I want to be a leader but I am not white and named Andrew

As a nation that has grown significantly over two centuries of international migration, diversity is widely visible, and to an extent accepted, on the streets of Australian cities. However, in the boardrooms of major Australian companies, it remains an aspiration rather than a reality. Did you know, there are still more men named Andrew leading ASX200 companies than women (1)?

In a few decades after it abandoned its controversial 'white' policy, which favoured Anglo-Saxon migrants, Australia introduced the point-based skilled migration system to address skill shortages. This system allowed individuals to demonstrate competencies irrespective of their gender, cultural background, religious beliefs, social class, sexuality etc. to migrate and contribute to the nation.

Skilled migration has been a significant contributor to the Australian economy, bringing in $81 billion in 2016-2017 (2). There are some concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on migration as it is "the major driver behind Australia's population growth, which in turn has driven economic growth" (3).

Diversity should not just be accepted. It should be considered a necessity, especially in the infrastructure sector, where there is a significant investment in large, complex building programs. Diversity brings expertise, skills, and different points of view that is

A greater focus on diversity has seen initiatives around gender equity consisting of increasing numbers without changing the organisational culture and structure.

not weighed down by old approaches. Challenging the status quo is essential if we want to drive innovation and enhance productivity. If you want to get different outcomes, you must change the inputs, and in the professional services sector, the key input is the people.

As an example, major transport projects that are being designed by multinational consortia that bring together local and global teams. The combination of experience delivering complex major infrastructure overseas and an appreciation of local governance, standards, and constraints is critical to successful project delivery. This diversity of expertise and perspective is also what drives and sustains the offerings of many consulting firms.

Skilled migrants can bring a mindset, experiences and, adding gender to the mix, a unique value proposition. However, employers' efforts in deriving value from this pool of highly skilled and diverse personnel have often struggled to overcome other challenges that have prevented the 'best' people from succeeding.

The workplace has, until recently, largely remained a domain upholding traditional majority values with subconscious bias in the appointment and identification of leaders of a particular gender, age group and background. As an example, in 2018-19 women only held 14.1% of chair positions, 26.8% of directorships, with 17.1% being CEOs and 31.5% in key management positions (4).

A greater focus on diversity has seen initiatives around gender equity consisting of increasing numbers without changing the organisational culture and structure. While the use of quota can help bring more women to the top, it may not be fostering diversity, e.g. the promoted women could belong to the majority or be adhering to the mindset of the existing system.

However, there is an opportunity to understand the uniqueness of identities and modes of thinking about the stratification of intersecting elements, such as gender, ethnicity / cultural background, ability, sexuality etc. Beyond quantitative studies reporting on numerical representation, qualitative studies help provide a rich, contextual exploration of various women's experiences.

A study from Deakin University explored how skilled migrant women of colour in management and leadership positions in Australia defined and achieved success (5). The results outlined the intersecting elements that these women had navigated to reach their respective roles. It illustrated that diversity initiatives, instead of oversimplifying differences and tackling them in sequence (e.g. gender one year, disability the next), could be tailored to embrace and leverage the complexity of a workforce.

Without being too academic, this is where intersectionality as a theory (6) helps us to recognise how gendered experiences are better comprehended as a sociopsychological process, occurring amidst specific interactions of race, class, gender, language, migration among other factors (6).

We must move away from the singular approach of considering inequalities as mutually exclusive - such as in only considering gender, ethnicity or sexuality at a time. By doing this, organisational strategies can examine the overlaps in these categories. In other words, a migrant woman can identify herself as a woman, Asian and as part of the LGBTQ+ community simultaneously.

By identifying the intersectionality in diversity, organisations can look into recruitment, training & development (educating current and new staff), leadership, performance management systems to accommodate, create new standards and expectations and most importantly, build a culture that not only encourages diversity to exist, but for it to thrive and succeed. For instance, an environment that encourages diversity would recognise and appreciate people’s contributions and eliminate structural barriers, including being prejudiced because they don’t speak in the Aussie vernacular or accent, considered dumb because they don’t speak in meetings (in certain cultures, it is considered rude to speak unnecessarily) or deemed a poor cultural fit because they do not watch the latest reality shows on television.

Such an environment can not only add value for the diverse people themselves but also to their employers, clients and the wider society.

Dr Juliana Mutum Dr Frédéric Blin AECOM

References

1. https://conradliveris.files.wordpress. com/2018/03/gender-equality-at-work-20182.pdf 2. ABS 2019

3. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/ aug/02/migration-australia-cliff-economyinternational-students-covid-19-coronavirus

4. https://www.wgea.gov.au/data/fact-sheets/ gender-workplace-statistics-at-a-glance-2020 5. Mutum, J. (2018). NESB Skilled Primary

Migrant Women's Experiences, an Australian

Perspective. PhD thesis, Department of

Management, Deakin University. 6. Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the

Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist

Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist

Theory and Antiracist Politics. The University of

Chicago Legal Forum, 1, Article 8. 7. Stewart, A.J. & McDermott, C. (2004). Gender in Psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 519-544.

By identifying the intersectionality in diversity, organisations can look into recruitment, training & development (educating current and new staff), leadership, performance management systems to accommodate, create new standards and expectations and most importantly, build a culture that not only encourages diversity to exist, but for it to thrive and succeed.