Abstract
The enactment of biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand has varied greatly over the time since colonial settlement, and it is still a debated and evolving concept. In this article we examine practices adopted by one MÄori Chief Executive Officer in two different workplaces at two different points in time to illustrate this process in action. Our analysis examines the way he opens meetings of his senior management teams, demonstrating the way he adopts flexible and context-sensitive approaches, taking account of exactly where each organisation and each individual, whatever their ethnicity and varied cultural experience, is located along the pathway to biculturalism. His introduction of MÄori tikanga (ways of doing things) and practices into both workplaces sends the message that MÄori culture and language are valued, while the differences between the two organisations, including a greater focus on bilingualism as part of biculturalism more recently, reflects shifting attitudes in wider society.
1 Introduction
Biculturalism is a complex concept which always involves some degree of contrastive pragmatic analysis. What is meant by biculturalism differs in different countries, in different contexts, and in different time periods. Definitions range from the simplistic and static, âthe presence of two different cultures in the same country or regionâ (dictionary.com), to the more sophisticated, dynamic (and useful for our analysis): âthe ability to switch between cultural schemas, norms, and behaviors in response to cultural cuesâ (Hong et al., 2000 cited in Nguyen and Benet-Martinez, 2007: 102). In New Zealand, biculturalism involves the PÄkehÄ (non-MÄori mostly of British descent), European-based culture(s) introduced in the 19th century by colonial settlers, and the indigenous MÄori culture first brought to New Zealand in the 13th century by MÄori explorers. New Zealand is now a multicultural society with a growing population which increasingly includes many other ethnic groups. The two largest groups, however, are PÄkehÄ and MÄori, and since MÄori are the indigenous people biculturalism in New Zealand (both in our discussion and by convention within wider society) refers to these two groups. The MÄori population has steadily increased since the decimation of the late nineteenth century when it dropped to below 6% (Poole, 1991); in the 2018 census, 16.5% of the population identified as MÄori and 64% of the population as PÄkehÄ (Stats NZ â Tatauranga Aotearoa, 20201).
However, the enactment of biculturalism has varied greatly over the time since colonial settlement, and it is still a debated and evolving concept. For an increasing number of people and organisations, in recent years biculturalism entails some degree of bilingualism. A commitment to biculturalism first emerged in the 1980s when the government recognised the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document of New Zealand (Ministry of Culture and Heritage â ManatÅ« Taonga, 2017). By 2011 most government agencies had adopted MÄori as well as English names, and traditional MÄori welcome and farewell ceremonies were often performed at official functions (Hayward, 2012). Some regarded these as tokenistic, however, rather than an indication of the adoption of truly bicultural practices or as embracing MÄori as well as PÄkehÄ values. So how can workplace leaders who are members of a minority group guide majority group team members towards a genuinely deeper understanding of what a commitment to biculturalism entails in their everyday workplace interactions? In this article we examine practices adopted by one leader in two different workplaces at two different points in time to illustrate this process in action. The focus leader, a MÄori male pseudonymed Greg, adopts flexible and context-sensitive approaches to this challenge, taking account of exactly where each organisation and each individual, whatever their ethnicity and varied cultural experience, is located along the pathway to biculturalism. For our focus leader, biculturalism involved introducing MÄori tikanga (ways of doing things) and practices into the workplace in ways which send the message that MÄori culture and language are valued. The analysis below examines one of the ways in which he facilitates this goal.
2 Background
2.1 The Culture Order in Aotearoa New Zealand
The Wellington Language in the Workplace Project (LWP) team has focussed for some time on insights that discourse analysis can provide regarding similarities, differences and the complexities of MÄori and PÄkehÄ interactional norms (see e.g., Holmes et al., 2011), and more recently on how this reflects the culture order in New Zealand (Holmes, 2018; Vine, 2019; Holmes et al., 2020). The concept of the culture order (Holmes, 2018) identifies the hegemonic ideologies that influence the ways in which individuals construct their ethnic or cultural identity. It draws attention to the taken-for-granted presuppositions about appropriate cultural behaviours which impact interaction. Every cultural group has an order which prescribes appropriate ways of doing things according to familiar cultural norms, but there is also a hierarchy of orders, with the majority groupâs order dominating societal norms. Minority- cultural group members are typically the most aware of the impact of the societal culture order (see Holmes et al., 2020); majority group members simply assume that their ways of behaving are normal (Holmes, 2018: 34). We can expect, then, that Greg, a leader who identifies as MÄori, will be especially sensitive to the challenges involved in leading a predominantly PÄkehÄ workforce along the pathway to biculturalism.
