TOPIC- A Comparative study of how the top IT companies

i.e., TCS and Accenture are working towards making their

workplace more inclusive and shaping their organization
culture based on gender diversity.

SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. Arpita Shrivastava

Subject: Organization Behaviour and Human Resource

Management

ADMIN GROUP 4

Roll No16-Jahnavi Tiwari

Roll No 17-Janvi Aggarwal
Roll No 18-Karan Galaiya
Roll No 19-Keval Shah
Roll No 20-Khushi Mehta
Preface and Acknowledgement

Through this project report, we aim to put across how the top IT companies have taken
steps in order to make themselves more diversified and inclusive towards different
genders and in doing so how have they positively improved their organizational culture
as a whole. This report also includes a well detailed comparison of the two companies’
perspectives on diversity and inclusion, current organizational culture and measures
taken by each to improve both. All things considered, this report will help to
comprehend the current improvements relating to gender diversity and inclusion in the
IT industry, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, and what can be learned by the top
companies in that sector

We are deeply grateful to our professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human

Resource Management, Dr. Arpita Shrivastava for her wise guidance and support,
without whom the many hurdles that we faced during the process of this project couldn’t
have been crossed. We would also like to thank all the wonderful employees of TCS
and Accenture for their cooperation and responses necessary for the analysis and study.
Finally, we would like to thank our family and friends for the constant support and
motivation throughout the research process.

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Abstract

Diversity and inclusion are like two sides of the same coin. Diversity refers to
differences in human beings on the basis of colour, religion, gender, age and physical
attributes. Inclusion means contribution and participation from all the employees
irrespective of their gender, religion, experience etc. If a company has both workplace
diversity and inclusion, then it will enhance belongingness and also reduce the skill gap
amongst the employees which will increase the efficiency of an organization and help
them achieve their goals. Initially there was a huge gap between female and male labour
force. But nowadays as people are the coming out of their orthodox mindset, we can see
inclusion of female labour force has become very essential to encourage gender
diversity in organizations. This research paper shows a comparative study of how the
top IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Accenture are working towards
making their workplace more inclusive and shaping their organisational culture based
on gender diversity. A set of questions were formed and sent to the employees of the
above-mentioned companies in order to conduct a survey and collect primary data.
After conducting the survey, we were able to learn that TCS and Accenture both take a
lot of initiatives and has well defined training programs to make sure that women are
given equal opportunities in the organisation. Most women feel included and cared for
in the organisations and they believe that they have been given equal opportunities as
their male colleagues. This has led to an increase in productivity, creativity and has also
helped to create healthy competition amongst all employees to work better for the
organisation.
Hence to conclude it is very important for organizations to include ideas and opinions
of all the employees irrespective of their gender, age/experience, religion as it will only
lead to workforce diversity and inclusion which is crucial for any organization to
succeed.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Particulars Page number

1. Introduction 5-9
1.1Introduction about the organization 5
1.2 Rationale of selecting this topic 5
1.3 Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on 6
this industry
1.4 Problem statement and research
7
objectives
1.5 Literature review 7

2. Methodology used for the project 9

2.1 Data Collection
10

3. Data Analysis
3.1 TCS 10
3.2 Learnings, Understandings and 18
insights
3.3 Accenture
3.4 Learnings, Understandings and 19
28
insights

4. Comparative Study 30

5. Conclusion 32

6. Challenges, limitations, and suggestions 33

7. References 34

8. Annexure 35
8.1 Contributions
39

Introduction

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Introduction about the organisation
Accenture, a global professional services company with 482,000 people in more
than 120 countries, provides a range of services and solutions in strategy,
consulting, digital, technology, and operations.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is an

Indian multinational technology company that specializes in information
technology (IT) services and consulting, headquartered
in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group and operates
in 149 locations across 46 countries. TCS is the second largest Indian
company by market capitalisation.

