Redefining Norms in a Conservative Culture

Qualities Necessary for Achieving a Successful Career

The core qualities for achieving a successful career for both men and women transcend job descriptions and can be applied by all regardless of one’s professional inclination. One of the core qualities toward achieving a successful career is the ability to demonstrate great leadership. Whether one is serving a managerial position or they have just started their career, the ability to lead and inspire others will help them do well in their careers in the long run. The ability to assert leadership skills will not only help one achieve individual success but also inspire others to follow suit: Redefining Norms in a Conservative Culture.

Leadership emanates from one’s mental strength, which includes tenacity, confidence, and optimism. Adaptability, which is the ability to change with shifting environmental changes, is also key. Notably as a leader, one should not be overconfident in their abilities. It is vital to have a mentor, probably someone higher up in the company ranks, who can help one gain perspective, walk them through their strengths and weaknesses, and help them to focus.

Great communication skills are also vital to establishing a successful career. Communication skills are required in almost every aspect of life; hence most successful career people are great communicators. Both written and verbal communication skills will go a long way toward helping individual employees convey their goals, vision, and ideas to their team members. It is worth noting that communication is core to building successful relationships which facilitate collaboration.

Another key quality to developing a successful career is great collaboration skills. In most cases, employees work in teams and will need one another to achieve team objectives. Even in solitary jobs that involve someone working on their own physically, collaboration will come in handy since one needs to work with others at some point.

To successfully collaborate with others, there is a need to differentiate between competition and cooperation. Great collaborators focus on collective achievements instead of individual progression. One of the best tactics for attaining collaboration skills is by welcoming feedback from colleagues.

Gender-Related Pressures

According to Das and Kotikula (2019), gender-related pressures revolving around the social expectations placed on women can negatively affect one’s career success. Pressures from culture-specific social expectations placed on women emanate from lifecycle events and persistent underlying social norms that place domestic responsibilities in the hands of women. For instance, in the US, more women with children have more responsibilities since they have to prepare the children for school, and if the children are younger, they have to babysit them. This makes such women take up part-time jobs to spare some time to be with their families.

Kehar faced similar hurdles emanating from social expectations in her career journey. For instance, after getting married to Wahib, the husband and his family felt insecure following her career pursuits. A woman in Pakistan is expected to massage her husband’s ego and help him achieve his goals, but that was not the case for Kehar, who decided to pursue her career goals (Konrad & Birbrager, 2018).

Another impediment to her career came up after she completed her master’s degree. Although she was offered an opportunity for a continued stay in London for her to pursue a doctorate, she decided to go back to Pakistan to be with her husband. These social expectations influence firms to implement preferential hiring toward men to avoid the inconveniences characterized by a female workforce.

Moreover, the gender gap in educational attainment holds women back, especially in cultures where men are seen as superior to women. One of the implications of gender bias in education attainment applies to course sorting and selection even when women are allowed to attend school (Das & Kotikula, 2019). The social and institutional bias influences career development since it places men in male-dominated areas such as STEM and law. On the other hand, women are placed in female-dominated careers such as healthcare and hospitality.

For Kehar, upon completion of basic education at Karachi Grammar School, she had ambitions to join her friends who went on to pursue their preferred courses abroad. However, Kehar’s family insisted that as a lady, she was too young to young to go to a foreign land and would prefer to have her study in a local institution (Konrad & Birbrager, 2018). Besides, her family influenced her to compromise and study commerce initially even though her ambition from the outset was to study law.

Major Transitions in Fauzia’s Career

One of Kehar’s major transitions in her career is her decision to study for a law degree following the completion of her commerce degree. The family believed that Kehar should align with societal expectations and pursue further education in commerce.

In particular, her grandmother, who was an adherent follower of traditions, thought that it was best if Kehar aligned with Pakistan traditions that have set specific careers for women (Konrad & Birbrager, 2018). However, Kehar insisted on pursuing a law degree. Fortunately, her parents noted her potential and eventually supported her objectives.

Another key career development in Fuzia is her pursuit of freelance journalism in the oldest English-only newspaper in Pakistan. After completing the Bachelor of Commerce program, Kehar was motivated to keep herself engaged by seeking a part-time job (Konrad & Birbrager, 2018). Her contribution majored in the political situation in Pakistan, where she applied key styles such as satire and sarcasm to drive her message. Her stint as a freelance journalist taught her key lessons, such as the need to maintain a thick skin to attain career progression.