Within a MÄori worldview, being a leader or rangatira (chief) requires, among other qualities, an understanding of the importance of education, since a leader must help individuals reach âtheir highest potential in order to expand and deepen their talents and skills, thus strengthening and enhancing the whÄnau [extended family, family group] or collectiveâ (Rameka, 2021: 6) (see also Macfarlane et al., 2005; Rameka, 2013). The learning process is considered tapu (sacred) in MÄori culture (Mead, 2016: 59). Consistent with this MÄori priority, the two organisations which our focus leader, Greg, led at different times were also committed to the importance of education, and Gregâs ways of enacting leadership were in harmony with this orientation. This was apparent in many features of his leadership practices, including the meeting openings which are discussed in this article.
2.2 Meeting Openings
Openings are a significant component in meetings in most organisations. Boden (1994: 90) identifies meeting openings as structured sequences which enable participants to orient themselves to meeting mode, while Nielsen (2013) describes how the opening marks a shift from the interaction format of multiparty conversation to the speech turn-taking system of the meeting where the chair plays a key role in managing interaction. Studies of face-to-face meetings show how openings help accomplish the shift from social or informal work talk that typically precedes meetings in many cultures to the meeting proper. This includes both verbal and non-verbal aspects. Important steps in this process include the chairâs opening techniques, e.g., a proposal to get started, after which the first topic is introduced and the first speaker is selected (Nielsen, 2013: 56â57).
Previous research on meeting openings has highlighted common patterns across diverse cultural and organisational contexts (e.g., Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris, 1997; Chan, 2008; Nielsen, 2013; Baxter and Al Aâali, 2016). Baxter and Al Aâali (2016: 2), for instance, provide an example of the meeting opening of a senior leadership team in Bahrain and one in the UK, commenting that senior meetings in international companies increasingly follow generic patterns. Both meetings were in English and began with the leader signalling to the team that they wanted to get started and then supplying information about the purpose of the meeting. Having set the scene, both leaders then asked questions to elicit responses from team members.
Holmes and Marra (2011) explored the way that the openings of meetings in MÄori workplaces orient to norms which differ from those found in PÄkehÄ workplaces (see also Holmes et al., 2008; Holmes et al., 2011), and differ from patterns reported for meetings in other cultures. Meeting openings, and particularly openings in large meetings, in the MÄori workplaces which have been the focus of our research, typically involve some formal element. This includes an explicit greeting and welcome, and frequently a karakia (prayer or traditional chant). The precise content and structure of these openings varies from meeting to meeting, reflecting the participants present on each occasion and other contextual factors, such as events that have occurred in the week prior to the meeting. In contrast, openings in those PÄkehÄ workplaces which have recorded data for the LWP tend to be âparadigmatically brief, formulaic, and laconicâ (Holmes and Marra, 2011: 39).
2.3 Whakataukī
An alternative to using karakia to mark the formal opening of a meeting is the use of whakataukÄ« (MÄori proverbs or sayings). This is particularly relevant in educational contexts where whakataukÄ« are frequently used to teach aspects of te reo MÄori (the MÄori language) and MÄori values. Rameka (2021: 5) notes a number of âcultural tools, practices, and artefacts, traditionally utilized by MÄori to hand down knowledges, worldviews, values, histories, teachings, beliefs, genealogies, and arts to successive generationsâ. These âtransmission techniquesâ include whakataukÄ« which are a means of transmitting wisdom and knowledge (Riley, 1990, 2020; Patterson, 1992; Hemara, 2000; Rameka, 2013, 2016), and, as with proverbs in other cultures (see e.g., Lalengkimi, 2018; Ademowo and Balogun, 2014), they highlight valued characteristics, personal virtues, ways of behaving, life lessons, and appropriate courses of action (Rameka, 2016, 2021; Mieder and Dundes, 1981; Elder, 2020). In this context, as a contribution to a special issue on proverbs across cultures, Lomotey and Csajbok-Twerefou (2021) provide a valuable theoretical discussion, focussing on issues surrounding the pragmatics encapsulated in these proverbs. This includes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural scrutiny of the role of proverbs in the (de)construction of âideologies, the transmission of cultural values, and their conceptual meaning, functions and contexts of useâ (2021: 86). Education is one such context. WhakataukÄ« undoubtedly serve as an excellent resource for teaching values (Patterson, 1992; KÅhere, 1951) because, as Metge and Jones (1995) note, they operate through analogy and make use of a rich repertoire of metaphors and symbolism that draws on extensive knowledge of the fauna, flora and landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as MÄori arts and social arrangements.
The importance of education in MÄori culture is captured in whakataukÄ« such as whaowhia te kete mÄtauranga âfill the basket of knowledgeâ (see Mead and Grove, 2001: 424), mÄ te kimi ka kite, mÄ te kite ka mÅhio, mÄ te mÅhio ka mÄrama âseek and discover, discover and know, know and become enlightenedâ (see Te reo MÄori Classroom, 2021) and whÄia te mÄtauranga hei oranga mÅ koutou âseek after learning for the sake of your wellbeingâ (see Mead and Grove, 2001: 422). It is unsurprising, then, that they feature in the openings of Gregâs meetings as a means of facilitating team membersâ progress along a pathway to biculturalism in institutions committed to supporting educational objectives.
