B-School Cites Recruiting Bias In N.Y. Firm

A dean of the Business School and representatives from a prominent management consulting firm will meet tomorrow to discuss the firm's violation of Business School placement policies in a case involving alleged sex discrimination towards a Harvard graduate student.

In a complaint filed with the Business School Complaint Board February 19, a second-year woman student, who asked not to be named, charged McKinsey and Company with sex discrimination in a job interview she had earlier this year.

McKinsey Found in Violation

In findings released April 8, the committee which investigates all placement complaints for the Business School found that McKinsey and Company violated the B-School equal employment policy which prohibits sex discrimination.

In the report, the committee said that it lacked confidence in the company's consistency in applying the school's policies and procedures.

The report recommended that McKinsey prepare a plan of action for the Placement Complaint Board on or before May 15 that will give the Board confidence that there will be less likelihood of discriminatory recruiting practices in the future.

The committee also requested that McKinsey present a follow-up report due November 15, indicating "the steps it has taken to implement the plan of action previously presented to the board."

D. Ronald Daniels, director of McKinsey and manager of McKinsey's New York office, yesterday said he would make no public comment until after his meeting tomorrow with John H. McArthur, associate dean for the MBA program.

Harbus, the B-School's weekly publication, also disclosed this week a letter sent by McArthur, censuring McKinsey and Company for its violation of the B-School's equal employment policy.

In the complaint, the woman stated McKinsey and Company offered her a "lower, stereotypically female job of research consultant" instead of interviewing her for the job of consultant in Dusseldorf, Germany, for which she had applied.

In arguments presented to the Committee, the student accused McKinsey and Company of a pattern of discrimination against women in Germany. The student claimed that no woman has ever been employed as a consultant in McKinsey and company's offices in Germany. She also stated that the company interviewer told her that German executives do not like working with women and that "Dusseldorf was out of the question."

In response, McKinsey and Company argued it had already employed female consultants and denied the woman's allegation that the job of research consultant is a "stereotypically female position."

McKinsey officers also stated that the interviewer's discussion of German displeasure with women executives was merely informative and was not meant to indicate unwillingness on the company's part to hire a woman for the position.

McKinsey and Company executives also admitted that the firm's recruiting procedures are far from satisfactory and apologized for the interviewer's actions.

Dean W. Currie, assistant director of admission in the MBA program, said yesterday that the Placement Complaint committee report is "no wholesale judgment against the company."

Currie said that the violation is the case "of an isolated infraction of one recruiter in the company." Both sides are merely concerned that this does not happen again, he said.

Joan Mokray, co-president of the Women Student's Association at the B-School, said yesterday that the complainant has accepted a position at First National City Bank in New York.

The complainant could not be reached for comment