Rationale of selecting this topic:

We wanted to understand more deeply about how the top IT companies are
handling gender diversity and creating a more inclusive environment for minority
groups, especially women. Through this survey we further wished to know how
gender diversity plays a vital role in shaping organisation culture and how these
companies are creating a cohesive workplace by encouraging gender diversity.
We believe this topic is very important in current scenario, several reports have
claimed that the percentage of women in the workforce has been significantly
declining globally. As per the Fortune list of May 2019, only 33 women (6.6%)
were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. With women representation constantly
dropping, it is all the more important to start making workplaces more inclusive
and conducive for women’s career growth. Even though our GDP is rising, the
real progress of our nation will be truly indicated when there is equal
representation of all the genders in the workforce.
Including talented women and giving them adequate opportunities for growth
will not only boost their career but will also benefit the organisation. It will bring
in new talent, new perspective, new ideas and eventually promote diversity in the
organisation. Inclusion can be a great morale booster as it goes on to show that
the company values for the employees, respects them and truly cares about them.
As per IMF, by reducing barriers to women in the workplace, you simultaneously
boost welfare and growth i.e., economic gains.

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Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on the IT sector:

Global economy has been majorly impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19. Business
sectors all around the world have been disrupted. The spread of the virus has led
countries into lockdown, fearing the economy slipping into a recession
I.T. industries have been the leading sector in India’s economic growth over the past
few years. It has played a very important role in fulfilling the dreams of country’s
several middle-class households and families. Since the country’s nearly 55% of
electronics are imported from China, it has now slid down to 40% due to the coronavirus
outbreak and the subsequent lockdown
However, due to Covid-19 outbreak, players in India’s IT services, according to
industry analysts, will see a significant slowdown in growth during this financial year.
According to reports from top software exporters, including Tata Consultancy Services,
Infosys, and HCL Technologies, will be impacted most by the lessened technology
spending from clients in the US and Europe following lockdowns across the globen the
time of crisis. According to brokerage HDFC revenue of I.T sector will be cut down by
2-7 percent in the next 6 months because of delay in decisions.
Former Chief Financial Officer at Infosys Ltd V Balakrishnan released a statement
saying that I.T industries will be affected due to multiple reasons. With the restriction
on movement of people following the scare, Indian IT companies’ ability to deliver
services on-site could get severely affected but that could be addressed to some degree
by working remotely.
Here are a few steps/policies that IT sector should take in order to overcome the ill
effects of COVID-19: -
• Appoint an accountable leader, supported by a cross-functional team, to handle
this ongoing crisis.
• form a framework for data analysis and decision-making.
• Run simulation exercises based on real life scenarios in the short, medium and
long term.

• Exhibit cybersafe platforms that will support remote employees. Having lesser
workers in the office makes it safer for those whose jobs require them to be there
• Evaluate financial reporting requirements and the impact of audit.
• Re-check all the key assumptions which were made in financial projections.

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 • Communicate and co-ordinate current and potential future impacts to
shareholders.
• Reprioritize limited supply to the most profitable regions, segments and
customers.
• Team with technology channel partners to understand where future demand can
be generated in the short term, such as in countries not as hard hit by the virus.
• Evaluate all the pricing actions and other alternatives to bolster current and
future quarterly demands.
• Re-evaluate cost structure.
• Prepare for a slowdown by assessing which organizational levers to pull.
• Improve enterprise’s risk-management efforts.

Research problem:

• To analyze the attitude of companies towards minorities like women.

Research objective:

• To study the inclusiveness of women in their workplace

• To understand the organization culture based on gender diversity

Literature review
Diversity and inclusion are related but different concepts. Diversity is about or the
make-up of an organization with different cultural and ethical backgrounds, ages,
gender and religions. On the other hand inclusion is the ability of the company to value,
integrate and synergise the contributions/works and perspectives of those different
cohorts. Hence a company that is diverse as well as inclusive is one where all people
irrespective of their job or who they are as a person or a group are uniformly involved
and appreciated in all areas of the workplace.
Over the past few years, companies have on an increasing rate, started to acknowledge
and embrace the importance of gender diversity and inclusion in the workplace by the
acceptance of the fact that people, by and large, have different choices, beliefs and
practices. Therefore strategies relating to diversity and inclusion are a necessity in
business today. All companies, especially the MNCs which serve to customers on a
global level have to understand the global as well as local perspective in order to
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correctly cater to several markets to sustain and grow. To understand both the
perspectives, it is an imperative for the companies to hire and retain people with various
skills and backgrounds which leads to having a diverse range of workforce with their
knowledge, work experience and personal experiences and give the whole organization
a vision and mission tailored to consumers all around the world. To achieve this, the
crucial first step is the proactive involvement of top level leadership in formulating and
implementing measurable strategies oriented towards diversity and inclusion and to
ensure that the initiatives trickle down the organization.
Business and companies have for a long time debated about the effects of gender
diversity on the bottom line of the business. While in general the diverse companies
have performed better, there are conflicting studies that show gender diversity can also
have a negative impact on performance. In a study done by HBR, which researched on
the 1069 top firms from 35 countries and 24 industries, it was found that gender
diversity increased the work productivity and business results only in the countries
where the practice of diversifying on scale was accepted. For instance, some countries
like Japan where a strong patriarchy prevails, do not benefit much from gender diversity
as compared to the businesses in Western Europe. By most measures however, research
has proven that employees in countries like U.S. prefer to work in diverse companies and
that those companies have the ability to generate more innovative and creative ideas,
leaders are more effective and diverse teams are more likely to have some common
experiences with their ultimate customer for better value addition. Gender diverse
companies are found to be more trusted by investors and those that aren’t are criticised.
Statistically, women and men are four and two times more likely to become senior
managers and directors. The organization and employee would be more congruent and the
percentage of women in decision making would increase by 43%. Moreover, increasing
the retention rate of women by only 5% will help save a company employing fifty thousand
employees. Thus, organizations that cultivate gender diversity tend to benefit more and
earlier, outlasting the other players.
Although there are solid advantages of diversity and inclusion, the real data shows that still
there are very few women at the top level contributing only 2.8% of all fortune 500 global
CEOs. A study done by Accenture shoes that the views of leaders and employees are
different when it comes to workplace culture. Two third leaders believe that an inclusive
culture is important whereas only one third employees agree with that. Still, the numbers
have shown that most leaders aren’t prioritizing or taking concrete steps to achieve gender
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diversity and inclusion. Also, the employees who feel that they aren’t included in the
organisation is ten times more than what leaders believe. Hence there is a huge gap and
inconsistency in the beliefs in the companies. The study suggested that to make equality
and inclusion a reality and incorporated in the organization, it should be a priority. Three
major steps to achieve it are cultivating bold leadership (diverse and effective team), taking
comprehensive action (carefully prepared policies and practices regarding recruitment and
retention) and creating an empowering environment (with trust, respect, freedom and
flexibility). Creating a roadmap to fully understand the employee’s point of view and
closing all the gaps of perception is the key.
The case for inclusion and diversity still remains strong and companies must act with a
sense of urgency. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for the
businesses, the mission of greater inclusion should not be put off to focus exclusively on
the financials or other aspects of the business. With multiple studies, surveys and reports
showing that diversity is an amplifier of performance of teams as well as the organization
as a whole, emphasis on diversity and inclusion should in fact be more now than ever.
There are many examples of companies that prove that those with diverse and inclusive
culture have made better decisions, innovated more and adapted to consumer behaviour
and technology shift better, giving the companies a chance to stand out and sustain in the
crisis. A boon that this pandemic has brought that with remote working and increased
flexibility more women and other minorities can be retained, diversifying and the firm.
Hence, with utmost insistence, all the companies should embrace that the attention and
hard work on this success factor will be worth it for all parties concerned.

Methodology

Our research explored how two of the top IT companies are achieving results in
gender diversity and inclusion in their organizational culture with growing
awareness from the leaders all around the world. The research on diversity and
inclusion is based on primary data as well as secondary data. We have collected
our primary data by survey method. The group brainstormed the questionnaire
ensuring it was all encompassing and was sent to the employees of the selected
companies. For secondary data, we reviewed various research reports, published
articles and websites to better grasp the available information about the topic and
help us analyze the data collected. The analysis of the data was done with the
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help of quantitative methods by converting the responses gathered into charts and
graphs for visual representation and much clearer understanding.