Factors that Helped Fauzia to Achieve a Highly Successful Career in Pakistan

One of the factors that helped Fauzia achieve a highly successful career dominated by men in Pakistan is the fact that she came from a privileged background. Wealthy families in closed cultures like Pakistan prioritize education, sometimes breaching cultural norms to achieve academically (Khan, 2021). Kehar’s grandfather was a wealthy landowner who passed agricultural land to Kehar’s father.  On the other hand, Kehar’s father made significant income from agricultural activities, something that helped him to fund Kehar’s education overseas.

Also, Fauzia’s determination and resilience contributed to her career success. Despite the immense pressure from her family to pursue careers traditionally associated with women, she insisted on pursuing a law degree-a male-dominated career. Eventually, she overcame family pressure, and the very family that initially discouraged her became her strongest support system.

Career Strategies

According to Gibbings (2022), defining one’s purpose is key to helping one pursue a successful career. While some people want to pursue careers that help them live healthy and peaceful lives, other people want to engage in mind-boggling careers that help them learn new lessons and pass them on to others. One should choose a purpose and follow it to the end. For instance, one may follow a career to serve their communities, take risks, or venture into the unknown. Whichever purpose one chooses, one must be passionate and commit to it.

Also, identifying and documenting one’s unique skills is vital. These skills give one a competitive edge in the recruitment exercise by offering the hiring firm a potential value proposition (Gibbings, 2022). For instance, Fauzia’s communication skills, which were partly acquired from her stint as a freelance journalist, gave her a competitive edge in the job market. Apart from communication skills, there are leadership, conceptual, and technical skills that make one stand out in their career.

References

Das, S., & Kotikula, A. (2019). Gender-based Employment Segregation: Understanding Causes and Policy Interventions. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/483621554129720460/pdf/Gender-Based-Employment-Segregation-Understanding-Causes-and-Policy-Interventions.pdf

Gibbings, M. (2022, February 8). How to Build a Career You Won’t Hate. Harvard Business          Review. https://hbr.org/2022/02/how-to-build-a-career-you-wont-hate

Khan, S. (2021). Female education and marriage in Pakistan: The role of financial shocks and marital customs. WIDER Working Paper. https://doi.org/10.35188/unu-wider/2021/055-9

Konrad, A., & Birbrager, L. (2018). Harvard Business Publishing Education. Hbsp.harvard.edu.       https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W18512-PDF-ENG

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The evolving role of HR is quite broad. Not only are HR professionals conducting transactional activities (compensation and benefits administration, record keeping, employee services), they are performing transformational roles such as strategy, organizational design as well as coaching and mentoring roles for all employees. For this assignment, suppose you are an HR manager who has been asked to coach Fauzia Kehar, a woman working in the male-dominated legal profession in Pakistan on her future career plans.

She has an impressive educational background and has been working for more than 20 years as a lawyer, most recently as the head of Legal, Gulf Cluster, at Citibank NA in Dubai. Using the information from the Konrad & Birbrager article, “Fauzia Kehar: Redefining Norms in a Conservative Culture Case Study”, you will consider career development and leadership in a developing country with a conservative culture.

To complete this Assignment, review the Learning Resources for this week and other resources that you have found in the Walden Library or online.

Conduct research to identify a minimum of 3 references which directly relate to:

Redefining Norms in a Conservative Culture

career choices, conservative corporate and national culture, and how HR can assist with employee development. Respond to the following questions, providing details and references to support your answers, in a 3- to 4-page paper, excluding title page and references:

• What are the qualities necessary for achieving a successful career?
  • Analyze the possible strategies and tactics for both women and men to achieve outstanding career success.
• What pressures does Fauzia feel from her job? Home life? Country culture?
  • Analyze gender-related pressures affecting both men and women’s careers.
• What were the major transitions in Fauzia’s career?
  • What motivated each of those transitions?
  • What were the results of each of those transitions?
  • Could Fauzia have done anything different?
• What factors helped Fauzia achieve a highly successful career in Pakistan, a male-dominated conservative culture?
• What career strategies have you learned that can apply not only in this culture but across all global cultures?