Rafi Almhana

Professor Atanu Bhattacharya

OB 354
May 22, 2014
Assignment 1
What could Accenture do to reduce the number of consultants who leave to work for client
firms? Would those strategies have any unintended drawbacks?
Accenture could reduce the number of consultants who leave to work for client firms in
many strategies. First of all, they have to study the reasons beyond the leaving. In other words,
they have to study what the employees need and what they are looking for emotionally and
mentally and professionally. So, they guarantee the three aspects of organization commitment,
which is combination of emotional and continuance and normative commitment. In this way,
they are going to reduce the rate of withdraw in their company and increase the rate of
commitment and loyalty.
Second of all, employees are trying to quit this job because they hate the mobility in this
kind of job and they prefer stable hours with stable location. They need to build their own
family, so they would rather spend hours with their children than traveling hours by plane from
place to place. Therefore, employers can establish a building for their company in every city in
which they have business. Then, they have to hire people in the same cities that they live in. in
this way, employees dont have to travel far away to start their new jobs. The drawback of this
approach is costing; it will cost the company a lot of money.
Final approach for Accenture is to create contract between them and the employees,
which states that they cant join a new firm for a period of time. But these strategies have some
unintended drawbacks. First of all, it might reduce the performance of the employees, so the
individual outcomes will suffer during the life of the contract. Secondly, this approach will affect
the emotional-based commitment toward the company because the employees will always feel
trapped and dissatisfied.
Can you think of any silver linings for Accenture when consultants do leave to work for
clients? Can such situations benefit the firm in some way?
Of course, these situations will benefit Accenture, because they will broaden and deepen
their professional networks with other firms. So, if the employees feel good about Accenture and
their time and coworkers and jobs there, they are going to be a positive side in these new firms
because they will go deeper in their business with Accenture, and they will suggest Accenture as
a good supplier and ally.