Data Collection

We circulated two different questionnaires, one for Accenture and the other for TCS
to engage with their respective employees and to get an insight about both the
company’s stand regarding gender diversity and inclusiveness and we received 8
responses for Accenture and 5 for TCS and all the respondents were women
employees of their respective organization.

Data Analysis
Tata Consultancy Services
Question 1

Most of the respondents i.e., 60% were neutral towards this statement. While out of the
remaining respondents, half strongly agreed, and the other half agreed.

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Question 2

60% of the respondents agreed towards this statement out of which 20% strongly
believe that they see strong leadership support in the case of diversity and inclusion.
20% remained neutral while the rest of the women disagreed.
Question 3

80% of the women agree that TCS has a fair remuneration policy towards women, out
of which 20% strongly agreed. The rest 20% remained neutral.

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Question 4

Majority of the women agree with the above statement while 20% disagreed and the
other 20% remained neutral.

Question 5

Majority of the women i.e., 60% were neutral towards this statement and the other 20%
disagreed as opposed to just 20% agreeing with it.

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Question 6

60% of the women disagreed to this statement and out of the remaining respondent’s
half of them agreed while the other half were neutral towards it.

Question 7

60% of the women disagreed to the above statement and the remaining half strongly
disagreed and agreed.

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Question 8

40% of the women were not sure regarding the above statement and the other 40%
responses with a “yes”. While the remaining women responded a “no”.

Question 9

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Out of the total women 40% of them weren’t aware about the above program mentioned
and the other 40% said they were definitely aware and the remaining 20% hadn’t even
heard about this program .

Question 10

There is an equal percentage of women who are sure and women who are unsure about
TCS having policies that are designed to foster inclusion in the workplace. While the
remaining 20% don’t agree with it.

Question 11

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60% of the women replied with a “yes” with respect to the above statement, and the
remaining respondents had a tie between a “maybe’ and a “no”.

Question 12

80% of the women agree that TCS does promote and ensure equal representation of
women and men in decision-making processes. While the remaining women remained
neutral.

Question 13

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There’s an equal distribution of women who agree and those who remain neutral to the
above statement. Whereas the other 20% have straight up disagreed.

Question 14

80% of the women agreed that TCS takes strict actions against any gender
discrimination practices. While the other remaining 20% disagreed.

Question 15

100% of the respondents i.e women agreed to this above statement.

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Question 16
What according to you would be the good practices on dealing with marginalization or
vulnerabilities faced by women due to intersectionality, feminization of work, informal
economy, and conflict?

1 response we got was –

Raising awareness of public is essential with the help of initiative programs to promote women
and conducting diverse drives to discuss such issues.

Learnings, understandings, and insights

After conducting this survey and making use of secondary data such as research papers,
web sources, reports, articles, we have drawn the following inferences:
• Gender diversity and inclusivity of women have become a top priority among
the top organizations for their overall organizational growth.
• We can see from the following survey that TCS takes many initiatives and
conducts training programs like POSH and many activities to ensure that the
women in their workplace are given equal opportunities for their career growth
which overall helps in boosting the organization’s growth.
• TCS makes sure to make the women workforce feel inclusive and cared for
which can be reflected by the survey conducted.
• Most of women working in TCS feel equal to their male counterparts which
indicates that there is almost no gender discriminatory practices being followed
at TCS.
• The survey also shows us that gender diversity and inclusion have become a key
factor to create a safe and conducive environment in the organization for women.
• We can also infer from our study based on secondary data that gender diversity
in TCS has helped to strengthen women employee empowerment and creating a
talented workforce.

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 • Thus, we can infer that this combination of gender diversity and inclusiveness
in the workplace can help to seek win-win solutions for the organization as it
has a strong focus on teamwork, ensures more adaptability while inspiring
others to create a favourable workplace for women.
• Thus, TCS ensures that the women job satisfaction level is raised, and the
women leaders become more passionate and find out opportunities to develop
throughout their entire future career and display a higher level of competency in
exhibiting leadership skills and be efficient and effective leaders in turn
increasing the overall creativity of the workplace.

