“Working Together with Difference” in an Australian Multicultural Workplace

Abstract

Culturally diverse workplaces are becoming commonplace. Amidst growing concerns about workplace racism and discrimination in multicultural societies like Australia, how positive relationships across difference at work are built has not been clearly understood. This article contributes to this discussion by exploring the development of cross-cultural conviviality in the Australian welfare workplace. Findings are based on thirty qualitative interviews with frontline workers in four Australian employment service providers. The article identifies three developmental factors leading to conviviality across difference at the welfare workplace: (1) relational leadership; (2) casual and extra-organizational socializing; and (3) intercultural civility. The article argues that the creation of workplace convivial relations requires commitment and “labor” on the part of both leadership and workers, which embodies the management of workplace cultural diversity from below.

Keywords:

• multicultural workplace
• welfare workers
• workplace relations
• conviviality
• civility

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Selvaraj Velayutham for his valuable assistance with the manuscript. I also sincerely thank the editors and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments and feedback.