AM801001 - Analyzing Business Culture & Maori Values in NZ Firms

This report analyzes the business cultures of Tohu Wines and Fonterra, two New Zealand organizations, focusing on their integration of Maori values. It evaluates key characteristics such as encouragement, respect, and inclusivity, alongside the effectiveness of their communication and work methods. The analysis further explores the practice of Maori values like Whanaungatanga, Kaitiakitanga, and Manaakitanga within these organizations, linking them to business culture and stakeholder expectations. The report identifies challenges in meeting these expectations and suggests improvements for a more balanced and effective integration of Maori values into organizational practices. Desklib offers this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

Capabilities for Managers
Capabilities for Managers
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Capabilities for Managers
Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................3
About Maori Values...........................................................................................................3
Part 1: Analysing Organization...........................................................................................3
Tohu Wines....................................................................................................................3
Fonterra.........................................................................................................................4
Part 2: Analysing the Organization for Maori Values..........................................................6
Tohu Wines....................................................................................................................6
Fonterra.........................................................................................................................7
References.........................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In this era of globalization, promoting and respecting diversity is important. It is essential to
create an organization with such values where people with different ideologies, beliefs and
habits can survive (Huppert, 2017).
We will analyse two companies Tohu Wines and Fonterra and how they function with
respect to the organization values and integrate them with Maori Values. Fonterra is the
largest dairy cooperative of New Zealand run by farmers. Tohu Wines is a Maori run wine
company focussing on providing the best wine experience by integrating taste and
expeirnce!
About Maori Values
Maori is a tribe in New Zealand which is protected by the government itself. The Maori
tribes are one of the most closely knit tribes in the world which have been examples in
showing unity. They have a set of values which they follow and incorporate for themselves
anywhere they go or work.
These values are from various loops and sides of the business aspect, such as togetherness,
oneness, cohesion, transparency, teamwork and so on (Harris, Macfarlane, Macfarlane, &
Jolly§, 2017). The underlying point is, these values are pretty much everything which an
ideal organization should have as it gives the organization not only strong Morales but a firm
base for itself.
Part 1: Analysing the Organization
Tohu Wines
Tohu Wines is a Maori run wine company based in New Zealand. Its aim is to promote the
Maori Culture and values through their wine and other products. The company was
established in 1998 with a focus on producing estate owned high-quality wines. Here, the
speciality is to catch the essence of the area from where the wine is made, bringing in the

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Whanaungtanga (a sense of belonging to each other) value to play. The company has
sprawling estates in many parts of the country simply to diversify their wine and enrich the
taste with everything local associated with it (Tohu Wine, 2018).
Since New Zealand has a thriving wine industry, Tohu Wines is better able to take advantage
of this situation by leveraging certain strategies and ideas which allow the company a
competitive edge in the market.
The company has enjoyed exceptional employee support from its people owing to its
collaborative and cohesive nature (Spiller & Stockdale, 2012). The company promotes
teamwork and ensures that it does not, in any way, come out as discriminating on any basis.
The company has its communication channels quite clear. The employees have been given
enough freedom when it comes to clearly express their views, and their views are always
taken into consideration and respected irrespective of their ranks or division (Xesha, 2014).
This is an important part since it gives the employee the confidence to clearly deliver their
thoughts, which is instrumental in the process of helping the company grow.
Now the company has few issues when it comes to the effectiveness of work. Since the
company works on complete Maori ideology, integrating it with professional standards of
work is sometimes difficult (McCulre, 2008). For people who do not belong to the Maori
tribe or are not aware of this concept of values, often find all the belongingness and trust
too much to handle at work, and feel the lack of professionalism. This is a situation which
the company has to take note of. While it is quite set in its way for the way the affairs are
conducted in terms of the flow of information and communication, the before mentioned
areas need a little work. The employees have been receptive to all their feedbacks, and
quick improvements have been observed, however, the same does not go for the top
management (Husain, 2016). Partly for the reason, they are a little inaccessible and the
implementation of feedback is slow too.
Fonterra
Fonterra is the largest dairy supplier of New Zealand. It is a unique farmer run cooperative,
employing as many as 10,000 farmers all across the country. It is one of the most successful
publically listed companies if New Zealand. The company follows a proper corporate

