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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Gender disparity in workplace highest in region’

LAHORE: Pakistani organisations have shortage of workers hailing from diversified sections of the society and especially in manufacturing concerns in the country gender disparity is highest in the region, said Mubashar Bashir, an economist on Wednesday.“There is bias in employing workers from minorities,” said Bashir. “In some instance, industrialists prefer

By Mansoor Ahmad
February 05, 2015
LAHORE: Pakistani organisations have shortage of workers hailing from diversified sections of the society and especially in manufacturing concerns in the country gender disparity is highest in the region, said Mubashar Bashir, an economist on Wednesday.
“There is bias in employing workers from minorities,” said Bashir. “In some instance, industrialists prefer to give priority to people from their clan and tribe.”
Companies with employees coming from different gender, ethnicity and races can score better financial returns, he said.
“Gender diversity at top corporate level doesn’t always translate into higher profits but a company committed towards diverse leadership is more successful,” he added. “Diversified people happen to motivate each other.”
Market analyst Benish Toor agreed that companies without gender bias perform better than the community organisations.
“Diversity, if practiced on pure merit, will also create national harmony in Pakistani society and accelerate economic growth, besides promoting tolerance,” said Benish. “In fact, when employees with diversified background work in harmony in a company they tend to maintain good social relationship outside the organisation.”
She advised Pakistani entrepreneurs to thoroughly study the benefits of diversity and higher returns it promises.
They should invest in diversity to keep ahead of competitors, which operate with prejudices, she said.
More diverse companies are better able to win top talent and improve customer orientation, employee satisfaction and decision making, leading to a cycle of increasing returns, she added.
Benish said diversity beyond gender and ethnicity/race is also likely to bring some level of competitive advantage for firms that are able to attract and retain such diverse talent.
Psychologist Dr Aslam Bila Soofi said there is a need to change the mindset of the employers through constant hammering on the benefits of diversity.
“Actually, the reasons for bias are based historic researches that showed human behavior was deeply influenced by subconscious, instinctive and emotional system embedded by the society that prevented a person from behaving rationally,” said Dr Soofi. “As a result, behavior and attitudes in the workplace are influenced by an array of cognitive biases, which affect decision making.”
“We generally associate people with certain traits or activities. Men are linked with better abilities in science and mathematics and women in arts and languages,” he said. “Being employers, we have these traits of men and women in our subconscious and these associations can powerfully influence our hiring decision.”