Making Indigenous Friendly Businesses: A sequential mixed-methods study of Indigenous employment in the Indigenous business sector
Creators: name: Eva, Christian
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2024

description: Indigenous-owned businesses in Australia and abroad have been highlighted across existing literature as creating and maintaining significant social impact outcomes. One specific aspect of the Indigenous business sector in Australia is its significantly high rates of Indigenous employment. This remains in stark contrast to the overall Indigenous employment rate across Australia, which is significantly lower than that of the non-Indigenous population. This despite a strengthening focus from both government and the private sector in the development of policies and practices targeted at boosting rates of Indigenous employment. Historically policy focus has been placed on Indigenous people, and perceived deficits that inhibit participation in the labour market, yet there is a growing acknowledgement and reframing of the labour market's own deficits. What is then still left unharnessed is the strength of the Indigenous business sector, in detailing and drawing upon how it maintains such starkly strong Indigenous employment outcomes. Therefore, it is important to better draw on the expertise and experience of the Indigenous business sector, given their successes in Indigenous employment, to influence policies at government and private organisational level. This thesis uses a sequential mixed methods approach in order to provide an updated picture of Indigenous employment in the Indigenous business sector, understand how the sector is able to create these outcomes through their workplace practices, and how these practices might differ in comparison to non-Indigenous businesses. Analysing two Indigenous business registries, this thesis is able to show that the Indigenous business sector is able to maintain strong Indigenous employment outcomes across profit status, industry, location, and business size. Of all employees in Supply Nation listed businesses, over 35% are Indigenous. Interviews with Indigenous business owners, managers, and employees of Indigenous-owned businesses revealed that the incorporation of Indigenous governance was able to inform an organisational level of cultural competence in their workplaces, which was subsequently able to inform specific and tailored policies and approaches that created their strong Indigenous employment outcomes. A survey of non-Indigenous owned businesses revealed that the Indigenous employment rate in Supply Nation listed businesses was approximately 12 times higher than that of this sample of non-Indigenous businesses. This thesis demonstrates that the variance in the composition of the Indigenous business sector and non-Indigenous businesses (i.e. profit-status, location, industry) is not able to explain the vast differences in rates of Indigenous employment. Rather than solely highlighting how labour market conditions inhibit Indigenous employment, the Indigenous business sector shows it is its policies and practices that create strong rates of Indigenous employment. Perhaps most significantly, this thesis shows that the presence of Indigenous management in non-Indigenous businesses was the only consistent, significant, positive correlate with Indigenous employment, controlling for a multitude of demographic and workplace policy variables. As a whole, this thesis demonstrates the importance of Indigenous governance within institutions in facilitating enhanced Indigenous employment outcomes. It points to the need to continue and strengthen support of the Indigenous business sector, as well as understand the significance of their contribution to Indigenous employment and the overall Australian economy. It demonstrates but a fraction of what Australian institutions more broadly could learn from the Indigenous business sector.