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Zareen and Majid Durrani

Ehsan ul Haque Asian Journal of Management Cases 2008 5: 41 DOI: 10.1177/097282010800500105 The online version of this article can be found at: http://ajc.sagepub.com/content/5/1/41

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ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT CASES, 5(1), 2008: 4154 SAGE PUBLICATIONS LOS ANGELES/LONDON/NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE DOI: 10.1177/097282010800500105

ZAREEN AND MAJID DURRANI

Ehsan ul Haque
This disguised case focuses on the challenges faced by a female entrepreneur, Zareen Durrani, in balancing her personal and professional life. Details about the family background, education and work experience of the two protagonists of the case, Zareen and her husband Majid Durrani, are provided to understand their goals and aspirations. Both are ambitious professionals and their work related ambitions create serious tensions in their personal lives. While the case deals with deeper, macro-level factors (such as socioeconomic, cultural and traditional forces) in shaping the positions and worldviews of the protagonists, an immediate and very real issue of their children coming down with chicken pox brings all the tensions to a head. Which parent should take significant time out will be determined partly by the participants own worldviews of the appropriate roles assigned to the two sexes by society. The case examines interesting ways to explore and debate socially designated roles in Pakistani society. Majid Durrani poses specialization of labour, contract violation and cost-benefit arguments to make his case while Zareen has her own set of fairly valid arguments. The case will expose participants to the various issues that women face in balancing home and work. Keywords: Women entrepreneurs, balancing work and family, women in management, small business management

Zareen Durrani, Managing Director, Sahil Fashions, Karachi shuffled her feet nervously as the pediatrician examined her five-year-old daughter. Next to her, her husband Majid Durrani was trying, rather unsuccessfully, to calm their three-year-old son. The doctors office wore a somber look with the occupants quite oblivious to the pleasant March night of 2006. Zareen was worried because her two little kids had been running high fever all day. Her attempts with Calpol medication had been of no help and she was hoping that it was nothing serious. She had a number of business commitments to meet the next day and the days ahead. I simply cannot afford even a minute off, she sighed.
This case was written by Associate Professor Ehsan ul Haque to serve as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. This material may not be reproduced in any form without the prior written consent of the Lahore University of Management Sciences. This research was conducted by LUMS-McGill Social Enterprise Development Centre and was funded by CIDA.
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DURRANIS BACKGROUND
Zareen and Majid both belonged to middle-class Pakistani backgrounds, each typical and unique in its own right. Zareen had a younger sister and a brother who was two years older than her. She had fond memories of her childhood where, thanks to her fathers business, they travelled abroad extensively and spent a considerable amount of time living in the Middle East and Europe. My father was very fond of travelling. I remember spending many weekends; all of us kids bundled up, either in our Volkswagen going some place or in some camping ground in Europe. This exposure to the world, according to Zareen, left a lasting imprint on her outlook and approach towards her life and aspirations: Maybe it was the basic good nature of my parents or maybe the simple and straightforward values that you end up learning in the West, but all of us were pretty naive compared to our Pakistani schoolfellows. We were very trusting of people and enjoyed life and its simple pleasures. Zareens happy family life received a rude shock when her father decided to marry a friend of the family. This decision led to a bitter divorce and Zareens mother and the children, who refused to live with their father, moved to Karachi feeling completely bewildered and devastated, both emotionally and financially: Our childhood was very happy, comfortable and secure. We got whatever we wished for. We lived like princesses in a grand, overprotected home. As a child I was very close to my father. I always wanted to please him. He used to call me his brightest star. He was my motivation to do everything and do it well. However, when I was about sixteen, all hell broke loose. Almost overnight my mother became a single parent with hardly any income to support us. She had been a housewife all her life. Our brother had just started professional college. My own plans of pursuing higher education in the US evaporated. I suddenly realized that I had to face life alone. I no longer had my fathers hand to hold on to. It was a traumatic awakening. It gave me a deep sense of insecurity

