title: Consequences of cultural satisfaction at work: A study of New Zealand Māori

authors: Haar, Jarrod M.

subjects: cultural satisfaction at work

abstract: To expand our understanding of indigenous workers and the importance of indigenous culture in the workplace, we tested the outcomes of cultural satisfaction at work using structural equation modelling with a sample of 174 Māori employees. We show that, consistent with social exchange theory, Māori who are more satisfied with the level of understanding of their cultural values in the workplace report better job outcomes. Cultural satisfaction at work directly predicted loyalty and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Furthermore, direct-effects and mediation models were tested, showing that loyalty fully mediated the influence of cultural satisfaction at work on OCBs. The implications for HRM are that indigenous workers who are more satisfied with the way their cultural beliefs are valued in the workplace are likely to be more loyal and may be superior performance. The findings highlight the importance for employers of having regard to the culture of their indigenous workers.

text: Consequences of cultural satisfaction at work: A study of New Zealand Māori To expand our understanding of indigenous workers and the importance of indigenous culture in the workplace, we tested the outcomes of cultural satisfaction at work using structural equation modelling with a sample of 174 Māori employees. We show that, consistent with social exchange theory, Māori who are more satisfied with the level of understanding of their cultural values in the workplace report better job outcomes. Cultural satisfaction at work directly predicted loyalty and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Furthermore, direct-effects and mediation models were tested, showing that loyalty fully mediated the influence of cultural satisfaction at work on OCBs. The implications for HRM are that indigenous workers who are more satisfied with the way their cultural beliefs are valued in the workplace are likely to be more loyal and may be superior performance. The findings highlight the importance for employers of having regard to the culture of their indigenous workers.

year: 2011

title: Tribal guns, tribal gunners : A study of acculturation by Maori of European military technology during the New Zealand inter-tribal musket wars

authors: Bentley, Trevor William

abstract: The Musket Wars were New Zealand’s longest and most costly war. Some 20,000 Maori perished in the raids, battles and sieges that convulsed the tribal societies during the 1820’s and 1830’s. The rise of powerful musket armies set in train forty major hekes or tribal migrations that emptied vast reaches of country by 1840, paving the way for European settlement that proceeded largely unopposed until the 1860’s.

There is little known about the nature of Maori warfare in this period for the Musket Wars have yet to receive the same kind of intense study currently being given by New Zealand historians to the Northern and New Zealand Wars. While other nations have conducted exhaustive research into the military history of their indigenous people, the Musket Wars remain New Zealand’s least known war.

The paucity of information on inter-tribal; warfare in this period is sourced in the fact that native warfare was actively discouraged by the missionaries, judged barbaric by most early visitors and regarded as an inferior form of warfare by settlers and English military men. Later nineteenth century writers perpetuated a distorted view of the Musket Wars as chaotic inter-tribal conflicts in which Maori fought and destroyed Maori. This distorted view has its origins in the two widely divergent systems of values that operated in nineteenth century New Zealand and in the dominance of Victorian ideas about race and colonialism.

This thesis is revisionist only in its attempt to demolish the entrenched colonial view of Maori musket warfare as disordered and exclusively Maori. It endeavours to fill specific gaps that exist in the research on this period by examining the role and purpose of the European gun trading enterprise in New Zealand and the extent of European involvement in Maori warfare. The thesis explores the deployment and effectiveness of European guns during the three phases of Maori warfare that characterise the period; predatory raiding, the great rakau-musket battles and the musket to musket conflicts of the 1830’s. The thesis also develops the theme that while the Musket Wars were shaped by non-Maori influences they were distinctly Maori in style.
While the bulk of evidence is provided by contemporary European observers and nineteenth century historians, every attempt has been made to provide a more balanced picture of Maori warfare by reporting Maori experiences wherever possible. The thesis consequently draws on current Maori oral testimony, the evidence of contemporary Maori eyewitness and the substantial and well developed body of written tribal history currently available.

The Musket Wars represent a fascinating but largely forgotten military age in New Zealand where Maori armies of unprecedented size employed powerful armaments of flintlock guns and ships cannon on long distance campaigns against remote enemies. This period has provided a unique opportunity to research the ways an indigenous warrior society acculturated European firearms technology in established tribal rituals and in warfare, independent of European military influences and in a purely Maori context. Most importantly the Musket Wars have provided the opportunity to examine Maori tactical developments through the critical stage between classical Maori warfare and the clashes with British and Colonial forces during the Northern war of 1845 and New Zealand wars of the 1860’s.

text: Tribal guns, tribal gunners : A study of acculturation by Maori of European military technology during the New Zealand inter-tribal musket wars The Musket Wars were New Zealand’s longest and most costly war. Some 20,000 Maori perished in the raids, battles and sieges that convulsed the tribal societies during the 1820’s and 1830’s. The rise of powerful musket armies set in train forty major hekes or tribal migrations that emptied vast reaches of country by 1840, paving the way for European settlement that proceeded largely unopposed until the 1860’s.

There is little known about the nature of Maori warfare in this period for the Musket Wars have yet to receive the same kind of intense study currently being given by New Zealand historians to the Northern and New Zealand Wars. While other nations have conducted exhaustive research into the military history of their indigenous people, the Musket Wars remain New Zealand’s least known war.

The paucity of information on inter-tribal; warfare in this period is sourced in the fact that native warfare was actively discouraged by the missionaries, judged barbaric by most early visitors and regarded as an inferior form of warfare by settlers and English military men. Later nineteenth century writers perpetuated a distorted view of the Musket Wars as chaotic inter-tribal conflicts in which Maori fought and destroyed Maori. This distorted view has its origins in the two widely divergent systems of values that operated in nineteenth century New Zealand and in the dominance of Victorian ideas about race and colonialism.

