FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (CHAPTER # 2) - ANSWERS

Managing Diversity versus Equal Opportunity Approaches: One of the core differences between managing religious diversity and equal opportunity is associated with the force for change.

Whereas external forces, such as government legislations, social fairness, ethical and human rights etc, tend to drive the equal opportunity, managing diversity tends to be driven by internal forces within the organisational structure and is immediately connected with the bottom line.

Another difference between these two approaches are their goals. The goal of equal opportunity has been mentioned as social justice and rectifying errors that have been made previously in the past:

The core motivation behind the equal opportunity framework at governmentallevel and the equal opportunity strategies and practices at organisational level has been identified as an attempt to establish equality. For example, the creation of such a community or organisation, where men and women are dealt with in the same manner and no advantage or disadvantage is given to them based on their sex. In contrast, the term ‘managing diversity’ is there to point out the significance of difference and put forward a viewpoint where difference is welcomed and is considered as an advantage rather than a disadvantage to theorganisation.

In essence, the economic and business cases are the main fundamental driving force for the managing diversity approach for identifying and evaluating differences. This is in comparison to the ethical case to treat everyone evenly, which is the main driving force for the equal opportunity approach. The equal opportunity approach is there to have an impact on behaviour through legislation in order to eliminate discrimination.

Finally, managing diversity is regarded as a more integrated approach to put equality into practice and is described to be the responsibility of all managers, whereas equal opportunity approaches are driven only by the human resource managers..Problems with managing diversity and equal opportunity approaches: Although managing diversity approaches were seen by many as a redefined alternative, and also as a strategy for even greater progress in terms of equality, to the equal opportunities

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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (CHAPTER # 2) - ANSWERSapproach, this progress has appeared to be very little noticed. Some argue that changing the term from equal opportunity to diversity management may just be a way of making it more colourful in today’s perspective and therefore just simply a mechanism to reinvigorate the equalopportunity agenda.Recent studies indicate that there are only a small number of organisations that can be referred to as management of diversity exemplars, and even those who claim to be suchorganisations, do not have a more diverse workforce than their counterparts. Moreover, during the past five years these organisations did not employ more minority groups. There is another fairly strong argument that if the primary feature of managing diversity is the concentration on individualism, then this may well narrow our consciousness about underprivileged social groups (Liff, 1999).

Finally, the managing diversity approach can be considered and labelled as introspective as it is concerned only with those people who are already in the organisation.

On the other hand an equal opportunity approach has its own problems as well. As mentioned earlier, one of the main criticisms is that the equal opportunity legislations do not protect all the minority groups, and therefore there is still room for discrimination to take place. Moreover there is a general concern over the fact that it does not also receive the support it should have gained from organisations. This is partially because of the fact that the core equality objectives are not prepared solely for the businesses and as a result it is not as compatible with business objectives as its alternative.

Equal opportunity lays its central focus on formal processes and it is often impossible to formalise every single process in an organisation. A recent study indicates that an equal opportunity approach isolated a substantial part of the workforce that consisted of those employees, who were not identified as disadvantaged or minority groups. This therefore had the effect that those workers considered that their opportunities were hindered. On top of that there are a considerable number of workers, who feel that entry standards have been lowered by the equal opportunity initiatives.

In essence, the equal opportunity approach is believed to be an oversimplified approach to a complicated problem, and is effective only in dealing with the symptoms rather than the roots of discrimination that take place.

Managing Diversity approach for HR Managers: After much scrutiny and in-depth critical evaluation of both approaches, I am of the opinion that employing a managing diversity approach over an

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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (CHAPTER # 2) - ANSWERSequal opportunity approach is better suited for the human resource managers.

This is largely because of the limitations associated with the equal opportunity approach. Although the managing diversity approach has its own limitations, those limitations are not as severe as the limitations of the other approach. A managing diversity approach allows managers the authority to take steps that are necessary for growing and furthering the productivity and profit of both the employee and the organisation. This is because it focuses not only on formal processes, but also on the outcome and results.Managing diversity recognises individuals as a single entity and deals accordingly with its unique needs, and therefore often produces a better result. For example, women need managing and developing in different ways to their male counterparts. They represent a different culture than men do and managing diversity recognises and welcomes that difference. In comparison, the organisations that follow the equal opportunity approach, would not recognise these significant differences and would therefore fail to fulfil their needs.

Conclusion: In this day and age managers and professionals are facing an ever-challenging task to create work places that recognise the demands and responds to the opportunities of a diverse workforce.

Successful leaders must cross their own cultural boundaries in order to encourage a vigorous and powerful cross-cultural communication and create cultural synergy in the workplace.

They must recognise and take full advantage of the productivity potential that is inherent in a diverse population. Organisations and governments alike must appreciate that we now operate in a global village, with a highly sophisticated market place. In order to be successful, organisations will have to harness the abilities of all their employees to the highest order.

A structure in which equal opportunities are available for all with a managing diversity culture would be the ideal combination for a successful organisation.

Pakistan:

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has always been and will continue to be committed to gender equality. Women make up an integral part of our global society and Pakistan will strive for equality between genders in accordance with Islam. Our Constitution explicitly states that “there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex”, and this is a

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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (CHAPTER # 2) - ANSWERSstance Pakistan has taken. Recent crimes against women have pushed gender inequality back into the public attention, and Pakistan is absolutely dedicated to ameliorating these issues. Legislation plays an important role in ensuring the protection of women’s rights. Over the last few years, Pakistan has made tremendous leaps in laws to protect women. 2010 saw the passing of the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act and the unanimously passed extension of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill, the 2011 Anti-Women Practices Law which outlaws and severely punishes the practice of trading women as wives, killings for honour and forced marriages. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan urges other nations to adopt similar policies to ensure the legal protection of women all over the world. Despite our changing society, the rights of women have neglected to improve. Pakistan views this as an immense detriment to the global community and in addition to legislation believe there must be a significant social adaptation in order to ensure the full rights of women all over the world. There must also be a focus on education and healthcare for women and girls. However, many countries, especially those in the developing world simply do not have the resources to provide progressive education and healthcare for all their citizens, much less for women and girls. It is also imperative that religions and faiths are taken into account when writing resolutions. Pakistan and many other countries were founded upon and function with religious principles and in order for a resolution to be relevant and important it must also be founded on principles of major religions. It is The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s hope that any resolution will not only promote gender equality but create more cohesive gender relations.

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