3 Data and Approach
To facilitate our goal of analysing the complexities of Gregâs nuanced approach to biculturalism, we draw on data from the corpus of the LWP which has been investigating workplace interaction in Aotearoa New Zealand for over 25 years. A key theme of our research has been how effective leadership is enacted through discourse in many different contexts (see e.g., Holmes and Marra, 2004; Holmes, 2010; Holmes et al., 2011; Holmes, 2017). In a discursive approach to workplace interaction the influence of the leader on team practices is of fundamental importance, and in what follows we demonstrate how this is evident in two workplaces committed to achieving biculturalism. A benefit of researching effective communication in New Zealand workplaces over a number of years, is that we are at times able to revisit participants in new working environments. Greg has been a regular collaborator and on multiple occasions has agreed to record his everyday team interactions even as he changed workplaces and moved into new roles. In two of these workplaces, Greg has held the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), leading both the senior management team and the organisation. Espousing a constructionist understanding of interaction as dynamic, contextualised and negotiated (Lazzaro-Salazar, 2018; Vine, 2020), we explore how Greg uses meeting openings in different workplace communities to enact cultural practice in a way that is sensitively tuned to the positions along the pathway towards biculturalism of each team and organisation, while also reflecting the different times in which the data was collected.
The two focus organisations identify as bicultural, and explicitly acknowledge MÄori values and tikanga as important alongside PÄkehÄ societal norms, both in the work they undertake in the wider community, as well as in the ways in which they operate. How much this is evident in their practices varies, however, in part reflecting the shift that has occurred in Aotearoa New Zealand society in terms of understandings of what it means to be bicultural. There have been changes in the social fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand in recent years and the time-depth of our study allows us to explore how Greg has grown in confidence, both in terms of his leadership and in introducing MÄori tikanga to his teams. The two organisations that comprise our dataset work within the education sector which is required to support the needs of all New Zealanders, whatever their ethnic or cultural background, while honouring a commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi, now recognised as New Zealandâs founding document.2 Over the last decade in particular an understanding of what it means to be bicultural has evolved, and continues to evolve.
Our analysis focuses on how Greg manages the meeting openings of the senior leadership team in each organisation, and we examine in particular how he uses whakataukÄ« to begin meetings. This might seem like a small aspect of the meetings, but the analysis provides a number of important insights regarding how the leader foregrounds cultural practice and integrates MÄori norms into the meeting discourse. Analysis of these distinctive openings also contributes to understanding how workplace interaction shapes and is shaped by the different teams and organisations, as well as by the sector and the times they work in.
Leading bicultural organisations that follow both the dominant PÄkehÄ understandings of âappropriateâ workplace practices alongside acknowledgement of MÄori tikanga raises questions about which norms influence Gregâs practices. In some situations, he may be just âa leader who happens to be MÄoriâ (Winiata, 2017: vii). In others, the balancing of his various identities may prioritise and privilege certain discursive strategies over others depending on context. This complexity constitutes an important aspect of our analysis.
Our theoretical stance is represented in a model developed through years of close analysis of naturally-occurring workplace talk (Holmes et al., 2011). When constructing identities our discourse indexes and is constrained by a number of contextual layers, from the interactional norms of the particular discourse activity, through those of the community of practice or team to which we belong, to the values of the workplace, organisation or institution within which the interaction takes place. These in turn are embedded within industry sector and wider societal norms, including, but not limited to large scale social structures represented by hierarchies such as the gender order (Connell, 1987; Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 2013) and the culture order (Holmes, 2018).3 Gregâs position as a MÄori leader in organisations committed to biculturalism provides a paradigmatic case for exploring the challenges entailed in the constraints of such embedded contexts and in the management of potentially contrasting pragmatic norms.
Our research has taken a consistently flexible approach to data collection. A central philosophy of this approach entails handing control of the recording process to our workplace participants who are conceptualised as co-researchers, and with whom we negotiate mutually-beneficial research objectives and data collection procedures. The normal pattern involves ethnographic observations followed by recordings made by participants themselves in order to capture a sample of everyday talk and regular practices, including a series of team meetings and one-to-one interactions. This is typically followed wherever possible by debriefing sessions, post-recording interviews and workshops to discuss our findings.
In this article we draw on six management team meetings from each of the two bicultural workplaces where Greg has held the CEO position. In the first dataset (henceforth CE1), Greg was the Acting CEO for two years and recorded his interactions and meetings near the end of this time in the mid-2000s. Prior to taking on the CEO position he had been working as a senior manager in the organisation so he was already a member of the team that he subsequently led. The second set of six meetings was recorded in 2021 at an organisation where Greg has been CEO for approximately 15 years (CE2). He moved to this organisation when he left the Acting CEO position at CE1.
