Ambicultural Governance: Harmonizing Indigenous and Western Approaches

Abstract

Indigenous and Western business practices and worldviews can be harmonized to create and enhance well-being through ambicultural governance practices. This article focuses on exploring, both theoretically and empirically, creative governance endeavors to bring together Indigenous and Western practices for the purposes of creating both wealth and well-being in the service of society. We emphasize the need to return to the idea of business as serving the well-being of communities and suggest this can be done through a relational kaitiakitanga, stewardship approach that is at the heart of our research. Through a qualitatively rich case study of a Māori business, we present a Strategy Model He Whenua Rangatira—A Balanced Landscape that serves to act as a decision-making tool that facilitates both tangible and intangible benefits for organizational success and collective well-being. We suggest that all businesses, both Indigenous and Western, can gravitate toward this approach, while contextualizing their ambicultural governance.