Gender and Ethnicity Challenges That an Auckland-Based Accounting Firm May Face - Case Study Example

Running Header: Gender and Diversity Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Introduction The success of organizations is determined by its ability to appoint women and minority members of the society in key organization positions. This is due to the increasing awareness for the need of equal opportunities in the workplace. According to Metz and Harzing (2012) organizations around the world have been forced to undertake major changes because they have realized that gender and diversity issues are paramount to their social and economic performances. Gender and diversity guidelines require organizations to manage ethnic diversity and gender equality as well as to ensure that equality exists between men and women in work place practices and policies. The guidelines call for organizations to make major appointments by selecting most excellent employees from a distribution of both men and women. This paper is going to discuss gender and ethnicity challenges that an Auckland based accounting firm may face in managing its audit teams given the changing profile of its demographics. Analysis of Existing Statistical Data According to Australian Institute of Company Directors (2012) in the top 200 companies boards women constitute 14.60% while men represent 85.4 %. Furthermore, a total of 55 companies have no women in their boards. This clearly indicates the lack of gender equality in the boards of Australian companies. However the number of women represented in the companies’ boards increased by approximately 1% in 2012 as compared to 2011from 13.40% to 14.60%. This indicates an increase in awareness for the need of ensuring gender equality in senior management positions. The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace agency (2011) notes that women hold only 8% of the executive management positions in the top 200 companies in Australia. Women comprise 55% of university graduates while they comprise approximately 45.6 % of the total workforce in Australia. This means that Australian organizations have by a large extent failed to adopt gender legislation and requirements guidelines. Furthermore, women employees constitute 70% of all part time employees in Australia. Moreover, women occupy 33% of the total number of board members in accounting firms in the country. Women who are full time employees in Australia receive 17.4% less than their male counterparts. These statistics indicate that gender equality has not been embraced by a majority of firms in Australia. Gender and ethnicity legislation According to Turnbull (2011) the auditing firm will be required by the law to provide better transparency in matters pertaining to the selection of its directors by providing information on the ethnic diversity of its directors, method of identifying and selecting job applicants, method of selecting successors and the composition of its board in relation to men and women. Moreover, it will be mandatory for the firm to have a policy regarding to ethnicity, age, gender and cultural diversity background. The policy will also state the need for the firm’s board to lay down measurable goals for achieving gender diversity and how the goals will be annually assessed. Fagan, Menendez and Anson (2012) states that the diversity policy also states the ways the firm can promote a culture which supports diversity and also the advantages of ethnic diversity in the firm. Furthermore, the accounting firm will be required by the law to provide annual disclosure of the proportion of employees in the firm, the women in the firm’s senior executive positions and the number of women in the board. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (2011) notes that the Australian legislation makes it unlawful for organizations to discriminate their employment decisions on the basis of ethnicity, gender identity, disability and marital status. Therefore, the firm will be required to adopt a selection and recruitment method that does not discriminate people from certain groups and the firm must advertise its positions in a way that reaches as many potential candidates as possible. The board of the accounting firm will be required by the law to lay down measures for preventing disadvantages to some applicants during the employment process. The firm must further comply with the minimum pay requirements, the national employment standard relating to flexible working and the anti-discrimination legislation. Theoretical approaches to gender and ethnic diversity Organizations must build awareness among its employees of the social and economic importance of gender equality and ethnic diversity (Churchman & Thompson, 2008). The importance of gender equality and ethnic diversity is that it enables organizations to be innovative and creative. Benavides (2009) notes that gender imbalance in organizations creates a considerable deterioration of organizational knowledge in relation to knowledge transfer, general efficacy, experimentation and the ability of individuals to work across different functions or diverse organization boundaries. Thus, an organization should begin by creating gender and diversity awareness in order to gain support from the organization members. According to Lawrence at el (2006) gender and ethnic diversity awareness can be enhanced in an organization through training in prejudice reduction and diversity consciousness. Through training the accounting firm members will be able to adopt a positive altitude in relation to gender equality and ethnic diversity and thus support the firm on gender and diversity programs. In addition, training will help the members of the firm to understand the nature of gender and ethnic bias and describe how the organizational members can control their individual biasness in relation to gender and ethnicity. According to Glover and Kirton (2006) managing gender equality and ethnic diversity is an important approach towards attaining equality in the workplace. It requires the management of the audit firm to formulate strategies that will enable the firm to deliver benefits associated with gender and ethnic diversity. The management must further identify the ways of retaining women and members of minority groups in the accounting firm in order to ensure effective gender and diversity management. According to studies conducted by Churchman and Thompson (2008) majority of women in organizations are unsatisfied by their work life balance and thus they end up leaving the organizations. Therefore, the need to manage gender equality is of importance towards creating a successful gender and diversity program in the firm. This requires the management of the firm to come up with standardized procedures and policies of eliminating discrimination. This can be done by the use of management controlled methods like flexible working practices, career development, performance pay and performance appraisal where women and minority members of the firm are disadvantaged. Managing gender and ethnic diversity requires the organization to communicate to its