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Public sector - Employer webinar

What does diversity and inclusion really mean for organisations, individuals and society, and how can organisations get beyond superficial measures to achieve deep, sustained change? What role is diversity and inclusion playing in civil service reform? These are some of the big questions discussed in a recent webinar, Getting beyond the moral argument for diversity and inclusion, run by The Open University in conjunction with Civil Service World. The webinar can be viewed by filling in the form at the bottom of the page.

Join the webinar November 25 2020, 15:00 - 16:00

The webinar brought together leading experts, all academics within The Open University, to talk about issues such as intersectionality, parity of esteem and how the civil service can achieve its goal of being a truly diverse and inclusive employer.

Although there was a strong focus on the civil service, it is important to note that what was discussed is relevant to a very wide audience. All organisations in all sectors need to embrace and foster diversity and inclusion. Many already are – according to the OU’s recent Business Barometer report, over two thirds of senior leaders across all sectors are actively looking to recruit candidates with more diverse backgrounds.
 

The expert panel

Simon Lee, Professor of Law at The Open University, opened the webinar. Simon was previously Director of Citizenship & Governance Research and contributed to the peace process in Northern Ireland. Joining Lee on the panel were Waqās Ahmed, Visiting Fellow at the OU, author and a global authority on multidisciplinary thinking, and Dr Stefanie Ruel, Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at The Open University and to date, the only female to hold the position of Mission Manager at the Canadian Space Agency.

All three panelists talked about the very great need to explore and discuss issues around diversity and inclusion in depth and to move thinking beyond quotas and superficial policies and procedures. Waqās says the current view of diversity and inclusivity is far too narrow and simplistic. “Diversity is a hyper complex phenomenon - every human being has different dimensions to them. But diversity in the current narrative is generally seen quite superficially and that affects how diversity is implemented in the workplace.” He says there needs to be a much greater understanding of what diversity actually is and how to effect real, sustainable change in the workplace.

“I believe that reflection and investigation is what will bring this to a more sincere and therefore, more proactive understanding of what diversity means and where to lead in the future,” says Waqās. This includes understanding why lack of diversity is such an issue in workplaces and where it stems from in a historical context.

 

Investigating the complexity of diversity

As part of the webinar, Waqās showed a diagram titled Diversity as a Hyper-Complex Phenomenon. This diagram demonstrates the many elements that need to be considered when thinking about diversity.

Stefanie agrees that the current thinking around diversity and inclusion needs to be broadened out. She says organisations, individuals and society in general need to think about the concept of intersectionality – the overlapping of people’s various identities. “We can talk in terms of self identify and we can also talk in terms of social identity. As an academic, I’ve looked at how we position ourselves in organisations based on our social identities. This is our way as humans of making sense of the world around us. Unfortunately, while we are doing this, we can introduce things like stereotypes, based on various identities that we see or experience with people, such as race, skin colour, ethnicity, class culture, religion, age, able bodiedness and geographical location.”


An engaged audience

There was strong participation from the audience, with several people posing questions to the panel. One question came from an inclusion manager, who asked Stefanie whether skin colour had impacted on her career. Stefanie’s reply was: “Intersectionality tells us that we are much more complex than just being white or black. Yes, I can break myself out into different individual elements, but I am really more complex than these individual categories. It’s the complexity of me as a human that is more important than just one identity factor.”
 

Widening access through education

As an institution, the OU has always strived to widen access to learning and to help all individuals achieve their potential. That is core to who the OU is and what it does. As part of that, the OU helps organisations widen access to learning and helps with learning and development. Our programmes are designed to open up education to wider participation and to help employers ensure all employees have the skills and knowledge to achieve their potential. Simon finished the webinar by talking about the important role education has to play in improving diversity and inclusion. “In universities, when students graduate, I say to them ‘You’re going out with a certificate, but much more than that. There’ll be something that has touched you in this experience which you’re not conscious of at the moment, but over the years, over the decades, it’ll suddenly click. That’s true in organisations too. That’s one of the very important reasons why diversity matters and inclusion matters.”
 

Participants

Professor Simon Lee

Simon Lee became Professor of Law at the Open University in December 2015. He also served as Director of Citizenship & Governance Research in 2016, 2017 and 2018. His contributions to the peace process in Northern Ireland included being the co-founder of Initiative ’92, which established the Opsahl Commission. Simon Lee writes about law, ethics, religion, politics, history and sport. His books include Law & Morals (Oxford University Press, 1986), Judging Judges (Faber, 1988), The Cost of Free Speech (Faber, 1990), Uneasy Ethics (Pimlico, Random House, 2003; Random House e-book, 2011).

Waqās Ahmed

The Open University’s Visiting Fellow Waqas Ahmed is considered a world authority on multidisciplinary thinking, with his work focusing on intellectual, professional and cultural diversity. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed book The Polymath (Wiley 2019) and is founder of The DaVinci Network. 
At the Open University Business School, Waqas is exploring the themes of interdisciplinarity and diversity relating to the executive education. He is particularly interested in the complexity of diversity and how it might be harnessed in the workplace to deliver creative solutions to complex organisational challenges as well as to increased engagement and personal fulfilment at work. Waqas himself has an exceptionally diverse academic, professional and cultural background relating to the arts, sciences and international affairs. He is an alumnus of the Civil Service Fast Stream Diversity programme. 

Stefanie Ruel

Stefanie Ruel is a Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at The Open University. Her personal experience, multifaceted background and research themes mean that she brings insights into the ways in which a lack of diversity and inclusion can harm organisations. In particular, she conducts research in the use of discourse, storytelling and myths, and the complexity of individuals as a way to challenge individuals and organisations to consider the discourses used in every day social interactions within organisations.  
The only woman to date to hold the position of Mission Manager at the Canadian Space Agency, her research centres around gender and diversity in the STEM environment. She also brings a wealth of knowledge around the public/civil service perspective, having been in the Canadian public service for over 20 years.

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