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because the man I loved so much had let me down. My self-esteem was low. However, we decided to take on the challenge. I did not want to bother my mother for money so I started giving tuitions while continuing with my own education. During vacations I worked in offices. Being financially independent gave me a feeling of confidence, a feeling of worth and a sense of achievement. Life was fairly tough for Zareens family. However, they managed to maintain a decent lifestyle and all the siblings pursued professional careers. Zareen completed her Masters in Economics and started working in a multinational as a Management Trainee. Majid Durrani was the youngest of five siblings. His father worked in Pakistan Railways and, consequently, the family spent almost 25 years in the railway colony in Rawalpindi. Majid completed his Bachelors in Engineering and worked for some years with a local manufacturing firm in Rawalpindi. However, he was not satisfied and as soon as he got a better offer from a multinational in Karachi, he changed jobs. Reflecting on his background, Majid said: We were a small, well-knit family. My parents had migrated from India. My father belonged to a poor family but with his determination and hard work he achieved a relatively respectable position in society. My mother was a very loving, generous and simple human being whose whole life was focused on her family. It seems to me that our parents sacrificed everything for our betterment and while I may disagree with some of their ideas I have a deep respect for what they did for us. We lived a reasonably comfortable, somewhat disciplined and austere life. There was a lot of emphasis on education and it was obvious that the greatest gift that we could give our parents was top class performance in school. I love to read. Our father always encouraged us to read. I have travelled extensively outside Pakistan for work. Consequently, my opinions and attitudes reflect not only what I have acquired from my family but also what I have read and observed. While I may seem conservative, I am quite the nonconformist in many important ways. I am also ambitious, but as there is, unfortunately, no limit to greed, at the end of the day all I want is a reasonable and decent life for me and my family. Majid and Zareen met at their workplace. After working together for a year and a half they got married in November 1998.

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EARLY MARRIED LIFE

The Durranis spent their early married life in the United Kingdom. Majid was keen to go abroad to pursue further studies. Immediately after their marriage, he got a scholarship offer from a university to pursue a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He resigned from his job and the couple moved to London in February 1999. While Majid was busy with his studies, Zareen started working at an upscale department store partly to keep herself busy and partly to supplement their income. She wanted to pursue further studies but because of financial constraints opted for a less expensive option and enrolled in an evening course on fashion design. She said: I can never sit and do nothing. Even when I was not married I was tutoring kids and designing and sewing my own clothes. As a matter of fact, my friends and others often admired my designs. I wanted to do more than just the daily routine. How much can you cook, clean and put on nail polish? Zareens job at the department store gave her good exposure to personnel management and merchandizing of ladies wear. However, she could not complete her studies because within a year, the couple moved to Edinburgh in connection with Majids studies. Zareen said: Id have stayed on in London if I had a choice. I liked the city. All the concepts that I was learning in fashion designing I could also observe them in real life at my workplace. I enjoyed what I was doing. Majids scholarship amount doubled in Edinburgh. Consequently, Zareen started debating between further education or starting a family. The couple discussed it at length. According to Majid, raising children in the UK was a full time assignment as there was no support of an extended family. According to him, Zareen could delayed the family decision for three years and complete a diploma in fashion designing instead. Zareen reflected: Majid was indifferent about having children. I wanted them. I had always loved children. Then again, we were not getting any younger. It was basically my decision. Zareen juggled her time between two pregnancies and a one-year evening course in interior designing. Life was very hectic as she completed 1,500 hours of her course work while Majid helped with the infants. She got the diploma but could not use it as Majid
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had by that time completed his doctorate and was ready to go back. Although Zareen was fairly keen on their staying on in the UK, the family returned to settle down permanently in Karachi in April 2003. Majid managed to get a reasonable position in a good organization and the family started to come to terms with living in Pakistan.

