The importance of mutuality in local governance

__This article is written by Peter Mousaferiadis, founder of Cultural Infusion, an organisation that builds global harmony through intercultural action within education, information & communications technology (ICT) and the arts. __

• The problem: When we look at diversity, often we consider the business case and focus on financial gains.The world needs to move beyond this idea - the private sector needs Diversity Equity initiatives (DEI) but so too does the public sector in all levels of governance.

• Why it matters: Representation is hugely important. What we call ‘mutuality’ is key–this is the extent to which an organisation, or governmental branch, in this case, reflects the community it serves. This is important not just for linguistic reasons but for healthcare and cultural understanding issues. It is also necessary for public servants to come from all segments of society so all voices can be heard.

• The solution: A data-driven approach for local government—it is impossible to know what areas need improvement if we do not know what areas are lacking. Therefore, tools such as Diversity Atlas can be deployed across the public service sector, and employees there can see themselves reflected in inclusive datasets.

Most of today’s discussions on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) focus on the corporate world—we discuss the business case for diversity and cite significant financial gains made when corporations invest in diversity initiatives. This, however, implies that DEI is only important in the private sector. In fact, this could not be further from the truth. In all levels of the public sector, from local to federal government and all public service branches, there is a need for mutuality, which is the degree to which an organisation reflects the community it serves.

Let’s use local government as an example of how important it is for those being served to be represented by those like themselves. What could be more important for the public service, in its varied forms, than to be in touch with the public?

"When representation is lacking, the first symptom we often see is resentment."

When we refer to diversity, we refer to the variety of attributes possessed by the workforce, such as languages spoken, disability, worldviews, ethnicity and education levels. Mutuality in local government, therefore, is the degree to which the diversity of local government employees reflects the diversity of its community.

We have access to demographic information via census data about the people who live in local communities, but what information do we have about those who work in local governance? Very little. So we have no idea what degree of mutuality exists.

We must take a data-driven approach to measure the level of mutuality in local governance. An obvious and important metric of mutuality is language. If a local community is composed of one specific language background, say Vietnamese speakers, then it’s obvious that those offering government services need strong language skills in Vietnamese. A growing number of Australians don’t speak English fluently (about 820,000 according to the 2016 Census). Our Diversity Atlas platform has the world’s most comprehensive list of languages, detailing not only languages broadly, but also by dialect. Australia's multitude of languages, including over 300 Indigenous languages, are often perceived as a disadvantage. However, this diversity could be a source of national strength, and pride, with the potential to provide a competitive advantage in economic and cultural spheres.

Every person with any type of disability also needs to be adequately represented. How much talent, how many important perspectives on the world, do we block simply because no one thought of the access needs for someone with different needs to their own? What happens to the people whose contributions are not allowed to blossom simply because of a failure in mutuality?

There is little research done on the impact a lack of mutuality has on the public sector but we can see the far-reaching implications in the private sector. For instance, adult Americans with disabilities have an estimated US$490 billion in disposable income. Organisations that employ workers with disabilities have palpably greater insight into the services and products that fit the needs of these specific customer bases.

These aspects have been analytically neglected due to a substantial gap in the knowledge about how diversity is measured. Little is also known about the relative merits of various diversity initiatives.

Considerations such as these led us to create our transformational analytics tool: Diversity Atlas. We set out to solve the problem of quantifying diversity within organisations, to help organisations understand who they themselves are. Our list of 42,000 fields that individuals can select from is forever growing. We intersect dimensions of cultural diversity against age, position type and level, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation and biological sex among other categories to ensure all people can find themselves in the survey, and thus be seen.

When representation is lacking, the first symptom we often see is resentment. The hallmark of a successful democratic society is when it is truly representative of its people. Otherwise, it can be a hotbed of resentment.

With our societies across the world becoming increasingly diverse, democratic governments need to reflect this and provide balanced representation. That’s just for a minimal level of functionality. The true extent of the opportunities here are yet to be realised.

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