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structure in addition to being a cooperative and having a strong farmer union as well. the
company has a properly established board with as many as 21,000 employees in total.
Fonterra has been immensely successful until now because of the right kind of leadership
structure followed in the company, and the corporate ethics followed. The company follows
strict codes of conduct and within the ambit of a properly set organizational structure.
However, the company has been quite successful in the way it has managed employees. the
company promotes equality on basis of gender and is extremely diversity loving. Besides
this, the level of employee engagement is always rising and the employees always genuinely
feel connected to each other and their work.
Communication is not a problem in the company at all since the hierarchy of reporting is
also set. Hence, in this structure, redundancy is eliminated any sort of time waste is also
eliminated (Agarwal & Garg, 2012). With an established organizational structure, the
company has several ways in which issues like communication, work performance, team
performance and other relevant issues are managed. This is mostly managed by the
employee discretion as the employees are quite independent in terms of decision making,
and their decisions are trusted by the top management most of the time. This promotes a
healthy employee-employer relationship in Fonterra.
Teamwork and clarity of the flow of information are given utmost priority in the
organization, and the employees are trained in a similar way to sort these issues at the first
possible instance. The company has a strict policy against discrimination of any form and
promotes inclusiveness a lot. The environment of the company is quite positive (Haas &
Mortensen, 2016).
The issue, however, lies in the fact that the structure is too rigid and the loss of flexibility
often creates trouble. The rigidity in the structure pertaining to the process can be too time-
consuming, often counter negating or contradicting the entire purpose they have been
formed for. The company has encountered several problems here and has often
encountered friction from the farmer union as well. The situation has been often saved by
the leadership of the organization, however, this is not an ideal or sustainable practice.
Fonterra thus requires immediate reforms in the way the corporate structure and the
organization to ensure that such problems do not arise in the future too often. Here, the
right implementation of values and real-time practices is needed (Pieterse, Caniëls, &
Homan, 2012).

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Part 2: Analysing the Organization for Maori Values
There are several underlying Maori values which are to be a part of the organizations
working in New Zealand. Few of the organizational values on which the critical analysis of
the two organizations will be done are: Whanaungtanga (a sense of belonging to each
other), Manakitanga (helping each other always), Rangatiratanga (self-governance),
Mohiotanga (sharing information) and Turkana (the relationship between the young and the
old).
Tohu Wines
As mentioned above, Tohu Wines is a Maori run wine company based in New Zealand. Its
aim is to promote the Maori Culture and values through their wine and other products. The
company implements various Maori values and ideologies in its day to day working, which
have been the reason for its success and for a little organizational issues as well (Tohu
Wines, 2017).
When we discuss the contribution of these values to its success, the list is endless. First and
foremost, the company follows the Manakitanga ideology to the root. According to this
ideology, one is supposed to help the other always. Being a Maori run company, it is
extremely close-knit and takes this value quite seriously (Seppälä, 2015). The entire
organization and the employee community help each other a lot and is always there to take
each other's back. While this is good for most of the part, the problem can arise when this
unity turns into a union and can turn against the company itself. Here, the company has to
keep a strong vigil on the people and manage such instances of union formation with ease
and presence of mind. Furthermore, the value of Whanaungtanga (a sense of belonging to
each other), is also followed by the company a lot (Baldoni, 2017). Not just in terms of
employee relation, but also in terms of the product. The company was established with a
focus on producing high-quality wines. Here, the speciality is to catch the essence of the
area from where the wine is made, bringing in the Whanaungtanga value to play; even the

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product here belongs to nature! While the values which are being followed are expected,
what is more concerning, are the values which are NOT being followed properly, or at all.
Even though the company is a Maori run organization, it lacks the value of Rangatiratanga
(self-governance) and Tuakana (the relationship between the young and the old).
It is expected of the employees of the company to act responsibly for their own actions,
however, several incidents have shown hoe self-governance and even basic responsibility
have gone for a toss in the company (Shekari, 2012). The environment is too flexible,
sometimes to the extent that the entire work culture is too informal, thus, giving the
company the first look of being unprofessional and uncultured. Next, the second most
important value which is needed in the company is Tukana, which is a good relationship
between the younger and the elder generation of the company. Since the company was
formed in 1998, it can be easily said that the founders and the current generation of the
employees have a considerable age difference and often the differences reflect in the
decision-making process of the company as well.
Here, the improvement has to be made to bring in balance in the organization to speed its
growth as well.
Fonterra
The success of Fonterra is attributed to its leadership and the structure the organization has
made for itself. The organization leadership is in extremely good hands and has been
bringing in good results, which are quite evident as well. here, the Rangatiratanga or the
value of self-governance is quite well rooted and in play (Benzer & Charns, 2016). The
leadership along with the employees own interest and reactiveness in maintaining their
professional career with utmost discipline has been successful in the implementation and
the sustainability of this value. The employees understand the importance of self-
governance and how it can add to their future growth; same is recognised by the leaders of
the organization who promote this in the employees. Next, owing to its extremely set
organizational structure and hierarchy, the Maori value of Mohiotanga (sharing information)
is also achieved in the best way possible. With an established organizational structure, the
company has several ways in which issues like communication, work performance, team
performance and other relevant issues are managed (Tran & Tian, 2013). The flow of