Accenture
Following is the analysis of a survey questionnaire that was sent across to women
employees at Accenture. The number responses considered for the analysis is 5.

Question 1

80% strongly agreed to the statement and 20% agreed to it. This indicates that there
is good involvement of women in the organisation.

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Question 2

60% strongly agreed to the statement and 20% agreed to it, while 20% were neutral.
This implies that there is subsequently strong leadership support of the firm's value of
diversity and inclusion

Question 3

60% strongly agreed to the statement and 20% agreed to it, while 20% were neutral.
This indicates there is a fair remuneration policy towards women in Accenture.

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Question 4

40% strongly agreed to the statement and 40% agreed, while 20% disagreed with it.
This shows that the company does fairly have equal opportunity policy for women.
However, because we have 20% who did not agree to this, the company should try to
arrange counselling sessions to understand the problems faced by women employees,
and hence getting a 100% agree for this question.

Question 5

60% strongly agreed to it and 20% agreed, while 20% were neutral. This implies that
Accenture does have a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles

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Question 6

40% disagreed to the statement and 40% strongly disagreed, while 20% were neutral.
Thus, we can say that Accenture does not have a male dominated workplace.

Question 7

60% agreed to the statement and 20% strongly agreed, while 20% strongly disagreed.
Thus we see that gender bias is not seen at Accenture. However there is 20% who
strongly disagreed to it. This can be maybe because of some bad experience that the
employee faced, due to which they strongly disagreed to it. The company must work
towards identifying such employees and help them by ensuring that they feel
comfortable in the company.

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Question 8

60% said yes and 20% said maybe, while 20% said no. There is an anti-sexual
harassment, anti-gender violence policy at Accenture. Considering the responses the
company should bring more awareness about it so that more number of female benefits
can benefit from the same.

Question 9

80% said definitely, while 20% were not aware. This is a training given to all the
employees joining the company. The 20% who were not aware should enquire about
it as it makes one feel secure in the company by having an assurance that they can
seek for help if ever required.
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Question 10

60% were neutral and 20% strongly agreed to it, while 20% agreed. Accenture does aim
at 50-50 ratio, let’s see how well they achieve to it.

Question 11

60% strongly agreed to it, while 40% agreed. Thus Accenture does have strict women
safety standards and measures. Accenture encourages women to work and ensures
them of their security.

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Question 12

80% said yes, while 20% said maybe. Accenture does have a SOS service for which
proper training is given on how to use it, etc once you join the company. It is a user-
friendly service and helps women employees feel safe and secured.

Question 13

60% said not at all and 20% said occasionally, while 20% said frequently. Accenture
tries to give all the necessary services to help employees feel safe and comfortable. It
should now encourage people to make full use of it so that maximum number of
employees can enjoy its benefits.

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Question 14

60% strongly agreed to it, while 40% agreed. Thus the SOS service by Accenture is
an effective step towards making the workplace more inclusive and safe for women.

Question 15

40% were extremely aware and 40% very aware, while 20% were moderately aware.
Accenture Vaahini is a pioneering network working toward women’s inclusion in the
workforce and women in leadership. This forum offers talented women professionals
in India an opportunity to learn, share and empower themselves and others.

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Question 16

40% said excellent and 40% said good, while 20% were neutral. Accenture Vaahini
is growing day by day and helping women empower themselves by learning new
skills.

Question 17

The responses received were “Sanity” and “None”. Accenture seems to have covered
all aspects when it comes to women inclusion and diversity and also its women
employees are happy with being associated with the company. Maybe the company
can work more towards having more such sessions with women like one on ones
where women can talk more freely and if any concerns are raised, they can be
addressed to then and there.