SAHIL FASHIONS
In March 2003, Saira Nazeer, Zareens younger sister, opened a small boutique, Sahil Fashions, for marketing a line of modern ladies wear. Saira, an MBA from a local university had a flair for designing and a love for good clothes. Once her only son was two-years-old, she felt that it was the right time for her to engage in some professional activities. With a small loan from her husband and some guidance from a friend, she started Sahil Fashions. Saira was delighted to learn that Zareen was coming back. She asked Zareen to immediately join her as she was having difficulties managing the business alone. In any case, Zareen had valuable experience in the field. Zareen also wanted to join Sahil Fashions; however, for the sake of her children she decided to concentrate on her home and restrict her involvement in Sahil Fashions to occasional designing help. The Durranis found settling back in Pakistan tough. As they were setting up a new home they faced a tremendous financial crunch. The cost of living in Karachi turned out to be far more than that in Edinburgh with none of the conveniences that the West offered to young families. Life was especially difficult for Zareen. Her children were frequently falling ill because of a change in climate and food. Housemaids, with their seeming norm of compulsive lying, stealing, fighting and switching jobs, were a nuisance rather than a help. To top it all, the frequent breakdown of utilities and law and order worsened the situation. Zareen also had to play the role of a hostess frequently and unexpectedly. With all the frustration and drudgery of housework, she felt that she was fast losing her sanity and more importantly, her intelligence. To give herself a break from the domestic routine and also to earn a little spending money of her own Zareen started taking on occasional interior designing assignments through her network of friends. However, she soon discovered that she would not be able to generate enough income, as many people were only interested in free advice. Consequently, at the suggestion of a friend she also started selling educational books to housewives. Majid was not happy with this situation. He felt she was overdoing it: Why does she need to kill herself? She wants to run her house nicely, she wants to run her interior designing practice professionally, she wants to be a good mother, she is
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designing clothes and now she wants to sell books. She cannot handle all this. She has to learn to trade off. I know we are occasionally short on cash but we live in reasonable comfort. There are thousands of families in Pakistan who are living on one-sixth, even one-tenth the amount that I make. How come we cant manage? Maybe she can reduced her expectations. Zareen disagreed: Why should I reduce my expectations? I have already compromised enough as far as my own self is concerned. I have never asked for anything for myself. However, I do not want to compromise in the case of my children. They have to have the very best that I can afford. Our mother never made us feel deprived. She is my role model as far as being a mother and a housewife is concerned. She was an efficient housewife and an excellent hostess. I also grew up watching European women working and managing families. I knew it is tough but I also know that I can do it. If anything, I can do it better than the others. I can never be mediocre. In February 2004, Saira needed to go abroad with her husband for four months. She asked Zareen for help. Zareen agreed to look after the business temporarily. For the next four months, Zareen was designing clothes, managing a small team of workers at the stitching unit, procuring material and looking after the boutique. Some of the workers, i.e., the women who embroidered or did crotchet, showed up whenever it suited them to pick up or deliver work. Despite all the challenges, Zareen felt that she had done a good job. She got along well with the workers and improved output and quality. Consequently, when Saira returned she asked Zareen to become her full-time partner. Zareen was tempted because the past four months had given her a feeling of self-fulfillment and achievement. She was also proud of the fact that she had balanced her work and family well: You have to be a very balanced person yourself to manage all this. My first priority was my children and my husband. Work came second but it is also very important. If you are the type of a person who is a homemaker and house proud, then it is very difficult to balance family with work. But you have to do it. I can assure you that it can be extremely exhausting, both physically and mentally.

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Majid, however, was unhappy about Zareen committing herself to the business. He felt that the children were very young and needed a full-time mother. He was in favour of Zareen working full time, but only after a few years. Zareen did not agree: Men have to realize that women will always work within constraints. Children will always need their mothers, full-time; irrespective of whether they are three, ten or even twenty-five years old. Only the nature of their demands change. Majid left it to Zareen to decide whatever she wanted. Zareen joined Sahil Fashions as a Managing Partner in June 2004.

