Living in Harmony Community Grants 1999

Victoria

Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

$54,000 Awarded

This project, now drawn to a close, aimed to:

address ignorance, uncertainty, fear and negativity about multiculturalism
help overcome racism by instilling an understanding of diversity, and by conveying a sense of the factors that unify Australians of all religious and ethnic backgrounds
raise awareness of the many forms of racism and intolerance in the corporate sector and provide strategies to counter them

B’nai B’rith:

is the world's oldest and largest Jewish service organisation, with over 150,000 members worldwide and observer status at the United Nations
was founded in USA in 1843 and established in Australia in 1944, with its Australian Anti-Defamation Commission established in 1979
includes amongst its strategic goals combatting all forms of racism, intolerance and prejudice

The project activities, now drawn to a close, were to:

raise awareness of intolerance in the Australian corporate sector and provide strategies to counter racial prejudice
develop a survey of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace
conduct surveys in the corporate sector (to a sample determined with assistance with marketing firm Dun and Bradstreet)
evaluate the survey results and publish a report of the findings on the B'nai B'rith website (see below for website address)

The survey, completed by close to 200 Australian businesses:

DIMIA Fact Sheet No. 12, Productive Diversity: Australia’s Competitive Advantage
Kramer, Robin, "Managing Diversity", in Australian Human Resources Management
Watson, I, Opening the Glass Door: Overseas Born Managers in Australia, Bureau of Immigration and Population Research, 1996

received assistance from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in improving the reliability of the survey
defined cultural diversity policy as encompassing any deliberate plan by a company to:

reduce prejudice and discrimination and promote harmony in the workplace among culturally diverse workers
enhance feelings of respect for people of diverse cultures and provide conditions which contribute to the material and spiritual wellbeing of all workers, regardless of their cultural background or group affiliation
encourage workers from diverse cultural backgrounds to maximise their cultural development
encourage productive contributions to the success of the company from workers of diverse cultural background

integration /satisfaction of non-English speaking background employees
perceived advantages/disadvantages to the company of Australian population change over past two decades

correlated responses to the above with data on company type, size, and demographic composition of staff

The project:

encountered difficulties in attracting responses to the questionnaires sent out - over 2000 surveys were sent out, however only around 10% were completed and returned.
Produced an evaluation report of the business survey that provides interesting insight into cultural diversity in Australia's corporate sector. The survey report can be found online at www.bnaibrith.org.au under "publications".