Session Theme

Inclusion, equality, and broadening worldviews

Indigenizing management education and research (Research, practical workshop)

Session overview

Academies of management represent important communities to gather, share, challenge, and change thinking and practice in the art and the science of managing and management in organisations of every kind the world over, according to the contexts, cultures, and structures within which we live and work. One of the least heard voices in these communities, but one which strives to retain its ancestral roots is that of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are generally regarded as the original inhabitants of a place who maintain a distinct culture, langage, and social systems with custodial ties to ancestral lands. Indigenous peoples comprise an estimated 470 million people living across 90 countries, with 5,000 distinct cultures and languages. What managing and organising means and how these activities can be done in ways which are enriching as well as effective, is a primary concern of Indigenous management research, education, policy and practice.
Academies of management and business schools are working to understand what it means to indigenise and decolonise their organisations, cultures, programmes, and outcomes and develop initiatives to support these efforts in response global initiatives like the United Nations (UN) supported initiative – Principles for  esponsible Management Education (PRME) – and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), as well as the opportunity to support growth and development of Indigenous economies, entrepreneurship, innovation, and enterprise.
This is a practical workshop designed to support management associations and their members in understanding why and how management associations can indigenise and decolonise their organisations, cultures, programmes, and outcomes. The workshop will draw on practice from the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM), the International Academy of Research in Indigenous Management and Organizational Studies (IARIMOS), and Academy of Management (AOM) Native, Aboriginal & Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus. In this session, Jason Mika (ANZAM Indigenous Management Special Interest Group co-convenor) will guide us through a conversation about what indigenising and decolonising management means, how this is being done, what has worked, and not worked so well and top tips for how to indigenise and decolonise management associations and business schools.