Category: News & Knowledge

Why Diversity and Inclusion is Now a Source of Competitive Advantage

Diversity and inclusion has become so important over the last three to five years, where it’s shifted from being a social justice issue to a strategic business imperative because there’s been a host of empirical research which has emerged which demonstrates that diversity can actually optimise performance and innovation in organisations.

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The Hayne Commission: How Diversity and Inclusion Can Help to Mend the Banks’ Broken Cultures

Trust in Banks has been weakened The implicit trust which many Australians had in their banks and the belief that financial institutions would generally do the right thing has been rudely shattered. The final report of the Royal Commission into misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry laid bare the sorry state of …

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Under the law, Australian women are equal – it’s invisible barriers that cause the problem

Women in Australia face almost no legal barriers in pursuing their careers or other economic activity. The just-released report by the World Bank: Women, Business and the Law, 2019: a decade of reform measures the level of gender equality across 187 economies – with specific reference to economic activity. The areas measured are: going places; managing assets; getting …

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The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures

By Gary P. Pisano (Harvard Business Review, Jan 2019) ABSTRACT: This article offers some important insights as to why some companies are successful in pursuing innovation while others fail at it. The proposition advanced by the author is that the nature of innovative cultures is misunderstood. He seeks to dispel five common misconceptions about how …

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Fixing the Flawed Approach to Diversity

(Boston Consulting Group, Jan 2019, by M. Kretz and others) ABSTRACT: This article begins with the observation that while many companies and their leaders recognise the benefits that diversity brings and have instituted various kinds of diversity initiatives, across the board the reality is that progress has been slow. (The authors are, of course not …

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Organisations can and should measure their employees’ sense of belonging

Symmetra has long advocated objectively rating and benchmarking the salient features of a diverse and inclusive workplace. One of the most important indicators of the level of inclusivity in a workplace is whether employees have a positive sense of belonging. Belonging advances employee engagement, motivation, identification with the goals of the business and collaboration. It is pleasing …

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The Other Diversity Dividend

P Gompers and S Kovvali – Harvard Business Review – July/August 2018 Statistical data in a number of areas gives support to the view that harnessing the benefits of diverse thinking brings about positive real world results While there are good grounds for believing that diverse organisations tend to generate a broader range of ideas, …

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Why the Typical Performance Review is Overwhelmingly Biased

B Jones and D Rock – Psychology Today – May 2018 This article offers an interesting new perspective on how to mitigate the biases which creep into performance appraisals. Biases infiltrate themselves into many of the decisions we make daily. Recognising this means we need to guard against the harmful results flowing to ourselves and …

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Delivering Through Diversity

V Hunt, S Prince, S Dixon-Fyle, L Yee – McKinsey & Company Report – January 2018 This new research report by McKinsey is a follow-up to their 2015 report “Why Diversity Matters” and extends the mounting body of evidence supporting diversity as a means to better organisational performance. Significantly it is an attempt to determine whether the perceived benefits …

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