He Kākano nō Rangiātea: Indigenising and spiritualising public administration - Wairua in the context of the public service

The Māori concept of wairua, commonly associated but not synonymous with ‘spirit’ and ‘spirituality’, is often acknowledged as the most important dimension of being human. Yet it is hardly understood in global-Western public administration systems, like in Aotearoa New Zealand, which are based predominantly on bureaucratic Weberian conventions that favour impersonal and calculative reason over human emotion and intuition. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of research highlighting the many benefits of genuinely incorporating spirituality and Indigenous ways, to which spirituality is central, into the public service. Inspired by the idea that wairua could help realise a more humane and effective public administration system in Aotearoa, this study builds on this research and addresses the glaring knowledge gap on wairua, and practices consciously focussed on wairua, in the public sector context.

Three wairua-centred/conscious approaches were purposely selected as case studies to ascertain what a wairua-centred/conscious approach was understood to be, the effects, and potential enablers or constraints to authentically incorporating a wairua way of working in the public sector. The study employed a wairua-centric kaupapa Māori methodology with an interpretivist twist. A framework of initial expectations, drawn primarily from the spirituality, Indigenous, humanistic and public administration literatures, was constructed as a reference point for examining the three cases. The case information was interpreted thematically and iteratively using abductive reasoning and lived experience. Twelve key features of a wairua-centred/conscious approach were shared across all cases, four of which were not captured by the framework but were factors that largely distinguished a wairua-centred/conscious approach from other approaches. The profound and transformative effects of a wairua-centred/conscious practice were not adequately reflected in the framework either, but the enablers and constraints identified in the study were generally consistent with, and built on, what had been initially anticipated. Unsurprisingly, systems and structures were the primary enablers or constraints to authentically accommodating wairua-centred/conscious approaches in public administration, with the main constraint being the secular-orientated Western-based system and conventions. The study concluded that wairua and wairua-centred/conscious approaches could contribute to more humane and effective public policy and service responses, but substantive changes to the existing system were required to accommodate a wairua way of working, and empower public servants to bring spirit and heart to their work. In this regard, a ‘new’ public administration system has been proposed – one that is grounded in, and legitimated by, its local Indigenous context. Further action for advancing this aspiration, based on Indigenous relational practices, has also been conveyed.

The study demonstrates through its research methodology, novel thesis structure and theoretical propositions for the future of public administration that tensions between Indigenous and Western-based paradigms can be reconciled to achieve an ‘enhanced outcome’ through a purposeful privileging of Indigenous worldviews. This privileging is required to overcome the inherent cultural biases within the existing system, ensure the authenticity and efficacy of Indigenous paradigms, and create a synergy between the two systems that benefits ‘all’. While focussed on Aotearoa, the study’s findings and conclusions are also of international relevance, and could usefully inform the public administration systems, practice and scholarship of other jurisdictions. Significantly, this study is a reminder that all of life is divine and connected, and that every human as – kākano nō Rangiātea – has within them the potential and means to live in integrity and with compassion toward others.