members the need to value equality in the workplace as well as the necessity to value the differences that exist in the workforce backgrounds. Moreover, it will require the management to implement diversity and gender initiatives across the firm. Ethnic diversity and gender initiatives involve focusing on promoting women and members of minority groups in the firm. Champoux (2011) argues that undertaking gender and diversity initiatives will enable the firm to harness the potential that exists among the minority members in the workforce. Managing gender and diversity in the firm will ensure that people of all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to employment, personnel policies and promotions in the accounting firm. Through this, the firm will be able to obtain greatest contributions from diverse people hence maximize its performance. The firm must come up with strategies for ensuring that gender and diversity programs are sustainable and remain in operation during the life of the accounting firm. Sustainable approach makes sure that gender equality and ethnic diversity issues are embedded in the organization. According to Churchman and Thompson (2008) sustainability is important as it ensures future competitiveness of the business and facilitates successful development of gender and diversity programs in an organization. Studies conducted by Metz and Harzing (2012) indicated that creating sustainability in gender and diversity strategies raises awareness and leads to long term positive change. Sustainability requires the firm to create the right conditions and environment which women and members of minority groups can thrive and develop as future leaders of the accounting firm. Blackburn (2012) notes that appointing people who reflect awareness in gender and ethnic diversity ensures that gender and diversity programs are sustainable. Moreover, the management of the accounting firm must create a positive force that encourages the organization members to be gender and ethnic sensitive hence this will create a culture of equality in the organization hence ensure long term sustainability. Furthermore, the accounting firm should adopt non-discriminatory promotion and hiring procedures. This is essential for ensuring sustainability in gender equality and ethnic diversity. Focusing on equal opportunities initiatives and affirmative action issues through personal and group development will encourage the employees of the firm to change their beliefs pertaining to gender equality and ethnic diversity hence ensure long term sustainability of equality in the accounting firm. Steps of improving Equity The government must ensure that the enacted laws and statutes are implemented in order to ensure equality in organizations. Poor implementation has led to low number of women in the job sector. The government must exert efforts to impose gender equality and ethnic diversity in the country so as to completely eliminate gender and ethnic discrimination hence ensure equity (International labour Office, 2007). Holgate at el (2012) argues that gender and diversity legislations are difficult to implement due to the slow change in social and cultural processes. However, implementation of legal reforms depends on the government efforts in ensuring that firms adopt gender and ethical guidelines. The gap in salaries that exists between men and women creates an important obstacle towards ensuring gender equality in the workplace (International labour Office, 2007). The need for women to balance their family roles and work has created pay gaps leading to gender inequalities. The pay gap has also come about due to the large number of women employed on part time basis. Equity in the firm can be enhanced through sound pay structure that guarantees fairness and equity in determining pay levels for the firm employees (Durai, 2010). The law requires firms not to discriminate their employees in relation to gender and ethnicity while fixing their pay levels. Thus, the firm should ensure that there exists an equal pay for jobs of similar nature and this should be based on job evaluation. The value of the job should be the only guiding factor in determining the pay levels in the firm. Moreover, the firm must ensure that women and men who have been recruited at the same time and in similar jobs receive equal starting salaries. Furthermore, bonus payments must be equitably distributed in jobs that are performed by men and those commonly performed by women in the accounting firm. The firm should also develop a gender and ethnicity equality policy which will provide ideas of the activities to be performed so as to ensure equality in the organization (Craig, 2007). The policy will facilitate easier management of gender and ethnicity issues in the firm. Moreover, the policy provides general information on which activities in the organization are of importance towards ensuring gender equality. The firm can also use the policy to determine how a certain activity affects gender equality provisions. In addition, the policy establishes guidelines of acceptable social behaviour and this ensures that women are treated equally in the firm. The gender and ethnicity policy will enable the firm to achieve its equality goals and this will eliminate gender inequalities in accessing the benefits of organizational resources. The management should also create equal opportunities for men and women in relation to promotion in order to enhance equity in the firm. According to Craig (2007) creating equal opportunities will also involve ensuring that the underrepresented sex in the firm is encouraged to apply for new positions. Moreover, the firm should divide career development and training equally between women and men. To ensure equity, the firm should make it easier for men to take paternity leave in relation to their childbirth. Gaining commitment from the executive management and holding managers accountable will motivate them towards ensuring equity in the firm. Conclusion In conclusion, majority of companies in the country have very few women in the top management positions and this indicates lack of gender equality in these companies. Legal provisions require companies to be transparent in appointing their board members and to lay down policies in order avoid discrimination in issues concerning employment. Firms should approach gender and ethnic diversity by creating awareness, managing gender and diversity issues as well as ensuring sustainability of gender and diversity programs. The government should ensure effective implementation of gender and ethnic diversity legislations in order to enhance equity in organizations. Moreover, firms should set policies, offer equal pays and create equal opportunities for both men and women so as to promote equity in organizations. References Australian Institute of Company Directors. (2012). Appointments to ASX 200 Boards. Retrieved on September 17,2012, from http://www.companydirectors.com.au/Director-Resource-Centre/Governance-and- Director-Issues/Board-Diversity/Statistics Benavides, L. (2009). 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