Christian Klein was in his second year as chief executive of SAP in January 2021 when...

  

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Christian Klein was in his second year as chief executive of SAP in January 2021 when he addressed a staff meeting to field questions about the imminent launch of a new push into cloud computing. A staff member took Klein, 42, to task over female representation. "If gender equality and women in leadership is important to SAP, why are there no female speakers?" one employee asked through al moderator, concerning the event planned for the announcement later that month. Klein's response took the audience aback. He said the question was "fair", and that SAP needs to improve its diversity. However, he added that he couldn't change the status quo overnight. "You can't just have anyone on the stage who has no clue on the topic," Klein said, according to a recording of the event. Several female employees found his response offensive because it suggested he regarded women as unknowledgeable, and they lodged complaints. While Klein later walked back the comments, the clash struck at the heart of SAP's struggle to elevate and retain women in some of its senior-most positions, including the former co-CEO and a one-time president of SAP's operations in Asia. Although the company's policy permits "close personal connections" between colleagues as long as they avoid conflicts of interest, some women believe the policy tacitly condones inappropriate behaviour. The software company has hosted networking events that involve heavy drinking and have resulted in unwelcome advances from senior male managers toward female colleagues, according to more than a dozen current and former SAP employees. Some women who have complained about mistreatment, such as bullying, unfair treatment or offensive sexual advances, found HR to be unhelpful or hostile, in some cases moving women to other roles or pushing them out of the company entirely. "SAP has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and unlawful discrimination of all kinds," Joellen Perry, an SAP spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We have a robust process for investigating 100% of reported allegations, and consequences for those found to be in violation of our policies can and have included termination of employment." With its headquarters in Germany, SAP is Europe's largest technology company, but its businesses span the globe, and it employs more than 31,000 people in the USA, SAP's office in South Africa is relatively small, comprising 700 employees. SAP has been struggling with a new strategy and fierce competition from rivals including Microsoft, Oracle and Workday. The stock has declined about 25% this year, giving SAP a market capitalisation of about €115 billion. This decline reflects a pandemic-related drop in demand for the company's Concur travel-expense management software, as well as concerns that Klein's strategic shift toward cloud-based products has yet to bear fruit. Companies across the technology industry have struggled to promote women to the highest levels. Research has shown that executives rarely attempt to change their company in a structural way to improve gender equality, and a PwC study of 2,000 UK university students showed 78% of students can't name a famous woman working in technology. But while major USA tech companies have been accused of failing to support women, many of their European rivals have largely managed to avoid similar scrutiny. In the USA, technology bellwethers, from Activision Blizzard to Uber Technologies, have well- documented histories of failing to combat harassment. Others, including Intel and Hewlett-Packard, have removed CEOs after learning that they were involved in intimate relationships with colleagues, Google parent, Alphabet, pledged US$310 million in 2020 to expand diversity efforts and resolve shareholder litigation that alleged the company's board failed to prevent sexual harassment and hid misconduct by executives. In Europe, more than a dozen people made public claims of sexual harassment and abuse against employees of French game-maker Ubisoft. SAP made history in 2019 when it promoted Jennifer Morgan, 51, to the role of co-CEO, alongside Klein. She was the first woman to lead one of Germany's 30 largest listed companies. But the pair disagreed on key issues from the start, Klein said in an interview in 2020. The co-CEO structure was disorganised and, at times, chaotic, a person with knowledge of the matter said at the time, Morgan helped oversee operations from SAP's US office outside Philadelphia, while Klein worked from headquarters in Germany, remaining close to Hasso Plattner, 78, SAP's influential co-founder and chairman, After less than a year, Morgan was on the way out. She is currently global head of portfolio operations at Blackstone. Eight months after Morgan's exit, Adaire Fox-Martin, an executive board member and the former president of SAP's Asia Pacific Japan business to 2017, announced her departure, Fox-Martin was a mentor to many women at SAP, and her resignation caused shockwaves among senior female leaders. SAP's gender-related issues have surfaced in at least one court case. A former executive in Singapore, Billie Jean Burlingame, said that her job was cut in a reorganisation last year after she spoke out against gender discrimination at the company, according to an ongoing lawsuit filed with the country's high court in December 2020, Burlingame, one of the highest-ranking women in the country, said in filings that she met or exceeded her performance targets and was on her former boss's succession plan. Even so, SAP said she was unsuitable for her former manager's role or any others she applied for after her position was eliminated, according to the court documents. Two weeks after Klein's comments at the company meeting in January last year, he attempted to make amends in a video shared internally. "I was by far not clear enough," he said, adding that he'd spent time reflecting on past hiring. "I can absolutely say, no, I wasn't always looking at diversity and inclusion," he| said. "And that isn't a bad intention, but you pick the people you know around you." Adapted from: Tech Central (2022) "SAP Wrestles With Concerns Over Treatment." IOL [online]. https://techcentral.co.za/sap-wrestles-with-concerns-over-treatment-of-women/210794/ Question 1 Identify and discuss the dimensions of diversity that are evident in the case study. (25 marks) Question 2 (25 marks) Discuss the difference between fair discrimination and unfair discrimination. To what extent is unfair discrimination evident in the case study? Question 3 (25 marks) Does the employment of women provide SAP with a competitive advantage, or does it contribute to workplace conflict? Discuss. Christian Klein was in his second year as chief executive of SAP