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Learnings, understandings, and insights

After conducting the survey, analysing it and making use of secondary data such as
research papers, web sources, reports, articles, we have drawn the following
inferences:

• Accenture strives to build an environment that empowers women and has a

strong commitment to build a workplace which provides equal opportunities
to all.
• With diversity initiatives and principles ingrained in the culture, the focus for
the business moving forward is to ensure there is a robust pipeline of women
leaders ready to assume leadership roles and propel the business forward.
• Accenture has a simple “We embrace authenticity at work–including sexual
orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”
• In Accenture, gender diversity is a priority for management and the
organisation clearly states its gender equality goals and policies.
• Accenture found that an empowering environment is a leading indicator of a
culture that’s favourable to women’s success.
• Accenture believes that - The future lies in a work culture of equality and a
workforce in which everyone is equal.
• Accenture believes that if companies want to grow, they also have to innovate.
Workplaces that have a culture of equality exponentially increase their ability
to do both. An empowering, bias-free and supportive gender equal workplace
leads to an innovation mindset.
• Thus, gender equal workforces work better in many ways. Cohesive workplace
and more productive workforce is one of the major benefits of improved
gender equality.

Thus I would like to conclude that Accenture’s research also showed that in these
environments it’s not just women who thrive; everyone does, LGBT+ employees were
three times as likely to reach senior management positions, and men were twice as
likely to advance. By tackling a culture of inequality, it turns out that there are no

28
losers. This is not a zero-sum game. Everyone benefits when everyone is equally
valued and given the opportunity to thrive.

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Comparative study of TCS and Accenture

Previously we did the data representation with the help of statistics for both of these top
IT companies, we can see quite a few differences between the schemes and initiatives
of TCS and Accenture. This is a statistical comparative study of both the companies
which will tell us which company is more gender inclusive and conducive for women
employees’ growth.

I feel inclusive in my I see strong leadership

organization support of the firm's value
100%
of diversity and inclusion
80%
80%
60% 60%
40% 40%
20% 20%
0% 0%
Neutral Agree Strongly Diasgree Neutral Agree Strongly
agree agree

TCS Accenture TCS Accenture

Fig 1 Fig 2

Does your company have a

fair remuneration policy
towards women?
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Fig 3 TCS Accenture

As we can see from the above bar graphs, we can infer that the women employees
working in Accenture clearly feel more inclusive compared to TCS. One of the reasons
for this is maybe that Accenture has better leadership support of the firm’s value of
diversity and inclusion to which majority of the women strongly agree. Moreover,

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 Accenture is more gender friendly e.g., it has a fairer remuneration policy towards
women, which is extremely fruitful for the business growth.

Does your company have an Is your company a

equal opportunity policy to signatory of women
ensure non-discrimination empowerment
against any type of principles?
demographic group including 80%
women? 60%
100% 40%
50% 20%

0% 0%
Diasgree Neutral Agree Strongly Diasgree Neutral Agree Strongly
agree agree

Fig 4 TCS Accenture Fig 5 TCS Accenture

Is your workplace more male

dominated?
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Strongly Diasgree Neutral Agree Strongly
disagree agree

TCS Accenture
Fig 6

We can see from the above charts that TCS provides equal opportunities to both men
and women and therefore helps in building women leaders as they are responsible for
delivering organizational results and will strengthen the organizational level of
creativity and innovation. However, we see that Accenture holds a strong stand for
women empowerment as opposed to TCS.

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 I have felt disadvantaged at Does your company have an
my workplace for reasons anti-sexual harassment,
relating to my gender. anti-gender violence policy
80% or equivalent?
60% 80%
40% 60%

20% 40%

0% 20%
Strongly Diasgree Neutral Agree Strongly 0%
disagree agree Yes No Maybe

TCS Accenture Fig 8 TCS Accenture

Fig 7

Has your organisation

conducted POSH training
programs for the employees in
your workplace ?
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Definitely Not at all Not aware

Fig 9 TCS Accenture

Accenture takes more active steps to combat sexual harassment and holds more training
programs to make the women employees in their workplace feel more secure and safe.