To gain access to Gregâs understandings of his practices, we make use of interviews conducted with him. We draw on these reflexive interviews to investigate his reactions to the cultural expectations in his teams, teams which are operating at the top of organisations which are explicit about their bicultural aspirations and orientations to MÄori tikanga, but which are also operating at different points in time where different societal expectations about what it means to be bicultural pertain. We also draw on interviews with other members of his management team in CE2, many of whom identify as PÄkehÄ and for whom biculturalism means learning and adopting unfamiliar practices. This focus on talk-about-talk addresses a current trend for greater emphasis on interview data within workplace discourse analysis (Angouri et al., 2021). Underlying this is an awareness of the value of metapragmatics/metadiscourse i.e., explicit talk and/or signalling about what language is doing within interaction, especially as access to doxa (Bourdieu, 1977) and the taken-for-granted norms and beliefs in any community (Holmes et al., 2020; Marra et al., 2022).
4 Analysis of Meeting Openings
We begin with analysis of the recorded meetings in each workplace. Gregâs meetings in CE1 regularly include a formal opening section consisting of a MÄori greeting followed by a whakataukÄ« (see Holmes and Vine, 2021). The meaning of the whakataukÄ« is discussed before the topic shifts to the first item on the agenda. As an indication of its significant status as a component of the teamâs meeting openings, we noted that when someone from outside the group gave a presentation at the beginning of one meeting, Greg introduced the whakataukÄ« as soon as the discussion of the item had concluded and the outsider had left, and before addressing any other items on the agenda. This also highlights the fact that he viewed it at the time as a practice which would be unfamiliar and potentially problematic for others with contrasting expectations about how meetings are appropriately opened.
While ethnicity is not a determiner of language proficiency or even orienâ tation to the cultural norms of the ethnic group, there are two other team members (of seven) who identify as MÄori, one of whom is a similar age to Greg and senior in the group, Marama. Marama has been allocated the role of reading the whakataukÄ« at the beginning of each meeting. Following this, the team first recite it together and then discuss the meaning of the whakataukÄ«. Discussions of the whakataukÄ« in the CE1 dataset range from one minute to three minutes and focus on the meanings, both literal and metaphorical. Excerpt 1 is transcribed from the first meeting recorded in this workplace.
Context: Beginning of a meeting â CE1 Meeting one
Citation: Contrastive Pragmatics 4, 1 (2023) ; 10.1163/26660393-bja10061
Greg indicates that they will start with their whakataukÄ«, but notes that it is not in the papers for the meeting as is typically the case (lines 2â3). The meeting participants normally have it in front of them so they can read it out. Because they cannot do this on this occasion, Greg jokes that they will have a listening skills test (lines 6â7, 9). Greg and Marama laugh at his joke and on the video we can see the other participants smiling. Theo adds to the joke by asking about the length of the whakataukÄ« (line 10), collaborating with the idea that they are being set a test. Humour is a frequent feature of these meetings with all members of the team contributing and Greg is often the instigator (Holmes and Vine, 2021).
After the whakataukÄ« is recited by Marama and repeated, Marama provides a translation (line 17). Kendra overlaps this, providing another partial translation (line 18). Marama then paraphrases her translation, taking up Kendraâs suggestion and integrating this (lines 20, 22). She concludes by saying thatâs my interpretation (line 24). Greg has provided agreement throughout her turns, saying yeah three times (lines 19, 21, 23) and then he adds that there are other variations of this whakataukÄ« (line 27). He provides another common version and a translation for this (lines 28â30). Marama overlaps as she also provides the beginning of this variation (line 31). Variant forms of whakataukÄ« are an important consideration. Metge and Jones (1995: 6) note this as one of seven general points about the nature of whakataukÄ«; they are flexible, reusable and do not have invariant fixed forms. This is important cultural learning for the group. Following this brief discussion which involves mainly Greg and Marama, Greg turns to the first item on the agenda (line 35).
The section involving the whakataukī in this first meeting in the CE1 dataset was the shortest in the six meetings recorded (just over one minute). There are a number of possible reasons for this. The agenda is long so Greg may have wanted to get underway with the next item on the agenda quickly (the meeting is two hours long); the whakataukī may be considered relatively simple and straightforward (sometimes the metaphorical meanings of whakataukī can be easily accessed from the literal meaning and sometimes not);4 or the fact they were being recorded for the first time may have influenced the team, especially at the beginning of the meeting. By contrast excerpt 2a is an excerpt from the beginning section of the longest discussion of the whakataukī in the CE1 meetings (just over three minutes). The whakataukī in this case is more complex.
