Diverse Contexts
Creating Inclusive Workplace Practices to Support Individuals with Dyslexia across the Employment Lifecycle: Perspectives from Employers, Managers, and Employees with Dyslexia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shae Wissell
Employment and job security are key influences on health and wellbeing. Dyslexia affects 1 in 10 individuals and is a lifelong disability. This paper brings together results from two unique Australian-first published research studies exploring workplace practices from the perspective of individuals with dyslexia and those who employ and manage dyslexic employees. Qualitative research design incorporating in-depth interviews was used to explore the experiences of Australian adults with dyslexia (Cohort 1) in the seeking of employment, the performance of their work roles, and the progression of their careers and perspectives of employers and managers (Cohort 2) in relation to the inclusivity of workplaces for dyslexic employees. By merging the two studies, we gained a deeper understanding of some of the workplace challenges faced by people with dyslexia and ways to improve organisational practices and inclusion. The results suggest that employees with dyslexia face greater challenges in the workplace and can struggle due to a lack of awareness of the disability within organisations, which often led to feelings of exhaustion and fatigue because of a limited access to supports and an inability to disclose, which for some left them feeling vulnerable in the workplace. Additionally, more can be done to help employers and managers to have a better understanding of the dyslexia as a disability by undertaking whole of organisation awareness training and the adoption of measures that allow for workplace improvements such as easier access to reasonable adjustments and more inclusive workplace practices.
Featured Learning in the Queer Space: An Interactive Workshop for Communicating Lived Experience to Preclinical Medicine Students View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Brendan Stevenson, Ben Seyer
In 2021, we introduced teaching in the LGBTQIA+ space to include 2nd year direct-Entry cohort from Clayton as well as Gippsland Year A students, numbering approximately 400 students. This year we led an interactive LGBTQIA+ workshop to around 1000 early years medical students across all of the Monash medicine footprint, inclusive of Gippsland, Clayton and Malaysia with a team of academics from across the three sites. The online session included guest speakers with lived experience and expertise, break-out rooms, case-studies, chat, Q&A, literature, resources and tools for student support and learning. The sessions were carefully developed with input from the Monash Equity Group and Queer community, other academics and physicians. This session aimed to show young doctors the challenges experienced by those in the LGBTQIA+ community when accessing healthcare. The workshops were evaluated, appeared to be highly successful as rated by both students and staff. Students reported higher confidence in using LGBTQIA+ terminology following the seminar and were overwhelmingly positive in qualitative feedback. Students particularly appreciated the opportunity to work with their colleagues at other sites and we will share some of the student and staff feedback in our presentation. Outcomes included enhanced LGBTQIA+ patient experiences and healthier marginalised communities, following Monash University’s commitment to ‘inclusive communities with meaningful connections’. This study showcases how important and sensitive topics can be taught across campuses - even internationally in cutting-edge, collaborative and novel ways, making the most of available technology.
Analyzing the Intersection of Servant Leadership and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ronnie Davis
Servant Leadership has been researched as an alternative leadership style for creating intimacy within organizations. As companies/ leaders continue their pursuit of implementing dynamic workforce cultures thoroughly immersed in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, (DEI) it is believed that the formula for successful teams and practices lies at the heart of analyzing the intersection of Servant Leadership and DEI. This study reviews the psychology of servant leadership required for implementing a progressive DEI culture.
Featured Designing Diversity by Considering Collective Knowledge View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lea Clara Frömchen Zwick
What do you need? With this and similar questions, a local business organization surveys the wishes and needs of its employees before redesigning its office space. The result is a spatial diversity in which there is no uniform spatial concept, but different spaces meet different needs. Even though the focus of the pedagogical doctoral project is on organizational knowledge practices and based on a theoretical framework of tacit as well as explicit knowledge, it has been noticed in the data that knowledge practices are linked to organizational decisions, which in turn are associated with diversity. This can be exemplified by the concept of spatial design mentioned at the beginning of this paper, as different spaces are each designed according to different needs. The connection of knowledge practices and diversity underlines the relevance of the qualitative-reconstructive project, for which narrative interviews, participant observations and supplementary documents are taken into account. All of them are successively analyzed with the documentary method. For the paper, the data from the interviews are particularly relevant, as the analysis reveals a leadership practice in which explicit knowledge of the employees is first obtained and on the basis of which the decision then follows. The study shows how a collective knowledge not only influences organizational decisions, but also diversifies the organization because of its consideration.
Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in the Post Pandemic Workplace View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shani Kuna
While initially the Coronavirus pandemic was considered an unprecedented global unifier, with countries worldwide all challenged to flatten the infection curve, accumulating studies have addressed the stark inequalities revealed by the pandemic. Considering that human resource management (HRM) has played a significant role during COVID-19, the purpose of this study is to decipher the stance of HRM professionals in regards the inoculation controversy, which has percolated from society to the labour market. In depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 Israeli HRM professionals from varied business organizations. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach was utilized for the qualitative analysis of the data. The findings suggest that unvaccinated people are highly susceptible to both openly acknowledged and covert discrimination against them by employers as well as co-workers. HRM professionals are particularly concerned about discrimination against unvaccinated jobseekers in recruitment and selection processes, and discrimination against unvaccinated people leading to employee dismissal. These are the implications of this study: HRM should actively advance opportunities for gainful employment of unvaccinated employees who might be discriminated against in the labour market. HRM professionals are thus advised to adopt preventive steps against implicit or explicit discrimination in practices such as employee recruitment and selection, work design, compensation and talent development. In sum, this study, which reflects current societal controversies, makes a contribution to the critical theorizing of the post-COVID-19 workplace as regards non-vaccination as a cause of discrimination.
Between Peripherality and Privilege: Women Wage Peace as a Case Study for the Analysis of Intersectional Practices in Women’s Movements View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Veronica Lion
This study analyzes the Israeli movement Women Wage Peace as a case study for examining intersectional practices in women’s movements. It investigates the strategies and challenges the movement has faced in its pursuit of reaching a diverse membership, a goal considered unique in the Israeli peace discourse. This research contributes to the understanding of intersectional theory and practice, beyond pre-set analytical categories and empty buzzwords, offering explanations as to why intersectionality in women’s movements doesn’t (always) work despite good intentions. The ethnographic research based on semi-structured interviews with previous and current movement members reveals that looking through the women’s perspectives of peripherality and privilege highlights the movement’s intersectional power structures determining the processes where intersectional analysis doesn’t translate into intersectional political practices. These findings answer current calls in feminist and social movement research for more nuanced intersectional analyses by providing examples of the challenges of intersectional practices in women’s organizing.
Supplier Diversity in Toronto and Chicago: A Tale of Two Cities (Part 2)
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Paul D. Larson
This paper reviews the literature on supplier diversity (SD), and uses content analysis to test several hypotheses about the types of organizations that have SD initiatives. Essentially, SD is about doing business with suppliers owned and operated by persons other than straight white males. The diverse communities include Indigenous Peoples; disabled people; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people; visible minorities and women. In Toronto, it is hypothesized that larger organizations, those with employee diversity (ED) programs and those with close links to American organizations (as parent or subsidiary) are more likely to have SD programs. The hypotheses are tested using data from organizations listed among the Greater Toronto Area’s Best Diversity Employers and GTA-based businesses listed on The Financial Post FP500. The largest Toronto firms are also compared with the largest firms based in the Chicagoland area, according to the Fortune 500. Compared to companies in Toronto, those in Chicago are expected to be more likely to have SD programs. The paper includes discussion of some implications for supply chain and diversity practitioners and researchers, i.e., theoretical contributions and opportunities for further study.
