An International Consultancy: Preparing the ground and planting the first seeds of Indigenous Inclusion
Organisational Culture and Capability >
An Aotearoa New Zealand branch of a leading international provider of technical professional services has been working to advance Māori inclusion.
From the outset, the business faced a unique set of challenges and benefits as a global organisation. Being an international company founded in the USA, diversity and inclusion practices had already been pioneered by African American groups in the home office. However, the business faced the challenge of integrating Aotearoa-specific cultural competency and equity practices while also catering to international clients, stakeholders, directors, and employees.
In response to a growing awareness that Māori staff were undertaking unpaid cultural labour within the Aotearoa New Zealand branch, including contributing to core business needs in working alongside and consulting with iwi Māori on projects, the business established a Māori inclusion group focused on identifying cultural gaps in the organisation, and designing resources to fill those needs.
The Māori inclusion group was originally established by a Canadian First Nations woman and two Māori wāhine in late 2021. In their early planning sessions, the founding trio set out to establish their core principle of standing as Māori within the organisation and looking to how they could work together.
Although its work is voluntary, the group is recognised by the organisation, which has endorsed its framework for sustainable cultural resourcing being dispersed and seeded throughout the organisation. There have already been some foundational changes to how the organisation operates, with an increase in the use of te reo Māori throughout the business and in non-Indigenous people taking on responsibility instead of culturally loading Māori employees.
The Māori inclusion group currently consists of five individuals – Māori and Pākehā – who are each seeking to develop and implement five initiatives within the organisation. They have been working in their individual capacities to build cultural competence throughout the organisation in: Network of Whānau, Strategy and Policy, Project Delivery, Knowledge and Tikanga, and Leadership. Their different roles and spaces in the organisation have allowed for far-reaching impacts, but the voluntary nature of the work means that progress has been incremental.
“The primary role in the business takes precedence, so we get to it when we get to it,” says one group member. “If you can leave it better than you found it, then hopefully it will make it better for the next person.”
Finding the people, time, and resources to both educate within the organisation and build up the initiative have been key challenges for this mahi. While senior management within the national office supports the work, and workers across the organisation offer their time and input where needed, the core team has remained small because of the limitations of being a voluntary initiative. However, there have still been a number of successes, including the development of a network of external relationships and a material change to the organisation’s approach to recruitment.
In line with the new approaches in talent acquisition, one of the most significant successes for the group has been the establishment of a new, full-time paid role for a Māori lead. This new position comes three years after the founding of the Māori inclusion group, which has made space within the organisation for a culture shift. In growing and developing the cultural competency of the organisation and in the processes of talent acquisition, the appointment of a Māori lead is a huge step towards pay equity and work conditions for Māori staff whose cultural competency is an often overlooked and underpaid skillset.
Case Study Summary
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The aim was to improve organisational cultural competence in Te Ao Māori, creating a space to honour Māori worldviews, cultural practices, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and Māori staff, in order to strengthen belonging, external partnerships and core business. To achieve this in the absence of any framework or existing initiatives for Māori inclusion, or dedicated funding provided, a rōpu of staff embarked on a plan to change organisational culture by leading initiatives in the following areas, seeding practice and culture change:
Network of whānau
Strategy and policy
Project delivery
Knowledge and tikanga
Leadership
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Five passionate staff from a range of tiers and departments across the organisation, including Māori and Pākehā, form the Māori Inclusion Group. They range from an Executive Assistant, to organisational leaders on core services and planning. The group receives ad hoc support from various others throughout the business.
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The activity of the group has been varied and wide-ranging, targeting both internal practice (such as changing recruitment, and developing a Māori inclusion model and strategy); and building capability for external relationships in Te Ao Māori. It has been operating since 2020.
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Budget is ad hoc, varying depending on the initiative, needs, and approvals required. It is routine for there to be processes of back and forth with counter-budgets due to requests being declined. Depending on the initiative, funding comes from the Māori Inclusion cost centre, or from individual section budgets. This also includes allocating paid work time for participants e.g. through their organisational time management system which enables their work time to be valued equally with client-driven work. A key win has been a recent agreement to establish a paid role of Māori Lead, which will ease some of the time and resourcing pressures. However, the bulk of the work being done so far is voluntary, i.e. not specifically remunerated.
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Multinational organisation went from having no indigenous framework or initiative in Aotearoa in 2020, to having a well-established group overseeing this work. The main challenges have been time and resourcing. The inclusion framework developed by the voluntary initiative has been adopted by the organisation, and there has been strong senior level support, but limited budget. It took three years of voluntary service for the group to obtain a full-time funded position of Māori Lead.
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Material change in recruitment approach, with job descriptions and advertisements revised, improving diversity in who applies and gets hired.
Non-indigenous people genuinely taking on responsibility for Māori inclusion instead of the work being culturally loaded onto Māori.
Increase of te reo Māori through pepeha, karakia and mihi.
A network of external relationships.
Increased investment in Māori inclusion through funding a new role.
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Key sources of success in ‘seeding’ change and understanding by key positions within the business have been due to gathering information on the organisation’s current ‘cultural depth’ and comparing this to market demands for cultural competencies from clients (such as iwi and government), and to the capabilities of competitors. This has incentivised commitments to move forward.
A key challenge has been the slow work of building, teaching and educating without enough dedicated time and resourcing.
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Māori Inclusion Group
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A large multinational professional services company
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