| Issue 62 (WAIS 2) Contents
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Woekshop 1C
Revaluing Women - New Ways of Working
Jocelyn O’Neil
and Heather Burrows
Session Chair
The world of science and technology is changing, in the way people work as well as the way they are employed. This session on “new ways of working” looked at positioning women to capitalize on new opportunities as well as to examine any obstacles that might prevent them from achieving in the new environments.
Dr Jo O’Neil led a facilitatory exercise to provide a basis for ongoing discussion amongst participants. The new ways of working increasingly depend more on IT, which works well with more flexible work practices such as working from home, but the nature of employment now includes less stable and more interrupted career paths, multiple careers, more contract/short term employment and expectations of generic or multiple skills as well as specialist knowledge. Working in Science, Engineering and Technology is now more likely to mean working in consultancies, partnerships, start-ups and spin-offs, where the work moves from basic research through to commercialization of products and services.
In this environment the need for people to possess generic skills and multi-tasking abilities was flagged as being of considerable importance. It was asserted that women in particular, possessed the flexibility, communication and life skills that provide strengths for success in work in such a changed environment. Nevertheless there was a perception that other factors needed ongoing monitoring so that women were not disadvantaged and could achieve appropriate recognition within the changed workplace of the 21st century. The successful implementation of family-friendly working policies could go a long way to alleviate disadvantage of women in the science workforce.
Dr Heather Burrow outlined one new way of working, using the example of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Cattle and Beef Quality. That CRC addresses the needs of a $6 billion per annum industry and its role is to identify ways of guaranteeing the eating quality of beef produced over a very wide range of production systems from temperate to tropical and to meeting the market specifications of consumers in 110 countries world-wide. The Beef CRC consists of four Core and five Supporting Partners from every mainland State of Australia, as well as significant industry partners in Australia and internationally.
Heather’s dual roles in the CRC are as Deputy CEO and leader of the CRC’s largest project, involving scientists from seven research organizations in Australia, eight partner- research organizations in South Africa, collaborating researchers in USA, France and New Zealand and extensive industry sponsors and collaborators in both Australia and South Africa. Features of such partnerships are that they are multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional and sometimes multi-national by statute. In the Beef CRC, meat scientists, geneticists, physiologists, economists and scientists from other disciplines, drawn from several organisations and countries, collaborate with one another irrespective of organisations. Outcomes of enormous value at the national and international level can be achieved in such collaborative environments but they are bigger picture outcomes rather than success at the individual level. It can therefore be difficult to identify an individual’s contribution to the outcome ~ how does an individual get recognized in such complex working arrangements?
Within such partnerships, management of staff involved in the project may not be by staff from within the same organization. Furthermore, at times the partners or individuals may need to ignore the preferences of employer organisations in order to achieve “bigger picture” project outcomes, including servicing the needs of a complex international industry. Achieving effective collaboration to implement a common set of objectives that also align with those of individual partner organisations represents a major challenge.
Particular issues in partnerships
such as the
Beef CRC are how managers manage and
how staff achieve recognition
within such complex partnerships.
Indeed what skills are
required to work effectively in
partnerships? What particular skills do women
bring to such partnerships? According to Heather,
women have an abundance of the exceptional skills
that are needed to both work and manage effectively
across organizational, national and often
cultural boundaries, and across hierarchical line
management structures within the partner
institutions. To get teams collaborating and all
working effectively on a set of common objectives is
something that women have demonstrated they can do
very well. However, there is a need for much better
recognition and nurturing of such skills by
management and by organizations.
Ms Anne Jenkins used her example at ANSTO as another “new way of working.” In her workplace there is an increasing commercial focus with emphasis on the customers, their requirements and the need to respond to these in a timely manner. This provides increasing opportunities and challenges for national and international collaboration. Appropriate ways of working necessitate juggling priorities, development of multidisciplinary teams, networking, competent project management, knowledge, risk and performance management.
