Diversity is humanity’s greatest brand, and our most under-utilised asset. By managing diversity, creating and maintaining a positive environment in which individual differences and similarities are valued, we can avoid unfortunate consequences such as the current situation in Shepparton, Australia. Equitable representation across subsections of society is paramount. An independent …
As a child of immigrant parents from Greece, I became acutely aware of how discriminatory societal attitudes undermined inclusion and equality at a young age. In the 50s, when my father arrived in Australia he had a moustache. Let me add, not quite like mine. At the movies people would …
At a dinner party recently, a friend who worked at a production house asked, “Can we even put a Christmas tree up in our foyer at work any more?” It’s a good question! There are several strategies that organizations can employ to make their festive season more inclusive that can …
Workforce mutuality is used to describe the extent to which an organizations diversity or workforce is a reflection of the diversity that exists in the community served by the organization. The description of this term is often confused with workforce diversity. However, an organization’s workforce may be highly diverse yet …
Discussions about the importance of cultural diversity are abundant in the professional literature and mainstream media. Despite intense interest, there is a significant knowledge gap in what is meant by diversity and how it can be measured. This article studies the importance of having an analytic approach to measure and …
Cultural intelligence (CQ) “Cultural intelligence is the ability to adapt to various cultural contexts and function in different cultural settings or with those of a different culture in one’s setting … Cultural intelligence is a combination of emotional and social intelligence that is acquired through the maturation process of observing …
Some months ago I started a conversation at this blog about how Australia needs to move beyond the simplistic terms in which we talk about cultural difference at work and in policy. Specifically, I questioned the widespread use of the label ‘culturally and linguistically diverse’, or CALD. I flagged that …
Talk long enough about any form of the socially aware business initiative—from promoting sustainability to Indigenous reconciliation and workforce diversity—and the same question comes up: does it matter whether companies are doing the ‘right thing’ for the ‘right’ reasons? Does the effectiveness of those initiatives depend on which imperatives businesses …
Diversity Representation in Australian News Organisations According to the 2016 census, 50 percent of Australians were born overseas or had a parent born overseas (Tasevski, 2018). Census data also shows that almost one-quarter of Australians speak another language than English in their homes. Federal parliament, however, is unrepresentative of the …
We all appreciate that diversity gets results—but why? When he worked at a major health services provider in Australia’s second city of Melbourne, Dr Martin Plowman pioneered a new way of thinking about who benefits from diversity and under what circumstances. This was based around the idea of workforce mutuality—that …