Conclusion
From the above comparative study, we can infer that Accenture is the better company
in terms of inclusiveness and overall diversity in the workplace. It has become evident
that encouraging gender diversity and inclusiveness at workplace has become a success
formula for extremely creative, innovative, engaged, and productive organisation across
the globe. Thus, it has become the topmost priority of most of the organisation’s
worldwide. Gender inclusion has a positive impact on the organisation and in turn help
to shape its culture. After reviewing the literature, it has been extracted that majority of

32
research work in the field of gender diversity and inclusion has focused upon its
beneficial influences upon organisational overall growth. Inclusion of employees
without any gender bias will promote new talent, ideas, perspective and eventually
foster diversity in the organisation. Accenture takes active steps to ensure that their
women workforce feels inclusive and valued and cared for by maintaining a 50-50 ratio
of men and women in the workplace allowing equal representation of all. Accenture is
said to have strict women safety standards and measures which provides a secure
working environment for the women and its SOS service is a great example of this
which is great initiative taken by the company and all the women respondents with
respect to the survey we conducted agree to it. Accenture has also come up with its
“Vaahini network” which relentlessly works towards women inclusion in the workforce
and equal representation of the women at the top management level. This network is a
great and effective step to combat the problem of gender bias and build a strong
organisational culture.

Challenges we faced and suggestions

Our group faced some challenges as we prepared this research report, and they
are listed below with the suggestions to overcome those challenges.

1. Limitation: Choosing the method for data collection

Since different methods of collecting primary data like interviews and focus
groups and surveys give different answers due to the type of questions and other
external factors, deciding on the best option for our group was a challenge for us.

Suggestions –

•Recognize the external constraints – Identifying what factors will affect the
research and in what manner according to the project report needs and
objectives will help in zeroing down on the method to be selected

•Make a resource list – If all members of the group can list down and
coordinate their individual resources like networks or prior knowledge about
the topic, it will help clarify how much information they have and how much
they don’t know and select a method accordingly.

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2. Limitation: Group Coordination

Working as a group in a way that is harmonious and effective to produce the best
work was a challenge.

Suggestions –

•Appropriate Delegation – Using the strengths of each group member and

dividing the work in a well-defined way cuts out a lot of clutter and
inefficiencies.

•Regular Communication – Clear communication has always been one of the

strategies for successful teamwork. Meaningful communication on a
consistent basis along with each member being encouraged to contribute
leads to better and efficient output.

3. Limitation: Getting responses form the companies

Due to factors like time, getting quick answers from the institutions is tough
provided one has gotten the permission by the companies to take a survey. Since
our topic was a little delicate too, persuading the responders to answer with an
open mind was a challenge we faced.

Suggestions –

•Get good at networking – The ability to form relationships with people who
are willing to help is very crucial for getting primary data. The access is easier
if you befriend the gatekeeper.

•Persuasion and Communication Skills – Selling yourself and your idea in a

way that inspires and excites people to help you get what you want is an art
that is necessary for getting the answers.

References
(Computer Business Review, n.d.)
(Tata Consultancy Services, n.d.)

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Zillman, C. (2019). The Fortune 500 Has More Female CEOs Than Ever Before.
Fortune. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2019/05/16/fortune-500-female-
ceos/

Hunt, V., Dixon-Fyle, S., Prince, S., & Dolan, K. (2020). Diversity wins: How
inclusion matters. McKinsey and Company.

Nayak, S. (2020). The Importance of Diversity & Inclusion in a Workplace. Retrieved

from ceoinsightsindia.com: https://www.ceoinsightsindia.com/ceo-talks/the-
importance-of-diversity-inclusion-in-a-workplace-nwid-1273.html

Sweet, J., & Shook, E. (2020). THE HIDDEN VALUE OF CULTURE MAKERS.
Accenture.

Zhang, L., Wu, D., & Turban, S. (2019, February 11). When Gender Diversity Makes
Firms More Productive. Retrieved from hbr.org:
https://hbr.org/2019/02/research-when-gender-diversity-makes-firms-more-
productive

Annexure

Questionnaire

• Accenture

Question 1 - Do you feel inclusive in your organisation ?

Question2 - Do you see strong leadership support of the firm’s value of diversity and
inclusion.?

Question3 -Does your company have a fair remuneration policy towards women?

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Question4 -Does your company have an Equal Opportunity Policy or equivalent, to
ensure non-discrimination against any type of demographic group including women?

Question 5-Is the company a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles?

Questions 6-Do you feel that your workplace is more male dominated ?

Questions 7-Have you ever felt disadvantaged at your workplace for reasons relating
to your gender ?

