Download the PDF (6.0MB) - Te Puni Kokiri

Manu Ao weekly online seminars
will start in July 2009. The fi rst
seminar by Tä Tipene O’Regan,
will discuss reclaiming the
usage of Mäori place names.
Other presenters include Moana
Jackson speaking about the
foreshore and seabed issue, and
John Tamihere on the proposed
Auckland super city. Other
planned initiatives include a
national symposium on Mäori
leadership, set to take place in
2010.
Rahui Katene and Dr Kathie Irwin
Professor Roy Sharp, Professor Piri Sciascia,
Professor Mason Durie and Peter Adds
Te Puni Kökiri aims to
promote robust kaupapa
Mäori and strengthsbased
research that
supports Mäori. If you
would like to talk to us
about any of the research
profi led here, or your own
research, contact us at
research@tpk.govt.nz
RANGAHAU
LANGUAGE IN THE WORKPLACE
Victoria University has been investigating and studying the language
used by effective leaders in Mäori and Päkehä organisations.
The Language in the Workplace
project team, with the support
of Harima Fraser (Te Puni Kökiri)
and Mike Hollings, has recorded,
transcribed and analysed
meetings of all kinds in four
different organisations, two
Päkehä and two Mäori.
The two Mäori organisations
were companies dedicated to
working for Mäori where tikanga
played an important role in
everyday operations.
Interactions in the two Mäori
organisations also indicated an
awareness of the importance
of humility or whakaiti and
a tendency to emphasise the
group over the individual.
Mäori leaders tended to tell
stories about how they learned
from their mistakes. And
when something needed to
be improved, or someone had
made an error, Mäori leaders
were more likely to talk about
the issue as a general one, even
discussing it with humour where
possible, rather than pointing
the fi nger at an individual.
“We have generally found that
different organisations do
seem to prefer different styles
of humour,” says Professor
Janet Holmes from Victoria
University’s School of Linguistics
and Applied Language Studies.
“In all four of the organisations
where we worked as researchers,
leaders drew on a number of
different strategies in order
to achieve their workplace
objectives, while also being
considerate of their relationships
with their colleagues,” she says.
“Overall, we hope that our
research has contributed to
understanding how effective
leaders operate by providing
empirical evidence of the diverse
ways in which leadership is
actually enacted in different
organisations, including the
very distinctive ways in which
Mäori leaders provide culturally
appropriate leadership in Mäori
organisations.”
One key fi nding was the extent
of use of te reo Mäori in some
workplace teams.
Among the participants one
leader and his team regularly
used te reo in their workplace
meetings. However, in many
cases the Mäori workplace
participants used English as their
main language. While much of
this is restricted to greetings,
Mäori concepts and socially
oriented talk, Mäori cultural
norms are evident regardless
of the language spoken.
There is undoubtedly more
Mäori language use in Mäori
organisations than in the Päkehä
workplaces studied.
TE PUNI KÖKIRI | KÖKIRI | PIPIRI – HÖNGONGOI 2009
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