Boundary spanning for engaging with Indigenous governance

This article is co-authored with A/Professor Morgan Brigg

The tensions between bureaucratic mindsets and diverse traditions can cause difficulties for public managers shifting to the collaborative approaches needed to address complex problems (Brown, 2017). Recently, the Australian Productivity Commission’s review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap challenged Australian governments to fundamentally reconfigure how they engage with First Nations organisations.

First Nations organisations may ‘look like’ a recognisable entity to public managers, but this is because political conditions require them to organise themselves in structures dictated by governments. Beneath the surface there are usually other values, priorities, and commitments in play. Most commonly these involve deep relational commitments to families and places or regions.

Many Indigenous corporations must operate at the interface of two traditions and manage the tensions between them if they are to succeed. This context in turn requires governments to avoid assuming that they are dealing with a ‘known entity’ in their standard mode of operating, or that they are the ultimate authority on effective governance in these circumstances. Governments need to learn to recognise and engage with Indigenous cultural values and modes of operation, and to do so in negotiated partnership.

Working at the interface of governance traditions can be demanding and challenging for all involved. Recent research on boundary spanners provides us with some insights into what might be required to rise to this challenge.

Most working definitions of boundary spanners encompass elements of working ‘at the periphery’, yet still ‘performing organizational relevant tasks’ with a focus on ‘relating the organization with elements outside it’ (Levina & Vaast, 2005, p. 40).

Recently, Williams (2013) has suggested that all policy bureaucrats and program managers required to be involved with collaboration need to develop the capacity to build effective relationships, be able to engage “deeply” with different parties and understand and value multiple perspectives. He also contends that effective boundary spanners need to be able to manage tensions and ambiguities and so resist the pull of the familiar and well-known.

The tensions and ambiguities to be navigated include different value orientations, unclear, multiple or conflicting goals, problems of multiple accountabilities, differences in language and culture and operating in different modes of governance (Williams, 2010, p. 29). Governments need to accept and respond to these challenges if they to evolve their relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for the delivery of effective governance and services.

What does this mean for public servants wanting to change how they work with First Nations organisations? Firstly, it is valuable for public servants to reflect on the mainstream corporate governance they belong to. As one participant suggested in our recent research “They really should have a good look at themselves first - at their own governance and how they work” (Brigg et al., 2022, p. 106). Although the everyday practices of public service – the way governments do governance – are made to appear natural to those who practice them, they are only one of many possible approaches.

The self-reflectivity that comes from questioning one’s own practices is a useful foundation for actively learning about and valuing Indigenous governance knowledges, principles, and systems (Brigg et al., 2022, p. 24). Reading, courses, and other educational materials are all valuable, but where possible, public servants should get out of the office and work with their Indigenous partners in their everyday context. Understanding the challenges that they face in managing the interface between two governance traditions can help public servants to identify ways to adapt their approaches to working at this challenging boundary.

Driving change requires courage to carefully but assertively generate shifts in standardised and bureaucratic modes of engagement and thinking to better manage the tensions that are an inevitable part of being located at the interface of two governance traditions. The challenge is to continue to attend to organisationally relevant tasks beyond taken for granted ways of working to be able to also meet the needs and expectations of First Nations governance systems and peoples.

Individual public managers cannot achieve this alone. Governments need to extend their capacity to engage with Indigenous governance, cultures, and local and other stakeholders at a systemic level. Standard approaches to building staff cross-cultural capabilities are not enough because recent research suggests that career public servants appear to be less open to collaboration than those who have worked outside (Brown, 2017). A strategy to diversify the workforce, including by employing and empowering First Nations staff, needs to supplement efforts at building staff cross-cultural capabilities.

Governments also need to adopt more self-reflective and self-critical approaches. They need, as our research participant suggested, to develop the capacity to critically review their own ways of operating and put aside assumptions that their ways are natural or best. Instead, they need to engage with First Nations organisations to find ways of collaborating that work for both government and Indigenous forms of governance.

When they work with First Nations organisations, governments need to find ways to manage the tensions between bureaucratic mindsets and the diverse and enduring traditions of Indigenous governance. Reconfiguring how they work with First Nations organisations is critical for effectively addressing the complex problem of improving the wellbeing of First Nations people. Governments need to find ways for their own governance systems to work more effectively at the interface of two enduring governance traditions.

References

Brigg, M., Brown, P. R., Bourne, J., Curth-Bibb, J., & Moran, M. (2022). Supporting Corporations beyond Compliance: Advancing ORIC’s Governance Approach Retrieved from

Brown, P. R. (2017). Attempting to cultivate more collaborative mindsets for boundary spanning in remote Indigenous policy. . Australian Journal of Public Administration doi:DOI:10.1111/1467-8500.12287

Levina, N., & Vaast, E. (2005). The emergence of boundary spanning competence in practice: implications for implementation and use of information systems MIS Quarterly, 29(2), 335-363.

Williams, P. (2010). Special agents: The nature and role of boundary spanners. Paper presented at the ESRC Research Seminar Series. Collaborative Futures: New Insights from Intra and Inter-Sectoral Collaboration. , University Of Birmingham.

Williams, P. (2013). We are all boundary spanners now? International Journal of Public Sector Management, 26(1), 17-32.