Each year in Organisational Communication, Culture and Change (Org Comms), the learning is framed around an issue or event, in 2022 the broad focus is going to be on cultural change within organizations in relation to race and discrimination, using the Australian Football League (AFL) as the case study. As a consequence of this we are starting with the trigger warning that Org Comms in 2022 is going to be discussing racism and race-based violence.
At times what we are discussing may be confronting and challenging. If you find that it is a bit too much for you, it is perfectly okay to back off or tap out for a little while - but you will need to come back to the content, you can't actually avoid it. If you are struggling with this, please get in touch with me and we can work through the challenges and get appropriate supports.
We will be discussing Australian Rules Football. I have lived all over Australia and I know that people can be very focused (obsessed) on their own version of football/rugby as being "the best" - but the issues we are going to be looking at can equally be applied to all of the different sports, not only in Australia, but across the world. As far as my own prejudice in this, I am Victorian and was raised in an AFL household, therefore AFL is the superior game. But it does have a lot of problems many of which we are going to be discussing during the unit.
Why sport? Excellent question. I know that some find a focus on sport to be exclusionary in nature, and I completely understand that position. I chose to focus on sport in particular for this unit due to the close relationship between sport, business and culture (for example, why do so many businesses insist on bringing in high performance sports people to motivate teams within organisations?).
Also, as part of Reconciliation Australia's Five Dimensions for Reconciliation, (Links to an external site.) Institutional Integrity is one of the dimensions which need to be addressed, along with - historical acceptance; race relations; equality and equity; and unity. Sporting organisations are important institutions within Australian culture and society, and as such they need to engage with the overall process - just like many other businesses.