Context: Beginning of a meeting â CE1 Meeting five
Citation: Contrastive Pragmatics 4, 1 (2023) ; 10.1163/26660393-bja10061
Greg introduces the whakataukÄ« commenting that it is an interesting one (lines 1â2). Marama recites it and begins to talk about what it might mean but stops as she realises people have not yet recited it (lines 3â4). They all recite the whakataukÄ« and Marama then begins the discussion of what it means. The whakataukÄ« in this case is more complex and she comments that she cannot understand the second part (line 8).5 Greg talks about a variation where wahine (woman) is replaced by tangata (person) (lines 12â14). He does not translate these words as this is vocabulary that he expects everyone to know, an interesting indication of the steady increase in familiarity with MÄori lexical items among New Zealanders. Susie repeats the second part of the whakataukÄ« with tangata instead of wahine (line 15) and Greg provides a literal translation (lines 16â17). He then says he has an image in his mind, but what do others see (lines 18â 20), inviting them all to think about the whakataukÄ« and share what they think it means. Extract 2b is an excerpt from the continuation of the discussion.
Context: Beginning of a meeting â CE1 Meeting five
Citation: Contrastive Pragmatics 4, 1 (2023) ; 10.1163/26660393-bja10061
This is a very engaged discussion involving all the participants. Susie is the first to offer her opinion, but like Marama she is finding it difficult to reach a full understanding. She offers a possible interpretation â that peopleâs chattering is like the rain pattering (lines 21â25). Marama overlaps Susie as she rephrases her earlier translation (lines 26 and 27). Theo asks what it means (lines 40, 45) and Susie tries to explain the meaning (lines 41â43). Blake is concerned about a sexist meaning (lines 46â47). The others all disagree with him (lines 48â49). From lines 21 to 49, the other members of the team pass the floor between them, while Greg listens. Only after this does Greg re-enter the discussion and give his interpretation (lines 50â51, 53â55). This excerpt illustrates clearly the important role of learning in these meetings, a role consistent with MÄori cultural norms, while the evident engagement of the team members demonstrates how their growing bicultural awareness is being fostered by this practice.
This use of whakataukÄ« as a component of meeting openings and a means of cultural learning was also introduced by Greg to the senior leadership team meetings at CE2. Typically eight people are present at the CE2 meetings; five members of the core team and three others, with two of the eight identifying as MÄori. There are times when other people join the team to report on a particular agenda item, but, unlike at CE1, Greg does not delay discussion of the whakataukÄ« until these people have left. This seems to reflect not only Gregâs greater confidence as a leader, but also his confidence in utilising MÄori tikanga with multicultural teams, and the acceptance of a different way of doing things within the wider organisation. Interestingly, in the first meeting recorded in each organisation, the same whakataukÄ« was (coincidentally) used. Excerpt 3 is transcribed from the first meeting at CE2 and involves the same whakataukÄ« as in excerpt 1.
Context: Beginning of meeting â CE2 Meeting one
Citation: Contrastive Pragmatics 4, 1 (2023) ; 10.1163/26660393-bja10061
As illustrated in this excerpt, Greg is the one who first reads the whakataukÄ« in the meetings at CE2, with the team then repeating it. Instead of immediately providing a translation, Greg discusses the structure and grammar of the whakataukÄ« (lines 3â15, 18â22), while others contribute only minimally. His explanation does lead into a translation (lines 25â27), and he also notes another similar whakataukÄ« (lines 28â29). Greg then goes on to talk about the pronunciation of MÄori (lines 36â44), although more generally rather than focussing on the words of this whakataukÄ«. His explanation on pronunciation extends for nearly three minutes with him holding the floor for most of this time. Clearly, the discussion and the turn-taking are quite different from those noted in the excerpts from CE1, reflecting the greater focus on language learning in this organisation where bilingualism as well as biculturalism is the organisationâs goal, and where different individuals are positioned at different points along the pathway to this goal.
On another occasion, Greg uses the whakataukÄ« to educate the team at CE2 about MÄori mythology when he discovers that many seem surprisingly ignorant in this area. Excerpt 4a is a transcription from the beginning of this discussion.
Context: Beginning of meeting â CE2 Meeting two
Citation: Contrastive Pragmatics 4, 1 (2023) ; 10.1163/26660393-bja10061
After Greg introduces the whakataukÄ« another participant, Bree, provides a literal translation (line 2), which Greg repeats (line 3). He explicitly translates the first noun, mÄra is garden (line 3) and asks if they know who TÄne is. Bree provides an answer (lines 5â6), but is unsure of herself. Greg identifies who TÄne is (line 7), and Rita and Aroha both name TÄne as a god [atua] (lines 8 and 9). Greg expands (lines 10â13), and the discussion of the whakataukÄ« and issues that emerge from this take 6.25 minutes in total (not all shown here). Excerpt 4b provides an indication of some of this further discussion.