ZAREENS HECTIC ROUTINE

Zareens typical day started at 6 a.m. when she got up to prepare breakfast and get her children ready for school. Her daughter had started regular schooling while her son attended a kindergarten for three hours in the morning. The children went to different schools that were at a considerable distance from each other. After dropping them to school, Zareen would hurry through her breakfast and get the daily chores of the house organized. She had a full-time cook (so-called cook, according to Zareen) and a parttime cleaning lady. The turnover of housemaids was very high and both these women had been with the Durranis for about two months and needed almost constant supervision. Depending on what time the cleaning lady came on a particular day and how quickly the domestic chores were taken care of, Zareen would leave home at around 11 a.m., pick up her son from school and go to the stitching unit. She would spend the next two to three hours managing business matters such as supervising the master cutter, the tailors and the embroidery men to ensure that they were working according to the designs and the timetable given to them; resolving their latest differences; taking inventory of accessories and; making a list of items to be purchased and driving all over Karachi to procure these items from their specialized outlets. In the meantime, she would pick up her daughter from school at 1 p.m. The children would typically accompany her in all these errands, partly as it was difficult for Zareen to drive back and forth from home to the market and partly because she felt it was an extremely valuable learning experience for the children. She would reach home at around 2:30 p.m. after getting some groceries on the way. Zareen would spend the afternoon managing minor household chores. She would spend some time playing with the children and supervising their homework. One or a couple

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of female workers would, invariably, show up with finished embroidery or crotchet work. At around 5:30 p.m. Zareen would go to the boutique to find out about daily sales, discuss the inventory position and merchandizing with the sales person, collect money and deal with any customer complaints and then return home. Sometimes she would also visit other stores to collect market information. Zareen would often leave her children with her sister or her mother on these afternoon visits. She would also spend some time with her mother who was now living alone and frequently complained about the lack of interest her daughters were taking in her household affairs. Zareen typically reached home at around 7:30 p.m. except for Saturdays. Saturday was the weekly payment day for the workers and, consequently, the stocktaking and accounting meant that Zareen reached home at around 9 p.m. Once home, she would get dinner warmed up and served, give the children their baths and get them ready for bed. This routine would break if some guests dropped in. After the children went to sleep, Zareen organized their school uniforms, school bags and lunch boxes for the next day. She would spend some time discussing events and issues of the day with Majid and then phone Saira for the daily business stocktaking, discussions on new designs and plans for the next day. She would finish her paperwork by around 11:30 p.m. fret over not making enough to hire a full-time accountant and hit the bed, dead tired, after midnight. Saira and Zareen supported each other by dividing the workload as much as possible, both at home and at the workplace. They would take turns in running errands, babysitting each others kids and visiting their mother. However, they jointly designed the clothes, decided on future themes for the summer/winter collections and managed the accounting of the business. Gradually, both of them began to specialize in different areas. However, they strongly felt that managing business, alone required more than twenty-four hours in a day. Meanwhile Zareen had aggravated her back problem because of her constant driving. Her physiotherapy sessions became another intrusion in her hectic routine. Her condition improved somewhat when Majid hired a full-time driver. Majid reached his office at around 8:30 a.m. He did not come home for lunch. As he was relatively new to the organization he ended up spending a lot of time at work. He would typically reach home by 6:30 p.m. and, invariably, brought home some work from the office. Whatever time was left was spent watching television, lazing around or reading books.

