7.0 Management and staff

Louise Smith and Lynette Bullen

Louise Smith and Lynette Bullen, members of Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly from Bourke, NSW. Image, Wayne Quilliam.

What would your local footy team be like if it had a great coach but no players? Or your players didn’t know which position to play on the field, and the captain and coach were fighting on the sidelines?

If a footy team practices hard, develops its skills, knows the rules of the game, and works as a team—and if the coach and captain communicate well and have a strategic game plan—then it has a better chance of winning the game.

It is the same for any organisation.

An organisation is only as good as its employees—the managers and staff members—and its ‘internal culture’ that encourages them to work together and with the governing body to get things done for the organisation’s members.

This set of internal relationships is one of the most problematic for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around the country are working to revitalise their organisations, and tackling fundamental questions such as:

• What kind of management do we need?
• How should the top manager and the governing body work together?
• How can all our staff contribute to effective, legitimate governance?
• How can we support managers and staff to help us meet the challenges of our rapidly changing environment?

This topic gives you information and ideas about how to develop and support excellence in your management and staff members. You will also find several tools to help you monitor and evaluate their work.

Topic 9 includes more detailed information on the important relationship between an organisation and its nation or community members.