Context: Beginning of meeting â CE2 Meeting two
Citation: Contrastive Pragmatics 4, 1 (2023) ; 10.1163/26660393-bja10061
Greg is explaining about another of the gods, TÄwhiri-mÄtea, the god of weather, winds6 (lines 1â3). Bree jokes that he lives around Wellington (line 4), which is known for being windy because it sits on Cook Strait which separates the North Island from the South Island (see Ritaâs comment in line 8). Toby returns to the subject of TÄne in line 11, and Gregâs earlier reference in excerpt 4a to TÄne bringing knowledge. Greg clarifies where TÄne got this from (line 12) and Toby asks about the importance of TÄne as a god (lines 13â14). Greg answers, saying TÄne is important in the hierarchy of the sons (lines 15â16). In MÄori mythology, the sky father, Ranginui, and the earth mother, PapatÅ«Änuku, had a number of sons and TÄne was the oldest. Despite his obvious cultural expertise, Greg qualifies his knowledge about these subjects in lines 22â23, Iâm not an actual expert on the sort of theology and the cosmogony. He explains that MÄori mythology is not just stories for children (as some people think) but that it has the same theological depth as any other religion (lines 24â29). Toby compares it to Greek mythology (lines 30â33), although he is worried here that he might sound ignorant. However, his comparison is one with which Greg (lines 34, 36) and Rita (line 37) both agree. The floor here is still held mainly by Greg, but others make more contributions than in excerpt 3, and they also ask Greg questions which further indicate their engagement.
The discussions around the whakataukÄ« in the CE2 data are quite different from those observed in CE1. This highlights important differences between the two teams, the organisations and the times when the data was collected. Whereas in CE1 the focus is on the meaning of the whakataukÄ«, both literal and metaphorical, in CE2, Greg uses the whakataukÄ« as an opportunity to teach his team more explicitly about MÄori language and aspects of culture. Nonetheless, Gregâs commitment to MÄori values and resourceful leadership is evident in both organisations where he actively fosters learning within his teams.
5 Participantsâ Reflections on Practice and What It Means to Be Bicultural
We turn now to the interview data with brief comment on the insights provided by these metadiscursive comments. As noted above, biculturalism is something that many government organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand have been aiming for since as long ago as the 1980s, but progress is very variable. When asked what makes an organisation bicultural, Greg responded that there needed to be âvalidation of MÄori ways of doing thingsâ. In CE2 this includes aspects such as whakataukÄ« and karakia, but also the use of MÄori names for basic principles, job titles and the constructive framing of education as being about enhancing the mana of students.
A recent repositioning at CE2 has been a shift from identifying simply as bicultural to working towards being bilingual, with emphatic recognition of the importance of te reo. The use of whakataukÄ« is a practice which actively supports this, although it is a practice which pre-dates this shift. When asked about his use of whakataukÄ«, Greg reflected that for him it created a linguistic presence of te reo MÄori in the workplace. WhakataukÄ« are culturally significant and their use conveys the message that the organisation values MÄori. He feels that it has âbecome a kind of tikangaâ of CE2. Because all members of his senior leadership team at CE2 are learning te reo MÄori, he noted that whakataukÄ« provide a basis for discussing language matters. He also pointed out that, significantly, these senior managers have all introduced the practice of using whakataukÄ«, along with karakia and mihi (greetings), to their own teams.
Comments in interview from other members of the senior leadership team at CE2 reinforced the point that the use of whakataukÄ« is regarded as a normal part of the workplace practices in the organisation; they serve as an important signal of the organisationâs priorities and approach. This was a practice that some had come across in other workplaces more recently but had been new for others when they came to work at CE2. These senior team members from varied backgrounds ranging from very corporate to fully education-focussed, all reported that they enjoyed the discussions and learning engendered by the use of whakataukÄ«, and one commented that when Greg attended her team meetings she always asked him to talk about the whakataukÄ«. She said many of the staff are very interested in MÄori language and know that Greg loves language too, and that he has a great deal of knowledge that he is always willing to share.
CE1 was an organisation that publicly identified as bicultural. But when Aroha and Greg (who had both worked there) were asked to reflect on this claim, Aroha strongly disagreed with it and Greg said it was âsort of biculturalâ in that it had a high proportion of MÄori staff. At that time, more than fifteen years ago, ticking the box that an organisation employed a certain proportion of MÄori was considered enough to qualify as bicultural. Consistent with this attitude, while the non-MÄori members of the senior leadership team in CE1 clearly engaged with the whakataukÄ« introduced by Greg at the beginning of his meetings, they did not take the practice back to their own teams.
