Gender Inequality in Business and Sports

Managing across borders 1
MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
Student Name
Course Title
Professor
Name of the Institution
City and State
Date

Managing across borders 2
OPERATING ACROSS BORDERS
The role of Multinational Companies (MNCs) in creating gender-based inequalities like
wage gap, discrimination, and workplace sexual abuse.
Executive Summary
This report explains the role of Multinational Companies (MNCs) in creating gender-based
inequalities like wage gap, discrimination and workplace sexual abuse. This would involve
analyzing KPMG (Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler), a global network of professional firms
that provides audit, tax, and advisory services. There is no doubt that MNCs have played a big
role in creating jobs, particularly for women, in both developed and developing countries.
However, MNCs have also created and encouraged gender inequalities at workplaces. The report
focuses on two women; one from India and another from the US. They were both discriminated
by KPMG management and this led them to quit their jobs. They are used in this report as case
studies to ascertain the role of MNC in encouraging gender-based inequalities. Discrimination
based on the global organizational genders issues that affect brand image. This paper thus
provides a detailed analysis of gender inequalities created by MNCs and their impacts on women
in the society.

Managing across borders 3
Introduction
A multinational corporation/company is an enterprise that operates in many countries but is
managed from one point, home country. A company that gets more than a quarter of its revenue
from operations outside the home country is classified under MNC. Coca-Cola, BMW, and Total
are among the most common MNCs globally. Through investing in other countries, MNCs have
led to the growth of the host country’s economy, the flow of capital, development of
infrastructure, the introduction of new technologies and creation of employment opportunities.
On the other hand, MNCs have been blamed for; influencing the policies of host countries,
providing poor working conditions, providing limited access to training, giving low pay and
encouraging gender-based discrimination. Recently, there have been complaints concerning
discrimination against women in MNCs. Therefore, this report shows how KPMG, a company
that operates in more than one continent, instigates gender-based inequalities. This will entail
focusing on the economic theory of labor market discrimination, gender inequality issues faced
by KPMG and impact on women. The conclusion shall summarize the report and call for action
by organizations operating across borders.
Economic Theory of labor market discrimination
The theory of labor market discrimination investigates why particular groups in the labor market
are disadvantaged. Certain characteristics such as race, gender, age or religion count a lot in
labor market. For example, why do women and minority ethnic groups have poor wages and low
opportunities? This theory states that discrimination is consumption good of the firm’s
management and that firms that discriminate are those willing to pay more than the prevailing
market wage (Baron, 2013, p. 24). They are also willing to pay less than the market-available

Managing across borders 4
talent level. This implies that firms that practice discrimination make less than those that do not
condone it. Wage difference occurs because of two reasons. People from the disadvantaged
group are given less for doing a particular job and all of them are crowded in a particular job
resulting in low pay. Secondly, the level of unemployment is higher for particular groups
compared to others.
KPMG and gender discrimination in India
A report by the Gender Diversity Benchmark in 2011 showed that Indian MNCs have fewest
women staff. They looked at 21 leading multination companies and discovered that the country
was last among 6 Asian countries analyzed. Also, the study discovered that not only did India
have the lowest number of women staff, but also lost most women employees as they went
along.
The participation of women in the workforce in India is currently at 24.43%. This is very low
compared to other countries such as China (49.79%) and Malaysia (47.35%) (Adityanath, 2015,
p. 2). Although MNCs are considered to have flexible working hours and inclusive policies,
judging by statistics, the number of women staff is very low. This begs the question: why are
women few in MNCs?
Inequality between men and women starts at education; when both of them are seeking equal
opportunities in education. This is instigated by the people’s culture which seems to view men as
superior to women. In India, women outperform in care-taking qualities while men impress in
taking-charge qualities (Nielsen, 2016, p. 2044). This mentality is encouraged in educational
institutions thus making women shy away from jobs which require them to take charge. Another
reason for low participation of women in the workforce in India is because women looking for