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ZAREENS FRUSTRATIONS
While Zareen was somewhat satisfied with, and even proud of, her achievements, she nonetheless felt that she was drowning in problems with no hope in sight. Her biggest problem was her business. She had high expectations and was frustrated that despite the backbreaking efforts that she and her sister were putting in, the business did not seem to be going anywhere. In order to increase revenues she wanted to expand the number of retail outlets that would carry Sahil Fashions clothes. However, this entailed more machines and more capital and they were short on funds. On the other hand, their experience of placing their clothes in an upscale outlet had also not been very positive. While the sales were reasonable they faced great difficulties receiving payment from the owner. It seemed that there was no culture of timely payments in Pakistan. This delay put a major crunch on their fabric purchase plans. Zareen also felt that they needed to advertise to reach a bigger customer group. However, the costs entailed were prohibitive. Apart from a shortage of funds, Sahil Fashions also faced operational problems. The attitude of the workers towards quality and timely delivery was extremely casual. Zareen felt that her exhortations on these counts fell on deaf ears. The workers seemed extremely satisfied with their productivity and were least interested in their own betterment, either technically or financially. To make matters worse, any input or suggestion of improvement was taken as a personal insult. Zareen also felt that they needed a full-time accountant to manage their business affairs. Even if they found time for it, the sisters had relatively limited knowledge of accounting. All they knew was that they were breaking even, even making some profits, but as there was no formal bookkeeping and as the household finances and expenditures invariably got mixed up with those of the business, it was difficult to estimate returns. Zareen knew Excel and wanted to computerize Sahil Fashions accounts but the problem of not generating enough revenue to undertake all these tasks was a major bottleneck. The absence of an effective copyright law, or design rights, was another problem faced by Sahil Fashions. While their small client group liked and purchased Sahil Fashions clothes, a large majority of Pakistani women were not willing to pay a premium for nice designs. They would simply browse around and then copy Sahil Fashions designs. The sisters did not bother too much about individual customers but lately other retailers and designers had started copying and selling their designs at a discount.

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Zareen was frustrated because she felt that with a little more time and effort she could manage Sahil Fashions more professionally: I know we can be better organized. But where do I find the time for planning? A woman simply cannot give as much time to her business as a man. And then they say women are poor businesspersons! This is unfair. I can do so much more if Majid shares some of the burden. I greatly appreciate his moral support. I also acknowledge that he is not very demanding. But I wish he would not put the entire load of parenting and running the household solely on me. Zareen also felt that her home and her children were neglected and part of the blame went to Majid since he was not at all proactive. If she asked him to look after the children he would not refuse but he would also never initiate the offer: Why do I always have to seek his help? They are his children as well. Doesnt he want to spend some quality time with them? Why should I alone feel guilty of neglecting my kids when I am the only one doing anything worthwhile with them? Domestic chores were a constant source of additional stress for Zareen. She wanted Majid to share some of the burden rather than pointing out what was wrong with the servants. She suspected that he wanted her to only play the role of a traditional housewife and a mother whereas she wanted much more out of life: When he married me he knew that I was not traditional housewife material. I had a Masters degree, I was working and I was even planning to go abroad for further education. I do not want to sit all day long waiting for him to come home so that I can spend the evening cribbing about children, neighbours and servants. My reasons for working are not purely financial, although money is always very handy. I am a human being. I need a better identity than that of Mrs Durrani. When I am better than so many out there, why should I not attain my potential? If Majids career is important so is mine. If he wants to be the managing director, then why cant I be the next Donna Karen? What great gifts does society give us women in any case? You spend the better part of your life changing diapers and cooking meals and your husband can move out with a new flame at a minutes notice. If he is generous he might throw in some financial support; otherwise it is tough luck. You go back to your brothers, or father, and hope
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that your sisters-in-law are God fearing. What does the man lose? He still has his job, his position in society and his self-respect. All these problems were adding a lot of stress to Zareens life: Irrespective of whether I am at home, in the stitching unit or in the market I am under tremendous stress all the time. My mind is always preoccupied with problems relating to my children, my home or my business. I never get even a minutes break. On the other hand, I see Majid leading an indifferent, sedate life, conveniently oblivious to all my problems. Sometimes I wonder whether there is any point in living together!