The members of Gregâs senior leadership team at CE2, all talked about biculturalism in the organisation as a process that they were engaged in. Aroha for instance felt that they were becoming increasingly âbicultural through practiceâ with Greg leading the way, and Connor maintained that Gregâs role in CE2âs move towards biculturalism could not be overstated. Toby summed up progress towards biculturalism at CE2 as a challenging journey, with everybody at different stages on their own journey, âbut aiming to climb the same mountainâ.
6 Discussion and Conclusion
Views about what constitutes biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand have changed radically in recent years. A relatively large proportion of MÄori employees is no longer considered an adequate qualification for a bicultural workplace; appropriate cultural practices and commitment to te reo are now important, a very significant shift. The introduction of karakia and serious efforts to understanding the complex meanings of whakataukÄ« in organisations has been part of this change which has raised awareness of what it means to be bicultural, and the fact that it should go deeper than mere tokenism. The current study contributes to existing knowledge on biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand and demonstrates how two organisations at different times but led by the same leader have met the challenges of integrating tikanga into their workplace practices. The change in societal attitudes towards MÄori culture and language is evident in the ways they do this. The shift in the education sector as reflected in this organisational data as well as the fostering within schools of important aspects of MÄori culture has radically expanded and these are increasingly integrated meaningfully into school events e.g., pÅwhiri (MÄori welcome) for new students and staff, while kapa haka classes (traditional MÄori dancing and chanting) are now available in most schools. The influence of these practices within educational contexts also has impact as students leave school and move into workplaces. The adoption of such bicultural practices addresses the challenge of rectifying an asymmetry in the culture order in Aotearoa New Zealand; PÄkehÄ norms and values are treated as understood by all and not requiring explanation, while MÄori norms and values have become a specific focus of learning. Within CE1 and CE2, the explicit focus on whakataukÄ« in the meeting openings can also been seen as addressing this asymmetry within organisations that identify themselves as bicultural.
The different orientations apparent in the excerpts from CE1 versus CE2 in some ways reflect the different time periods in which they were recorded. In the 15 years that Greg has been at CE2 societal attitudes to biculturalism and bilingualism have developed in a number of crucial ways. All Government Departments have MÄori names and many use MÄori protocols at different points: e.g., to welcome guests and new employees, and at least briefly in meeting openings. All have developed policies to address their Treaty obligations, and there is strong support for learning te reo.
Gregâs familiarity with te reo MÄori and MÄori tikanga are clearly key factors in the progress made in these respects at both organisations where he has held the CEO position. Being MÄori is an important component of Gregâs identity and this is signalled in every management meeting. As demonstrated above, one obvious way that he enacts this aspect of his identity is through the formal openings which involve a whakataukÄ«, but further insights are evident in the specific way he uses these in each context. This MÄori component of the meetings enables Greg not only to index his identity (and that of Marama in CE1), but also embeds a MÄori cultural practice in workplaces that identify as bicultural. This practice contrasts with what is typically found in organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand.
However, Gregâs collaborative style and his commitment to encouraging engagement and discussion in order to facilitate learning are also consistent with the education sector in which he operates, often labelled a feminised industry (McDowell, 2020). In other words, it is important to recognise the constraints of embedded contexts; Gregâs leadership practices index not only his ethnic identity, as his colleagues point out, but also the education industry as he himself observes in interview. In balancing his various identities he skilfully prioritises and privileges certain discursive strategies over others depending on context, including such factors as the topics of the meetings and the variation in language proficiency and biculturalism of his team members.
Greg uses the whakataukÄ« as an opportunity to teach his team and foster learning (see Holmes and Vine, 2021). In the first organisation this teaching revolves around the meaning of a whakataukÄ«, while also promoting thinking about MÄori values. Marama is also involved in this. She begins the discussion in excerpt 1 by providing a translation. In other meetings, after she does this, other members of the team all join in the discussion of the whakataukÄ« as illustrated by excerpt 2b. In another of the CE1 management meetings one of the PÄkehÄ women, Susie, shows her commitment and explicit acceptance of this aspect of their meetings when she comments that she chose the whakataukÄ« as an appropriate one for the meeting. In this particular workplace, MÄori norms are respected, as evidenced by the appointment of Greg to the CEO position and the acceptance of him and his ways of doing things within the group.
This acceptance and respect is also apparent at CE2. In this workplace the teaching includes exploring the meaning of whakataukÄ« (and hence also MÄori values) but expands beyond this as Greg uses them to teach about language, grammar and pronunciation (as seen in excerpt 3), mythology (excerpt 4a and 4b) and to generate discussion on other issues that are of cultural importance (excerpt 4b). Because Greg uses them to highlight a whole range of aspects, it seems that some members of the leadership team at CE2 may have considerably less knowledge and understanding of MÄori tikanga, language and values than those at CE1. When asked to reflect on this in interview, Greg said he did not think this was true. The team at CE2 were all learning te reo MÄori and they regularly asked questions and showed enthusiasm to engage and learn more. Greg therefore used the whakataukÄ« to teach them about a range of aspects related to MÄori language, values and culture. They all engaged with this and enthusiastically participated in the discussions. This in part also reflects Gregâs greater confidence at CE2 as opposed to CE1 to explore tikanga and culture more fully and his teamâs whole-hearted embracing of this.
