Assignment 1 24893051

Business and Social Impact 21895

Kim Chi Dang

Tutorial 01
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Gender equality in the workplace

1- Identify your social mission (300 words)

The current context of the workplace underestimates women’s capability more than men’s,
especially where I come from – Vietnam. This is probably due to the older generation’s
mindset: women should stay at home as a housewife, and men will provide, resulting in
inequality in how women are treated at work. I find it hard to bear to see women and men
creating the same value, and the same profit for the corporation and eventually not being paid
equally, not mentioning in some cases, women require to manage a lot more duties, but in
return, they receive less commission than men. There are endless situations where women in
Vietnam are denied a promotion or a raise just because they can not socialize and drink as
much as men can, even males could be less qualified than females. The problem arises not
only in Vietnam but draws global attention when it comes to double standards: men are
considered to possess “leadership skills” while women thriving in their work are called
“aggressive”. The women are less likely expected to raise their voices or express their
opinions, or even when they do, their words are not being taken seriously. Unlike men, they
could have said the same things as women did, then will be praised and celebrated with a
surprisingly positive reaction.

Owning a gender balance at work was somewhat unrealistic for some companies. As a person
experienced working in the Human Resources area in Vietnam, I encountered countless acts
of discrimination from organizations towards hard-working women, one thing I feel ashamed
of is not capable of doing anything different, anything that could make a positive impact.
Those things happened every day in Vietnam, and with that in mind, not a single day passed
that I did not want to help women out there being treated for what they deserved. Having said
that, I find myself fulfilled with the mission of promoting gender equality in the workplace,
learning from successful corporations and applying that to organizations in Vietnam.
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2. Research Business (300 words)

Having gender equality in the workforce is an essential social mission that leads to innovation
and making the world a better place. There have been significant organizations raising their
awareness and taking severe actions to promote women’s rights in the workplace. However,
one outstanding business that not only aligned its operation with the value and mission of
gender equality but also succeeded in making it become a reality is Accenture. They stated
clearly in their missions relating to advancing gender equality that from finding, recruiting, to
retaining and advancing people, Accenture is committed to being transparent and diverse
(Accenture, 2022). One remarkable goal in their operation is to “Set a goal on gender-
balanced workforce” (Accenture, 2017). According to Accenture, their specific target until
2025 is to reach the number of even 50 – 50 percent for both genders (Accenture, 2017). In
order to achieve this, there have been some excellent strategies taken into action. Firstly, the
company has implemented initiatives to reach the goal. Some extraordinary actions could be
named sending senior women to advance their knowledge by sponsoring management
courses, launching a course that teaches in-demand skills for women to take over high-
demanding roles, hiring more women from countries such as India, the US, Japan or any
ASEAN community (Accenture, 2017). Secondly, Accenture is vital in conducting research
and spreading knowledge to the business world. In “Resetting tech culture”, Accenture
(2020) provided insight into the current context in the technology industry, conducted
thorough research and pointed out multiple ways for organizations to attract and retain more
women in the 4.0 tech. Another exciting research they did was “Equality = Innovation”
Accenture (2019), based on the statistic, it is equality and diversity that enhance business
innovation, not increasing pay. Last but not least, it is crucial to mention Accenture’s efforts
in providing their women benefits such as arranging flexible working arrangements,
designing support for personal targets and more to come.

3. Assess alignment and Business performance (400 words)

It is undoubtedly that Accenture’s statement, value and practice align exceptionally well with
my social mission as they are committed to enhancing the balance of workforce. From my
point of view, I consider Accenture as a role model business for not only organizations in
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Vietnam to look up but also international ones. After careful examination, it is proven that
Accenture has made a notable positive impact on its employees and society. Firstly,
mentioning their goal to achieve the target of evenly the employee gender, 2017 reported
150,000 women in their workplace (which accounts for nearly 40 percent) then 2022 saw an
increasing number of 47 percent, making it 7 percent for five consecutive years (Accenture,
2022). This impacts significantly on their revenue since it is reportedly found that closing the
gap to number 50 percent will increase the global GDP to 6 percent (Accenture, 2017). In
addition, the percentage of women in managing positions witnessed the same beneficial
change, they reported tracking well toward the goal of 2025 to have 30 percent women in
Director, which is 28 percent in 2022 (Accenture, 2022). Secondly, thanks to Accenture’s
research on strategies to encourage women to pursue the technology industry (Accenture,
2020), Deloitte reported research in 2022 addressing the growing number of female overall
workforce from 30.8 percent in 2019 to 32.9 percent in 2022, accounting for 6.9 percent
increment (Deloitte, 2022). Moreover, Accenture had made an expressive action by coaching
their employees, specifically women. The year 2022 witnessed a $1.1B billion investment in
training, which is 40M hours, the number that climbed 27 percent compared to 2021
(Accenture, 2022). Furthermore, in honor of their contribution, Accenture received a large
number of awards, some can be named as Bloomberg gender-quality (two consecutive years),
Nikkei WOMAN top 100 companies for women (ranked no.1, five consecutive years on the
list) (Accenture, 2023).

In conclusion, I would like to praise Accenture’s contribution to making the social fair for
women in the workforce. While critically assessing their performance based on their missions
and statements, all of the projects and initiatives showcase a beneficial and practical impact
on women. Taking Accenture as a role model to accomplish substantial pace to gender
equality, I aspire to bring these successes to my home country – Vietnam. Having researched
all of their outcomes based on dedication, I am committed to delivering the same result to
companies in Vietnam, giving women a strong position where their voices will be heard.
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REFERENCES

Accenture. (2022). Creating value in all directions.

https://investor.accenture.com/~/media/Files/A/Accenture-IR-V3/home/accenture-fiscal-
2022-annual-report.pdf

Accenture. (2017, 14 June). Accenture Sets Goal to Achieve Gender Balanced Workforce by
2025. Cision. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/accenture-sets-goal-to-achieve-gender-
balanced-workforce-by-2025-628437583.html

Accenture. (2020). Resetting tech culture.

https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/a-com-migration/pdf/pdf-134/
accenture-a4-gwc-report-final1.pdf#zoom=50

Accenture. (2019). Equality = Innovation.

https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/a-com-migration/thought-leadership-
assets/accenture-equality-equals-innovation-gender-equality-research-report-iwd-
2019.pdf#zoom%3D40

Deloitte. (2022). Women in tech are cracking the industry’s glass ceiling, achieving double-
digit gains in leadership roles, Apr 2022.
https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/our-thinking/insights/industry/technology/women-tech-
leadership.html