Management and organisational behaviour in action case study

The Post Offce - Women in Leadership Programme

The Post Office is a commercial organisation with a social purpose. Its network of around 11,800 branches delivers over 170 products and services, serves 18 million customers per week and has 7,845 employees. Facing a specifi c challenge of declining female representation (March 2013: 61.4 per cent of frontline positions/43.8 per cent of fi rstline management/35.5 per cent of senior management/22.2 per cent of senior leadership), and a quarter of roles were part-time (90 per cent fi lled by women), it needed to increase females in senior teams. Initiatives included:

The Women in Leadership Programme

Senior Leadership Endorsement - the female chair and chief executive both acted as fi gure-heads. Sponsored by the Chief Executive, Paula Vennells, who attended each event to provide an introduction and undertake a question and answer session

Transparent Diversity targets - For 2013-14 the business set a target of appointing women into 40 per cent of its senior leadership and senior management roles, a 7 per cent increase on the 2012-13 out-turn.

Line Manager Support - workshops for seventy senior managers were run to explain the target and what people could do to support it. sessions focused on the business case and unconscious bias.

each event brings together eighty of the organisation's high-potential women identifi ed through existing performance and potential data. the events take place every three months with the objectives of:

1. profi ling female role models (internal and external).

2. Working on real business problems (a recent event focused on our female sMe customer proposition).

3. networking (our full executive is invited to the events so our aspiring female leaders can meet them informally).

Regular Follow-Up Communication - Bi-annual Women in Leadership events where high-potential women met role models, networked and worked on real business problems. Launch of a communications campaign called '3 minutes with' featuring an interview with someone in the post offi ce with a diverse perspective. Feedback for the event has been very positive with an average rating of 9.5 out of 10. the outcome resulted in 45.7 per cent of women appointed into senior management roles. the senior leadership team is now 28.3 per cent female. this activity is supporting the business to achieve a greater level of customer excellence and business engagement. the employee survey saw a 2 per cent increase in the level of customer understanding. the senior management talent programme identifi ed 40 per cent female members, over 4 per cent above the wider female representation at that level and a female engagement index of 58 per cent- currently 7 per cent above the organisational norm.

and aslo need this answers for this case give your views on the Women in Leadership programme.

1)What in particular do you think has contributed to the success of the programme?

2. explain why you think there has been an under-representation of women in senior leadership positions.

3. Comment critically on the representation, and actual responsibilities, of women in senior leadership positions in your own university and/or other organisation with which you are familiar.

Need toslove this case study by

Identification of the Main Issues / Problems

Analysis of the Issues

Comments on effective solutions/strategies (The solution may be in the case already or proposed by you)

Links to Course Readings and Additional Research