In discussing the meaning of the whakataukÄ«, Greg also demonstrates his status as a proficient MÄori speaker and as someone knowledgeable about MÄori tikanga, values and lore. Not many MÄori people speak MÄori, and many of those who do are not very fluent.7 English is Gregâs first language, as for the other two MÄori women in the senior management teams at CE1 and CE2, but he is a very proficient second language speaker. As evidence of his proficiency and expertise, there is an instance in the data where Marama seeks clarification about aspects of meaning, constructing Greg as the expert in this domain and showing respect for him (see Holmes and Vine, 2021). This indicates her orientation to MÄori norms and also demonstrates how she contributes to constructing salient aspects of Gregâs MÄori leadership identity. The team members at CE2 also construct him as an expert, as evident for instance when Toby in Extract 4b orients to Greg as the authority on an issue. The interviews with the senior leaders at CE2 also indicate how much they respect Greg and regard him as knowledgeable about MÄori tikanga. He is seen as performing a crucial role in the organisation being truly bicultural and indispensable in moving it towards bilingualism.
When taking on the highest position in an organisation a leader strongly influences the norms and values of the workplace. A personâs core values are important here, and core ethnic values can be evident in the way people dynamically enact leadership. Greg is a leader who demonstrates his commitment to MÄori values and norms; he is clearly a âMÄori leaderâ in Winiataâs terms, not just âa leader who happens to be MÄoriâ (2017: vii). A contrastive pragmatics approach identifies the sensitive ways in which he indexes core MÄori values through workplace practices. As evident in the interviews, the members of his senior leadership team view him as having a powerful impact on the organisation and the individual employeesâ progress towards biculturalism. His introduction of whakataukÄ« to open meetings and the fact that this has become an integral component of the tikanga of his teams and the wider organisation at CE2, clearly demonstrate his influence on his teamsâ practices. Thus the analysis of this one small component of meetings provides a range of valuable insights into how a respected leader can effectively modify cultural practices and orientations in an organisation, fostering the adoption and acceptance of what for many is a contrasting way of doing things: Ahakoa he iti he pounamu âalthough it is small it is a treasureâ.
7 Transcription Conventions
| kia ora | MÄori words in italics |
| [laughs] | Paralinguistic features, replaced words, and MÄori translations |
| [laughs]: mm: | Colons show scope of a feature |
| + | Pause of up to one second |
| // \ / \\ | Simultaneous speech; numbering indicates multiple overlaps on a turn |
| ke- | Incomplete word |
| () | Unclear word or phrase |
| ?F, ?M | Unidentified speaker |
| ⦠| Section of transcript omitted |
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the participants who volunteered their words and thoughts, and the funders who financially supported the data collection from which our extracts have been taken, notably a Marsden grant administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand. We thank the Victoria University of Wellington Discourse Analysis Group for workshopping with us the examples used in the analysis, thus providing helpful warranting to support our claims.
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Biographical Notes
Bernadette Vine is Senior Researcher and Corpus Manager for the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Bernadetteâs research interests include workplace communication, leadership and New Zealand English.
Janet Holmes is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Associate Director of the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (www.victoria.ac.nz/lwp). She has published on many aspects of sociolinguistics and sociopragmatics, including New Zealand English, workplace discourse, and language and gender.
Meredith Marra is Director of the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She has been researching workplace discourse for more than 20 years, analysing the language of business meetings, (im)politeness, humour and various aspects of identity.
We use the term PÄkehÄ for the group referred to in the Census as âNew Zealand Europeanâ. Note also that people may identify with more than one ethnic group.
The Treaty is a broad statement of principles on which the British and MÄori made a political compact to found a nation state and build a government in New Zealand (see Ministry for Culture and Heritage â ManatÅ« Taonga, 2017).
In forthcoming work, King proposes the geopolitical order as an additional and intersecting hierarchy.
Although as noted by Metge and Jones (1995: 5) â[w]hakataukÄ« always involve symbolism, even when they appear to be straightforwardâ.
Again, see Metge and Jones (1995: 5). They also note âListeners are challenged to work out references and connections for themselvesâ (Metge and Jones 1995: 5).
Also known as the god of winds, clouds, rain, hail, snow and storms (https://maoridictionary.co.nz).
See Stats New Zealandâ Tatauranga Aotearoa, 2020; also a report commissioned by Te Taura Whiri i te reo MÄori â The MÄori Language Commission reports that 7.9% of MÄori are fluent in te reo (Nicholson Consulting and KÅtÄtÄ Insight, 2021).