MAJIDS CONCERNS
Majid had his own views about the situation and his own set of concerns. According to him, he was well aware of the difficulties that Zareen was facing and which were making her life miserable. He empathized with her. However, he blamed her for being overambitious and not managing her life better. He felt that it was important to understand why women worked outside the house: Women, like Zareen, work for two main reasons, economic and self-fulfillment. Now, I wholeheartedly support women becoming economically less dependent on men, even fully independent. In my opinion, women take a lot of unnecessary nonsense from men in our society because of this dependence. Otherwise, there is nothing special about men. I would want my daughter to stand on her own feet and deal with men on the basis of equality. She can only do so if she is economically independent. However, I wonder whether Zareen wants economic independence. She expects me to foot all the house bills, which have gone up considerably because of her work, while all of her income, if there is any, gets to be her pocket money! In the rare case when she does contribute towards the household, it is a great favour to me. My economic independence, on the other hand, entails a huge responsibility. I need to provide, in addition to constantly worrying about it, not only for the present but also for the future. Also, I am not only responsible for my immediate family but also for my extended family. We do not have massive landholdings to fall back on. I do not see Zareen worrying about these things at all. I do not even want her to worry about them. As far as self-fulfillment is concerned, it is ironic that poor women, who really work because of economic necessities, typically do not have any time to worry about selffulfillment. It is a problem of affluence.
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Why cant managing home be self-fulfilling? Household chores are not the only boring things around. Thousands of men spend all of their lives in highly monotonous and boring jobs with third-rate bosses. They dare not leave their daily grind lest their families suffer. And women want to leave home just because they are bored sewing and baking and looking after kids. The tragedy is that in order to attain nirvana they end up starting a boutique, a bakery or a kindergarten. In my opinion, the real issue is not the nature of work. After all, there are many famous designers and chefs, all male, and I hope, all self-fulfilled! The real issue is the money that you make. It is the worth, the price that society places on that work. And for that I think women themselves are to blame. They do not put a very high price on their extremely important household work. Look at the horrible wages they pay to their maids. Maybe the government can start annual awards for best mothers and best housewives in order to give due recognition to household work. Majid felt that marriage should be seen in the perspective of a contract between two willing parties. Social norms played a very important role in this implicit contract. Whether one liked it or not, Pakistani society had ordained a specialized role for both the partners. Barring rare cases, men were expected to provide and women to nurture. According to Majid, breaking this contract, or going against the norms, was bound to result in heartaches. Society was not yet ready for this change. New institutions or norms had not yet developed. He was not worried about the problems, but he felt it was unfair on Zareens part to ask him to do more than his fair share. She was the one breaking the contract: Lets assume you start a business with a friend. You are good in marketing and your friend in production. The two of you agree on taking the respective responsibilities. Two years down the road your friend insists on doing marketing as well, and you say fine. Then he turns around and blames you for not sharing the production workload. How would you feel? I feel the same way with Zareen. Sahil Fashions was her choice. She should not expect me to run the household in return. In any case, she can do a much better job of managing the household than I can, or for that matter, most of the other women I know can. Similarly, I think I can earn much more than she can, at least at this time. So why not stick to our knitting. I know she might say that I am also breaking this contract by not earning enough. Lately, most of our fights have been on money. But I feel she needs to manage household finances better. I admit that she is very accommodating and does not pester me
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for money, but I can sense a constant tension in the house because of lack of funds. We disagree on our expenditures. I think we are living reasonably well. I would be shocked if we are not in the top 10 per cent of Pakistani households, income wise and yet Zareen is unhappy. I get hurt because I feel guilty for having failed in my responsibilities. Then I get upset because I feel that she needs to manage her expectations. She knew well in advance that she was not marrying into the Shah of Irans family. In any case, any money that I save will only benefit her and the kids. Majid was not happy with the household management either. Since Zareen spent a considerable amount of time outside the house she had to rely on domestic help. Majid felt that the family paid a heavy price, albeit implicitly, because of this arrangement: Zareen cooks excellent food. Yet, day in and day out, we are eating the horrible food that our cook makes. I wonder what has been the cost of the slow but steady murder of our taste buds. Every third day, our cleaning lady breaks some decoration piece that was a fond reminder of our struggling student days in the UK. We might have spent umpteen days in the markets looking for the best bargain, fighting over whether we can afford it, debating colour choices, and all it takes is one stupid cleaning person to erase all our memories. The worst sufferers are the children. First, they do not get the amount of quality time and affection they need from their mother. Second, they spend a significant amount of time, at their highly impressionable ages, with uncouth people; learning God knows what. Finally, the work pressures of the parents invariably lead to short tempers with the kids. Zareen wants me to spend more time with the children. But when you ask them they always want to be with their mother. I cannot force them to stay with me. I can understand their choice. Compared to her, I am more of a disciplinarian, have less patience with them and not all that fun to be with. On the other hand, almost all the kids in our neighbourhood love Zareen. Zareen was convinced that Majid could spend more time with the children. She felt that he needed to spend less time in the office because a lot of this time, according to his own admission, was spent socializing. Majid disagreed. He felt that even this socializing, or networking, was important and beneficial for the family both in the short and long run. On the other hand, Majid often wondered whether the price that the family, including Zareen, paid for her work outside the home was worth the amount of money she
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made or the satisfaction she got from her work. He was convinced that if proper accounting were done the balance would be negative: We have become a very tense and high-strung family. We have started fighting more. We are bitter most of the time. It is like a ticking time bomb. Life is not fun anymore.

