Background

MGNT110 Spring Case Study: NexGeneration Written by Lynnaire Sheridan and Jade Kennedy

NexGeneration is a large multi-national organization providing professional services including consulting in strategic planning, management and human resource management. The Australasia head office is based in Sydney and typically works with large to medium-size enterprises.

Three years ago, NexGeneration's Australia CEO Graham Leveroid announced that the Australian division would develop an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reconciliation Action plan (Reconciliation Australia). This initiative grew after he attended an Indigenous workshop as part of some external leadership training but also he reflected the parent company's social ethic around respecting and creating opportunities for "First Peoples", Indigenous peoples traditionally displaced by colonization of their traditional lands. At the launch he announced "This is an opportunity to engage with Australia's Indigenous peoples to acknowledge history, understand experiences and to support reconciliation through collaboration."

Today, NexGeneration has a Reconciliation Action plan. Operationally, this plan has an Indigenous employment strategy that commits to increase Indigenous representation to 2.5% of NexGeneration's workforce by 2020. Essentially this target is designed to match the proportion of Indigenous people of working age relative to the overall Australian working population. There will now be targeted recruitment of Indigenous Australians, including programs to involve young Indigenous people via cadetships and traineeships, to meet these employment targets.

The workplace

Sally Jones is senior manager of the Human Resource Management consulting division of NexGeneration Australia. She has a team of 20 employees, 16 of whom have extensive HR experience and work with clients to develop tailored Human Resource Strategies, tools and systems. Hired one year ago, one of the experienced HR consultants is Indigenous (Thomas Jacobs) and he is specifically working with NexGeneration clients who are interested in reconciliation and Indigenous recruitment. Rebecca Worthington is a senior consultant who manages four of the external consulting team and is Thomas' immediate line manager. Then there is an office manager (1), administrative assistants (2) and Jenny, an Indigenous administrative cadet (1).

"So, explain to me Rebecca what appears to be the issue with Thomas?" asks Sally. "Putting it frankly Sally, as his manager, he's not here. I mean we see him occasionally but he's always out and about. It's getting really tricky to figure out billable hours." Explains Rebecca raising concerns as Thomas' manager. "How's his work performance?" asks Sally. "Well, look, he reckons he's getting work done but a client is after the paperwork, the evidence - in a year it seems like the clients are achieving Indigenous engagement but it's hard to measure reconciliation and whether the Indigenous employment strategies are really working out for them." "Ok, let's meet with him." Sally suggests.

Thomas is invited to a performance review meeting with Rebecca, his immediate manager, and Sally the senior manager. He greets Jenny the Indigenous cadet, who has set up the meeting, as he arrives in the foyer, "Hey sis, how you going?" he asks. "Not bad but I'm never at my desk- actually better go as I'm the now the Indigenous representative on the internal training and development team (rolls her eyes)...see ya."

Sally and Rebecca then invite Thomas into Sally's office for their discussion. Sally starts with a general chat about how things are going. Thomas replies enthusiastically that his four clients are all making real progress with their Reconciliation Action Plans and that local Indigenous communities are starting to feel welcome to visit the clients' workplaces and are beginning to see that there are opportunities for their young people to come onboard. While the community still sees a real need to contribute Indigenous people to health and education - they can now see a

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purpose in business and those organisations. "Thomas, we do have some concerns to raise with you" Interjects Sally "Your attendance at work and billable hours...Thomas, currently you are not meeting the criteria to achieve your bonus." Thomas looks surprised and responds "I'm working all the time. Meeting, talking, advocating. Days, weekends, evenings." "Thomas, we just can't see the work - we can't bill the client's hours - you need to produce." Explains Sally. Thomas storms out of the room, slams the door.

After Wednesday's meeting, Thomas doesn't return to the office this week or the following. A week and a half later he does return to work looking exhausted. Rebecca approaches him to explain that he has forfeited his position due to his behavior at the meeting and lack of subsequent communication. Thomas gets frustrated and angry, he swears and security escorts him out of the building. A month later, Sally and Rebecca discover Thomas is now employed in a similar role in a competitor company - two clients from his portfolio jumps to the new company and two others stay with NexGeneration. The Indigenous HR consulting role is re-advertised but it takes several months to get someone new to take on this role. The new employee spends more time at the office and receives bonuses for doing so - more billable hours.

Jenny comes across Thomas at a local community NAIDOC week event: "Hey Thomas, how are you doing? I heard about your Mum's accident just before you left NexGeneration...hope she's doing better" says Jenny. "Hey sis, good. Mum got pretty knocked around by the car crash but she's back on track now - would have been nice if NexGeneration had of cared but, anyway, got myself a great new job with XYZ consulting - so different over there. What you up to Jenny?" "Yeah, good, pays alright but I'm getting pretty bored. The cadetship finished and I've kept doing admin cause they created me a role but it's a bit dead-end." Their chat is interrupted as the 'NAIDOC 2018 - because of her, we can' celebration starts. This year's theme is to commemorate the important role of women "As leaders, trailblazers, politicians, activists and social change advocates, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women fought and continue to fight, for justice, equal rights, our rights to country, for law and justice, access to education, employment and to maintain and celebrate our culture, language, music and art." (https://www.naidoc.org.au/get- involved/2018-theme). Inspired by her women role models, Jenny begins to question her contribution back to Indigenous community.

Back at NexGeneration, they've had their NAIDOC lunch and Senior HR Manager Sally sits in her office writing part of a report for CEO Graham Leveroid. She sometimes feels that things haven't worked out quite how she'd hoped with her Indigenous staff but then goes on to explain in her report that Indigenous employment indicators are positive for their division - in fact, Indigenous staff represent 9% of their workforce. She further details that pay bonuses, across all staff including Indigenous staff, seems to be working in terms of achieving productively outcomes - billable hours to clients are increasing! Her report is well received by CEO Graham Leveroid, the HR division is now considered a flagship for Indigenous employment. Sally meets her end of quarter Key Performance Indicator targets and her bonus pays for a trip to Paris, it's her dream destination.

NOTE: NexGeneration is a fictitious company purely generated for this case study and any similarity to an existing business or people is purely coincidental.

The NexGeneration case study presents an opportunity to identify and explain issues for managers / Indigenous employees using key concepts from your MGNT110 Introduction to Management lectures and academic resources - such as the textbook and journal articles - to justify your response. Your task is to write a synopsis (Assessment 2) and then an essay (Assessment 3) addressing the question: What are the challenges facing NexGeneration as they strive to implement their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reconciliation Action plan and how would you strive to resolve these by applying key management concepts?