Anne used the example of ANSTO’s (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Competency Framework. As a consequence of changes to this work environment there are a number of implications for women scientists. Firstly, they should recognise that training in science is just a gateway, that they’re to take charge of their careers, to market themselves, and to manage themselves and others early. Of importance is the requirement to be flexible in managing their ideas and to use their strengths in achieving objectives
Working Groups
The audience was then split into three working groups, each being given the task of evaluating the new ways of working and assessing the strengths and weaknesses as well as new opportunities, in particular for women in the science workforce. A number of common themes emerged, including the need to ensure appropriate recognition of contributions of individuals, the need for support through mentoring and continuing education and the establishment of family-friendly and flexible career structures including job-sharing. Access of scientists to travel opportunities, professional recognition and to new technologies was identified as being crucial to achieve the goals of both individuals and organisations.
Other issues to emerge included the increased opportunities that contracts and partnerships could offer women, particularly with respect to the ability to be more in charge of one’s career, a feeling that such partnerships may be less hierarchical and therefore provide opportunities for a more culturally and disciplinary diverse environment and overall, a more enjoyable and satisfying work environment. A “downside” was that individuals might not be noticed, might get less credit for their contributions and that the short-term nature of contracts could create their own set of pressures. These concerns reinforced the key importance of mentoring, feedback on good performance within and across organisations The need for flexibility within workplace structures was also raised as a serious issue.
The need for provision of flexibility without guilt, quality childcare, acceptance of different work patterns and the need for more research on why women stay or leave an organization were discussed. Possible beneficial influences on women’s performance were identified, including the presence of sympathetic supervisors and implementation of procedures to address the lack of confidence of some women. It was perceived to be important that women need not adopt the current “male culture” in order to succeed.
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Although the three working groups approached their tasks from substantially different perspectives and some different issues were tackled by each, a consensus set of priorities and recommendations emerged. These were that:
Attitudinal change is still required by both males and females at the individual level, as well as at organisational and government level.
Data are required to support the need for change and to assist implementation of the new ways of working. Such data collection should be encouraged. One way of achieving this would be through acceptance of the Minister’s offer to request data from his Ministerial committees and sub-committees.
Flexibility is needed on the part of both the individual and the organization to effectively achieve the new ways of working identified by the groups.
There is an urgent need for organizations to adopt formal processes to enable them to recognise the contributions of individuals within partnerships and similar conceptual frameworks.
There is an ongoing need to “sell” science to the community, starting in primary school and continuing in the community beyond formal learning institutions. We need politicians, bureaucrats, media and private sector players who are “science savvy”.
WORKSHOP
1C PANELLISTS
Dr Jo O’Neil
Jo O’Neil is a pharmacologist, currently Honorary Principal Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Royal Women’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, and Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology and Pharmacology, Victorian College of Pharmacy. Her interests include her family (husband, two children, and five grandchildren) and research into hormonal and neural influences on the genitourinary tract. Her academic career was established while holding several non-continuing fraction-al appointments in Australia, Britain and the US, and later in a continuing appointment in Pharmacology at Monash University.
Dr Heather Burrow
Heather Burrow is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the highly successful CRC for Cattle and Beef Quality, based at CSIRO’s JM Rendel Laboratory in Rockhampton. She is also the leader of a large multifaceted, multi-disciplinary project involving 7 Australian and 8 international research organisations and several major national and international beef industry partners. She has specialist expertise in the genetic improvement of tropically adapted beef cattle genotypes.
Ms Ann Jenkins
Ann Jenkins was at the time of the conference, Manager, Human Resources at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). She held this position for almost seven years, working with Professor Helen Garnett as ANSTO CEO. Ann has a BA (Hons) in Psychology from London University, a Master of Special Education from Boston College and a Master of Commerce from the University of NSW. Ann’s major interests are human resource strategy and evaluation. She is a strong advocate for the importance of networking and appropriately broad skills for today’s scientific researcher.