in January 2021 when he addressed a staff meeting to field questions about the imminent launch of a new push into cloud computing. A staff member took Klein, 42, to task over female representation. "If gender equality and women in leadership is important to SAP, why are there no female speakers?" one employee asked through al moderator, concerning the event planned for the announcement later that month. Klein's response took the audience aback. He said the question was "fair", and that SAP needs to improve its diversity. However, he added that he couldn't change the status quo overnight. "You can't just have anyone on the stage who has no clue on the topic," Klein said, according to a recording of the event. Several female employees found his response offensive because it suggested he regarded women as unknowledgeable, and they lodged complaints. While Klein later walked back the comments, the clash struck at the heart of SAP's struggle to elevate and retain women in some of its senior-most positions, including the former co-CEO and a one-time president of SAP's operations in Asia. Although the company's policy permits "close personal connections" between colleagues as long as they avoid conflicts of interest, some women believe the policy tacitly condones inappropriate behaviour. The software company has hosted networking events that involve heavy drinking and have resulted in unwelcome advances from senior male managers toward female colleagues, according to more than a dozen current and former SAP employees. Some women who have complained about mistreatment, such as bullying, unfair treatment or offensive sexual advances, found HR to be unhelpful or hostile, in some cases moving women to other roles or pushing them out of the company entirely. "SAP has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and unlawful discrimination of all kinds," Joellen Perry, an SAP spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We have a robust process for investigating 100% of reported allegations, and consequences for those found to be in violation of our policies can and have included termination of employment." With its headquarters in Germany, SAP is Europe's largest technology company, but its businesses span the globe, and it employs more than 31,000 people in the USA, SAP's office in South Africa is relatively small, comprising 700 employees. SAP has been struggling with a new strategy and fierce competition from rivals including Microsoft, Oracle and Workday. The stock has declined about 25% this year, giving SAP a market capitalisation of about €115 billion. This decline reflects a pandemic-related drop in demand for the company's Concur travel-expense management software, as well as concerns that Klein's strategic shift toward cloud-based products has yet to bear fruit. Companies across the technology industry have struggled to promote women to the highest levels. Research has shown that executives rarely attempt to change their company in a structural way to improve gender equality, and a PwC study of 2,000 UK university students showed 78% of students can't name a famous woman working in technology. But while major USA tech companies have been accused of failing to support women, many of their European rivals have largely managed to avoid similar scrutiny. In the USA, technology bellwethers, from Activision Blizzard to Uber Technologies, have well- documented histories of failing to combat harassment. Others, including Intel and Hewlett-Packard, have removed CEOs after learning that they were involved in intimate relationships with colleagues, Google parent, Alphabet, pledged US$310 million in 2020 to expand diversity efforts and resolve shareholder litigation that alleged the company's board failed to prevent sexual harassment and hid misconduct by executives. In Europe, more than a dozen people made public claims of sexual harassment and abuse against employees of French game-maker Ubisoft. SAP made history in 2019 when it promoted Jennifer Morgan, 51, to the role of co-CEO, alongside Klein. She was the first woman to lead one of Germany's 30 largest listed companies. But the pair disagreed on key issues from the start, Klein said in an interview in 2020. The co-CEO structure was disorganised and, at times, chaotic, a person with knowledge of the matter said at the time, Morgan helped oversee operations from SAP's US office outside Philadelphia, while Klein worked from headquarters in Germany, remaining close to Hasso Plattner, 78, SAP's influential co-founder and chairman, After less than a year, Morgan was on the way out. She is currently global head of portfolio operations at Blackstone. Eight months after Morgan's exit, Adaire Fox-Martin, an executive board member and the former president of SAP's Asia Pacific Japan business to 2017, announced her departure, Fox-Martin was a mentor to many women at SAP, and her resignation caused shockwaves among senior female leaders. SAP's gender-related issues have surfaced in at least one court case. A former executive in Singapore, Billie Jean Burlingame, said that her job was cut in a reorganisation last year after she spoke out against gender discrimination at the company, according to an ongoing lawsuit filed with the country's high court in December 2020, Burlingame, one of the highest-ranking women in the country, said in filings that she met or exceeded her performance targets and was on her former boss's succession plan. Even so, SAP said she was unsuitable for her former manager's role or any others she applied for after her position was eliminated, according to the court documents. Two weeks after Klein's comments at the company meeting in January last year, he attempted to make amends in a video shared internally. "I was by far not clear enough," he said, adding that he'd spent time reflecting on past hiring. "I can absolutely say, no, I wasn't always looking at diversity and inclusion," he| said. "And that isn't a bad intention, but you pick the people you know around you." Adapted from: Tech Central (2022) "SAP Wrestles With Concerns Over Treatment." IOL [online]. https://techcentral.co.za/sap-wrestles-with-concerns-over-treatment-of-women/210794/ Question 1 Identify and discuss the dimensions of diversity that are evident in the case study. (25 marks) Question 2 (25 marks) Discuss the difference between fair discrimination and unfair discrimination. To what extent is unfair discrimination evident in the case study? Question 3 (25 marks) Does the employment of women provide SAP with a competitive advantage, or does it contribute to workplace conflict? Discuss.

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Question 1 Identify and discuss the dimensions of diversity that are evident in the case study The case study highlights several dimensions of diversity that are evident within the context of SAPs tre... View the full answer