THE PROBLEM
On 2 March 2006, Majid was informed of an important new project that the company was exploring. His boss asked him to work on that project, in addition to his regular work. Not only was this project extremely interesting for Majid, he also felt that it had great potential for the company. However, it entailed spending even longer hours in the office, and bringing home more work. The month of March also brought good news for Zareen. A major boutique in Lahore agreed to keep their clothes at a reasonable margin. The boutique ordered a sizeable shipment of new designs to be delivered immediately. Zareen and Saira were excited with this important breakthrough. Their excitement, however, was dampened when they found out that Zareens children were running high fever. Both Zareen and Majid sat in the doctors office, their minds preoccupied, waiting for the doctor to complete her examination. Each minute seemed like an eternity. At last the pediatrician put her stethoscope down. She said: I am afraid its bad news. Your kids are coming down with chicken pox!

54 EHSAN

UL

HAQUE

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ERRATUM
Asian Journal of Management Cases, Volume 5, Number 1, JanuaryJune 2008, page 4154. In the case entitled Zareen and Majid Durrani written by Ehsan ul Haque and Shehla Arifeen (the abstract of which is given below), the name of the co-author Shehla Arifeen was inadvertently missed out. The error is deeply regretted. The Editors.

Abstract
Zareen and Majid Durrani Ehsan ul Haque and Shehla Arifeen This case focuses on the challenges faced by a female entrepreneur, Zareen Durrani, in balancing her personal and professional life. Details about the family background, education and work experience of the two protagonists of the case, Zareen and her husband Majid Durrani, are provided to understand their goals and aspirations. Both are ambitious professionals and their work related ambitions create serious tensions in their personal lives. While the case deals with deeper, macro-level factors (such as socio-economic, cultural and traditional forces) in shaping the positions and worldviews of the protagonists, an immediate and very real issue of a child coming down with chicken pox brings all the tensions to a head. Which parent should take signicant time out will be determined partly by the participants own worldviews of the appropriate roles assigned to the two sexes by society. The case examines interesting ways to explore and debate socially designated roles in Pakistani society. Majid Durrani poses specialization of labour, contract violation and cost-benet arguments to make his case while Zareen has her own set of fairly valid arguments. The case exposes the participants to a variety of issues that females face in balancing home and work. Keywords: Women entrepreneurs, balancing work and family, women in management, small business management.

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