The role of culture and social identity in the development of indigenous Māori workers in the IT sector.
| dc.contributor.author | Van der klei, Mark Wynyard | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-08-10T02:14:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-08-10T02:14:40Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | The influence of digital technology on our modern workforce is significant and has been instrumental in the creation of new jobs in new marketplaces to satisfy new needs. Although we may not know the direction of future technological change, what is known is that change will invariably benefit some groups and not others. One group who have not benefitted are Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. With very few Māori employed in the IT sector, the benefits to Māori from the increased opportunities are yet to be realised. Historically, Māori have been the subjects of research as end-users of technology rather than as technology workers. The dominant narrative being that Māori are underachieving; that Māori will want to participate if they either acquire the technical skills or see the benefits of working in IT for themselves. The aim of this study was to push past this narrative and explore through the eyes of Māori IT workers why so few Māori work in IT. At the heart of this research was the question that drove this study: how can Māori IT workers be enabled to thrive in IT? Seeking answers, I travelled throughout Aotearoa New Zealand to kōrero with 18 Māori IT workers who were happy to share their stories. A newly developed approach called Kaupapa Tika was used to gather, analyse, and understand the experiences of Māori IT workers whose connections to te ao Māori varied from immersion to disconnection. Unstructured interviews were conducted as a co-creation exercise and they uncovered that while working with IT is fun and exciting, in many cases working in IT is not. A key finding was that for Māori IT workers, there were a core set of enacted values that were consistent irrespective of language used or connection to te ao Māori. In addition to adhering to these values, Māori IT workers used them as an exemplar to determine what was valued by other people or organisations, the similarities and differences present, and if they could thrive in that environment. While Māori IT workers’ core enacted values were consistent, their application varied depending on harmonies and dissonances and was regulated through the principles of tikanga. Tikanga was used as an underpinning mechanism to determine if it was right to apply a value in a specific situation, and if so, the most appropriate way to do so. While the degree to which values were enacted could change, the values themselves did not. One noticeable area of dissonance for Māori IT workers was cultural taxation, where individuals are assigned or take on extra duties based on ethnicity. Where this research extends our understanding of cultural taxation is that for Māori IT workers cultural taxation stems from value misalignment and contains many more nuanced dimensions than are currently portrayed in research. In particular, assumptions were made of those who openly identify as Māori: that they would have expert levels of knowledge in te ao Māori, tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and fluency in te reo Māori – irrespective of any realities regarding connection to te ao Māori or actual knowledge held. Some additional dimensions to emerge included social taxation, feelings of whakamā and imposter syndrome, and reduced job potential when moving away from organisations where individuals have already been forced to pay some form of cultural tax. While there are many negatives, it was also acknowledged that there are positives from cultural taxation for Māori IT workers: they may be given opportunities to be involved at the strategic level of an organisation or have access to more opportunities at an early stage of their careers than others at the same level. However, this is tempered by the requirement to complete additional duties which can lead to loss of peer networks and early career burnout. It is a difficult area to negotiate, especially for those early in their careers, and despite there being opportunities, more work will need to be done before the number of Māori IT workers can increase to where Māori thriving in IT becomes a reality. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10092/104127 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/13224 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved | en |
| dc.rights.uri | https://canterbury.libguides.com/rights/theses | en |
| dc.title | The role of culture and social identity in the development of indigenous Māori workers in the IT sector. | en |
| dc.type | Theses / Dissertations | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Management | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Canterbury | en |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy | en |
| uc.bibnumber | 3182725 | |
| uc.college | UC Business School | en |