of family and work is a widely discussed issue in public. Therefore a company’s gender equality and diversity policy can reflect positively for the firm’s public image. Gender equality in the enterprise is for many customers and clients a positive signal which can ensure the company a 7

market advantage. Moreover good human resource managers can help a company with Gender Mainstreaming to get the best employees from the whole talent pool, either men or women. Consequently one can say Gender Mainstreaming is a common instrument to improve the company´s success and to avoid any conflicts between genders by treating all employees equal in every aspect (Rittenhofer 2012).

4. Conclusion
This paper outlines one of the biggest issues in human resource management in our contemporary society and features important solutions to avoid and solve any conflicts between men and women within a company.

On the one hand the solutions mentioned above could help to manage conflicts between men and women in business and improve the company’s success. Nowadays it is essential to have a good diversity management to accomplish the company`s goals and to avoid these problems. Moreover for a global company as Mercedes Benz it is crucial to select the best employees out of the talent pool, either women or men. Therefore it is necessary to offer women equal opportunities concerning promotion as well as equal payment compared to their male colleagues. After all a skilled workforce ensures the company to be competitive. On the other hand new problems between men and women are likely to arise if women are just hired because of a woman quota because women might see themselves as token women. Consequently these aspects might influence the company’s performance in a negative way.

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Apparently, it is very important for a company like Mercedes Benz to have a successful diversity management to conduct the right solutions and to avoid the negative impact some of the solutions might have. Aware of this issue Mercedes Benz will be able to continue its success and remain a global player in the car manufacturing industry.

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5. List of references

Burgess, Z. & Tharenou, P. (2002). Women board directors: Characteristics of the few. Journal of Business Ethics, 37(1), 39-49. Campbell, K. (2008). Gender diversity in the boardroom and firm financial performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(3), 435-451. Claire, P. (2012). Korea’s gender pay gap biggest in oecd. The Korea Herald Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (2011). Flexibility would help women reach the top, Equal Opportunities Review, 4 Faugoo, D. (2011). The advancement of women to top management positions in the human resource management domain: A time for change?. International Journal of Business & Social Science, 2(20), 195-202. Holst, E. (2006). Women in managerial positions in europe: Focus on germany. Management Revue, 17(2), 122-142. Lansing, P., & Chandra, S. (2012). Quota systems as a means to promote women into corporate boardrooms. Employee Relations Law Journal, 38(3), 3-14. Nielsen, S., & Huse, M. (2010). The contribution of women on boards of directors: Going beyond the surface. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 18(2), 136-148. Rittenhofer, I. & Gatrell, C. (2012). Gender mainstreaming and employment in the european union: A review and analysis of theoretical and policy literatures. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(2), 201-216. Smith, N , Smith, V. & Verner, M. (2006). Do women in top management affect firm performance - a panel study of 2,500 danish firms. International Journal of 10

Productivity & Performance Management, 55(7), 569-593. Sweigart, A. (2012). “Women on Board for Change: The Norway Model of Boardroom Quotas as a Tool for Progress in the United States and Canada,” North Western Journal of International Law and Business, 32(4): 81A–105A

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