The fourth estate has long played a key role in holding societal leaders to account. Here in Australia, the appetite for this public interest journalism has never been stronger. The Australian public is generally dissatisfied with the performance of those leading our public, private and plural sector institutions, and without media organisations holding leaders to account, that dissatisfaction will continue.
Founded over five years ago in response to this dissatisfaction, the Australian Leadership Index (ALI) is a significant and ongoing research initiative from Swinburne University of Technology that measures public perceptions of leadership across all sectors in Australia. From data on perceptions of the federal government through to the private sector, our survey results reflect how the Australian public feels about the leadership of our social institutions, making it a valuable resource for journalists seeking to provide data-driven insights into the state of Australian leadership.
In this article, we take a look at some of the ways media organisations can utilise our survey data and navigate the Australian Leadership Index website. We also highlight how our research team can help provide context to these results and how journalists can help our project shine a spotlight on leadership in this country.
Using The ALI Dashboard To Enhance Your Story
Each month, we survey Australians across the country to track how they feel about our leading institutions, pooling together data that is then imported into the ALI dashboard. This interactive dashboard allows users to explore our data themselves in an easy-to-use visual format, featuring both an executive summary and custom chart builder for those seeking specific leadership data.
If you’re looking for a quick snapshot of our leadership data, check out our executive summary, updated each quarter with a summary of the changes over that period and highlighting the key issues that may have affected those results. The executive summary also features an index scorecard, marking the gap between the national average for our metrics and institutions like the federal government, charities and trade unions. This is a great resource for journalists and media organisations looking to better understand leadership sentiment in Australia and how the public feels about some of our core interests.
Those looking to dive deeper into our data should explore our custom chart builder, which provides additional menu items to toggle through that allow for more in-depth leadership insights. Users are able to adjust the time period, chart type, data cut and metric displayed all within a few clicks with export options available to PDF and Excel formats. You can also filter this data by specific categories, from age groups to income categories, giving you further insight into how Australians from a variety of walks of life feel about the institutions that serve them.
This is an incredibly powerful resource for journalists looking for data that supports their stories or media organisations who want to get a feeling for public leadership sentiment. The ALI dashboard can be utilised to quickly identify trends in perceptions and trace the trajectory of public opinion on leadership in across government, public, private, and non-for-profit sectors.
This allows for the development of nuanced narratives that help readers understand how leadership dynamics are evolving, backed up by data. For instance, tracking changes in public opinion toward government leadership can inform stories on the political climate in Australia. Is there growing trust or diminishing confidence in the leadership of our political institutions? How are core policies affecting public perceptions of integrity or competence? These trends can be woven into stories that offer a more comprehensive analysis of the political landscape.
Driving Change Through Research-Backed Leadership Insights
Driven by leading Swinburne University of Technology researchers, the Australian Leadership Index project team can also provide expert insights into leadership topics in support of our survey data. From consulting services to expert opinions on important topics, we have resources available that can help you both improve publications and the organisations that put them together.
If you’re looking for expert opinions on leadership and our survey data, be sure to contact our research team for your next story. We can provide experts on the important topics that are affecting the national psyche and help you analyse how certain issues are changing perceptions of leadership in this country.
We can also help media companies improve leadership standards within their own organisations, providing research-backed insights what the public wants to see from news publications. Our data shows that perceptions of media integrity, competence and leadership are lower than ever, making it more important than ever to show demonstrable action on the core issues that the public wants to see improvement on.
More than just another public opinion poll, the Australian Leadership Index is a resource the media organisations can utilise to discover new stories, support ongoing narratives and even bolster leadership within their own organisations. Organisations that utilise this Swinburne University of Technology project will be able to better serve the public interest, complimenting their own rigorous journalism with data-backed insights.
Our data shows that Australians are cynical about leadership in this country and have a deep desire for accountable leadership across every sector, from government organisations to charities and sports teams. With your help we can both improve the standards of leadership in this country and the quality of journalism produced by your organisation.
Learn more about the Australian Leadership Index, our survey data and our ongoing leadership research by getting in touch today.