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information is pretty direct from the source to the recipient and any form of confusion is
eliminated to a great extent. Here, the information does not only limit itself to work
requirements but anything of importance in general. Also, since Fonterra is a cooperative,
the Whanaungtanga (a sense of belonging to each other) value is also well implemented, in
fact, this particular value is seen the best. The farmer union is exceptionally strong with
10,000 plus members and are ready to take on any issue if it concerns them or their rights in
general. The farming community is close-knit and helps each other a lot. Be it in terms of
Mohiotanga or Whanauntanga.
When we talk about the values which the company lacks, there are seldom any pieces fitting
this puzzle. With a nicely formed organizational structure, the company is more or less in
the best phase possible for any public company (Hargie, 2016). The best implementation of
their resources and the sustainability of these practices can be learnt from Fonterra. In spite
of being a full-fledged corporate, it has been able to implement best values for itself and the
employees to follow, allowing a lot of scope for sustained growth. This ensures that the
company has made for itself the right path to follow, and is well aware of their future
endeavours as well. It is important to integrate these Maori values with the actual business
since it allows a lot of ways to ensure the success of the company, along with giving it an
ethical base (Fadeyi, 2015).

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References
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Organizations: A Research on Two Hotels in Uttarakhand. Journal of Business and
Management, 3(2).
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2017/01/22/fostering-the-sense-of-
belonging-promotes-success/
Benzer, J. K., & Charns, M. P. (2016). The role of organizational structure in readiness for
change: A conceptual integration. Health Services Management Research.
Fadeyi, O. (2015). Impact of Organizational Structure on Organizational Performance. CU
ICADI.
Haas, M., & Mortensen, M. (2016). The Secrets of Great Teamwork. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great teamwork?
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Hargie, O. (2016). The Importance of Communication for Organisational Effectiveness.
Psicologia do Trabalho e das Organizações. Braga, Portugal, 15-32.
Harris, F., Macfarlane, S., Macfarlane, A., & Jolly§, M. (2017). MÄORI VALUES IN THE
WORKPLACE. MAI Journal.
Huppert, M. (2017). Employees Share What Gives them a Sense of Belonging at Work.
Retrieved from https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/company-
culture/2017/employees-share-what-gives-them-a-sense-of-belonging-at-work
Husain, Z. (2016). Effective communication brings successful organizational change. AMU
India.
McClure, J. (2008). Belonging at work. Human Resource Development International, 11(1).
Pieterse, J. H., Caniëls, M. C., & Homan, T. (2012). Journal of Organizational Change
Management Emerald Article: Professional discourses and resistance to change.
Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(6).

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Seppälä, E. (2015). Positive Teams Are More Productive. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2015/03/positive-teams-are-more-productive
Shekari, H. (2012). Promoting Leadership Effectiveness in Organizations: A Case Study on the
Involved Factors of Servant Leadership. International Journal of Business
Administration, 3(1).

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Spiller, C., & Stockdale, M. (2012). Managing and leading from a Maori perspective: Bringing
new life and energy to organizations. Handbook for faith and spirituality in the
workplace, New York.
Tohu Wine. (2018). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.tohuwines.co.nz/who-we-are
Tohu Wines. (2017). Annual Report 2017. Tohu Wines.
Tran, Q., & Tian, Y. (2013). Organizational Structure: Influencing Factors and Impact on a
Firm. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3, 229-236.
Xesha, D. (2014). The Impact of Employer-Employee Relationships on Business Growth.
Journal of Economics, 5(3).