TIKANGA MĀORI AND HRM JARROD HAAR
The future of the Māori workforce is now What will the Aotearoa New Zealand workforce be like in the future? What role does the Māori economy play? And, specifically, what employment and HR approaches can help the Māori workforce? Professor Jarrod Haar from Auckland University of Technology seeks to provide some answers.
He aha te mea nui o te Ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata. What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
T
he above whakatauki (or proverb) highlights the importance, the critical and central role of people to te ao Māori (Māori worldview). This whakatoki is more complex than simply referring to the importance of people or employees (in our HR context). It highlights the importance of organisations and leaders in their role of sheltering people until they grow and become strong. That is
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HUMAN RESOURCES
WINTER 2022
a useful analogy to Māori in the workforce of Aotearoa.
It must be acknowledged that serious issues still exist around discrimination and racism in the workplace.
Work for Māori
In Aotearoa, Māori presently make up over 17 per cent of the population, although only 14 per cent of the workforce. Māori, and other minority groups like Pacific peoples, have a higher birth rate than New Zealand Europeans, and population growth in Aotearoa will include more Māori. Indeed, as we move into the middle of the 21st century, the Māori workforce will grow considerably. We have empirical evidence showing that Māori experiences from work can be radically different from non-Māori. Indeed, some of these effects, including the beneficial nature of self-esteem built from work, are impressively higher than for New Zealand Europeans. This includes job satisfaction, which is a strong predictor of retention and job performance.
So, why might Māori have different effects from their work experiences? Well, unique cultural values might account for some of these differences, including a more collectivistic ideology (‘we’ versus ‘I’), the role of whānau and the importance of whakapapa (genealogy). However, not all workplace challenges for Māori are positive.
Challenges to a successful and fruitful future
It must be acknowledged that serious issues still exist around discrimination and racism in the workplace. Managers and organisations are encouraged to explore these and take remedial steps. Such experiences do drive Māori from the workplace. Beyond being a good employer and meeting HR law, the retention of skilled and rare workers is important and valuable for both employee and employer. But there are specific cultural challenges too. Aronga takirua refers to the cultural doubleshift, and while the original study focused on a Māori scientist doing a double duty in their work roles, these findings resonated with other groups, including media and lawyers.