Question 8- Does your company have an anti-sexual harassment, anti-gender violence

policy or equivalent?

Question 9-Has your organisation conducted (The Prevention of Sexual Harassment

Act )(POSH) training programs for the employees in your workplace ?

Question 10 -If your firm could make one change that would help encourage more
women what would that be-

Question 11- Various articles show that Accenture aims to keep a 50-50 ratio, do you
think it is true: are they living up to their claims?

Question 12- Accenture is known to have strict women safety standards and measures,
do you agree with it ?

Question 13 – Are you aware of Accenture’s SOS service for women?

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Question 14- How often do you use this SOS service?

Question 15- Do you think the SOS service by Accenture is an effective step towards
making the workplace more inclusive and safe for women?

Question 16- Are you aware of Accenture’s Vaahini Women Network?

Question 17- Do you think Accenture’s Vaahini serves its purpose as a platform
towards women’s inclusion in the workforce and women in leadership?

• TCS

Question 1 - Do you feel inclusive in your organisation ?

Question2 - Do you see strong leadership support of the firm’s value of diversity and
inclusion.?

Question3 -Does your company have a fair remuneration policy towards women?

Question4 -Does your company have an Equal Opportunity Policy or equivalent, to

ensure non-discrimination against any type of demographic group including women?

Question 5-Is the company a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles?

Questions 6-Do you feel that your workplace is more male dominated ?

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Questions 7-Have you ever felt disadvantaged at your workplace for reasons relating
to your gender?

Question 8- Does your company have an anti-sexual harassment, anti-gender violence

policy or equivalent?

Question 9-Has your organisation conducted (The Prevention of Sexual Harassment

Act ) (POSH) training programs for the employees in your workplace ?

Question 10 -If your firm could make one change that would help encourage more
women what would that be-

Question 11- Does TCS have any policies in place that is specifically designed to
foster inclusion in the workplace?

Question 12- Do you think TCS’s recruiting efforts support a diverse culture?

Question 13- Does TCS promote and ensure the equal representation of women and
men in decision making processes?

Question 14- Does TCS make sure that inclusivity and diversity remain the same
across all divisions of the organization?

Question 15- Does TCS take firm steps if they find out that there is gender
discrimination or any other sort of discrimination going on against any particular
person in a certain division of an organization?

Question 16- Do you think that TCS respects and takes into consideration the
perspectives and opinions of each and every employee?

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Question 17- What according to you would be the good practices on dealing with
marginalisation or vulnerabilities faced by women due to inter-sectionality,
feminization of work, informal economy and conflict?

Contributions:

1. Preface and acknowledgement- Karan Galaiya (J18)

2. Abstract- Keval Shah ( J19)
3. Introduction about the organization- Khushi Mehta (J20)
4. Rationale of selecting this project – Jahnavi Tiwari (J16)
5. Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on this industry- Keval Shah(J19)
6. Problem statement and research objectives – Janvi Aggarwal (J17)
7. Literature Review- Karan Galaiya (J18)
8. Methodology- Karan Galaiya(J18)
9. Data collection
a. TCS Questionnaire- Karan Galaiya (J18) and Keval Shah (J20)
b. Accenture Questionnaire- Jahnavi Tiwari (J16) & Khushi Mehta
(J20)
c. Collection of responses
i. TCS- Khushi Mehta (J20)
ii. Accenture- Janvi Aggarwal (J17)
10. Data Analysis
a. TCS- Jahnavi Tiwari (J16) & Khushi Mehta (J20)
b. Accenture-Janvi Aggarwal(J17)
11. Learnings, understandings, and insights
a. TCS- Jahnavi Tiwari (J16) & Khushi Mehta (J20)
b. Accenture-Keval Shah(J19) & Khushi Mehta(J20)
12. Comparative study of both the companies- Jahnavi Tiwari (J16) & Khushi
Mehta (J20)
13. Conclusion- Jahnavi Tiwari (J16) & Khushi Mehta (J20)
14. Challenges, limitations and suggestion- Karan Galaiya (J18)
15. Formatting and compilation of the whole project- Jahnavi Tiwari (J16)

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