This thesis is revisionist only in its attempt to demolish the entrenched colonial view of Maori musket warfare as disordered and exclusively Maori. It endeavours to fill specific gaps that exist in the research on this period by examining the role and purpose of the European gun trading enterprise in New Zealand and the extent of European involvement in Maori warfare. The thesis explores the deployment and effectiveness of European guns during the three phases of Maori warfare that characterise the period; predatory raiding, the great rakau-musket battles and the musket to musket conflicts of the 1830’s. The thesis also develops the theme that while the Musket Wars were shaped by non-Maori influences they were distinctly Maori in style.
While the bulk of evidence is provided by contemporary European observers and nineteenth century historians, every attempt has been made to provide a more balanced picture of Maori warfare by reporting Maori experiences wherever possible. The thesis consequently draws on current Maori oral testimony, the evidence of contemporary Maori eyewitness and the substantial and well developed body of written tribal history currently available.

The Musket Wars represent a fascinating but largely forgotten military age in New Zealand where Maori armies of unprecedented size employed powerful armaments of flintlock guns and ships cannon on long distance campaigns against remote enemies. This period has provided a unique opportunity to research the ways an indigenous warrior society acculturated European firearms technology in established tribal rituals and in warfare, independent of European military influences and in a purely Maori context. Most importantly the Musket Wars have provided the opportunity to examine Maori tactical developments through the critical stage between classical Maori warfare and the clashes with British and Colonial forces during the Northern war of 1845 and New Zealand wars of the 1860’s.

year: 1997

title: Disrupting working memory to reduce verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance: Squeezing in a tiresome new approach to implicit motor learning!

authors: Hoskens, Merel Cornelie Janna

subjects: Implicit motor learning

abstract: Implicit motor learning paradigms aim to minimise verbal-analytical engagement during motor performance. Some do this by suppressing working memory activity during practice. This reduces the ability of the learner to use, manipulate and store task-related information via mental processes, such as hypothesis testing. Implicit motor learning paradigms that suppress working memory indirectly are not always effective, because individual differences, such as motivation, can override their efficiency. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether two more direct methods, cognitive fatigue and hand contractions, are viable tools with which to suppress working memory activity during motor practice, and whether they cause reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance.
Chapter 2 investigated whether a computer-based cognitive fatigue task suppressed working memory activity during a golf putting task. Behavioural measures of verbal-analytical engagement were employed to test whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during the subsequent golf putting task. Results revealed that the computer-based cognitive fatigue task promoted cognitive fatigue, but was not sufficient to cause reduced hypothesis testing compared to a non-fatigue group.
In Chapter 3, a cognitive fatigue task with greater emphasis on motor control was therefore designed. It was first established whether the task caused cognitive fatigue and if working memory functions were disrupted. Subsequently, it was established whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during performance of a novel shuffleboard task, using behavioural measures, including self-report and assessment of technique changes. Additionally, verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning was gauged, using electroencephalography (EEG) to assess alpha power over the left temporal verbal-analytical (T7) site plus connectivity between the T7 and Fz (motor planning mid-frontal) sites. The results revealed that the motor-specific cognitive fatigue manipulation caused increased, rather than decreased, verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance, compared to a no fatigue control condition.
Chapter 4 examined whether hand contraction protocols influenced cognitive processes during motor performance, by using EEG to gauge verbal-analytical engagement during motor planning (i.e., T7-Fz connectivity) following a left-hand, right-hand or no hand-contraction protocol. The findings revealed that left-hand contractions, which are thought to activate the less verbal right hemisphere and deactivate the more verbal left hemisphere, caused reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning, compared to the other protocols. Furthermore, right-hand contractions caused higher levels of verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning. Consequently, Chapter 5 investigated whether left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning. Participants practiced a motor task following regular bouts of left-hand contractions, right-hand contractions or no hand-contractions. Behavioral measures were used to gauge the extent to which verbal-analytical engagement was curtailed or encouraged. The results revealed no evidence that left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning, and both left-hand and right-hand contractions caused worse performance than no hand-contractions during a post-practice test phase.
Working memory performance was disrupted by both the cognitive fatigue and hand contraction protocols; however, predicted decrements in verbal-analytical engagement did not occur, and implicit motor learning was not promoted. The findings of this thesis reveal the complexity of the interrelationships between working memory, verbal-analytical processes and brain activity during motor learning. Future directions for research are considered.

text: Disrupting working memory to reduce verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance: Squeezing in a tiresome new approach to implicit motor learning! Implicit motor learning paradigms aim to minimise verbal-analytical engagement during motor performance. Some do this by suppressing working memory activity during practice. This reduces the ability of the learner to use, manipulate and store task-related information via mental processes, such as hypothesis testing. Implicit motor learning paradigms that suppress working memory indirectly are not always effective, because individual differences, such as motivation, can override their efficiency. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether two more direct methods, cognitive fatigue and hand contractions, are viable tools with which to suppress working memory activity during motor practice, and whether they cause reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance.
Chapter 2 investigated whether a computer-based cognitive fatigue task suppressed working memory activity during a golf putting task. Behavioural measures of verbal-analytical engagement were employed to test whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during the subsequent golf putting task. Results revealed that the computer-based cognitive fatigue task promoted cognitive fatigue, but was not sufficient to cause reduced hypothesis testing compared to a non-fatigue group.
In Chapter 3, a cognitive fatigue task with greater emphasis on motor control was therefore designed. It was first established whether the task caused cognitive fatigue and if working memory functions were disrupted. Subsequently, it was established whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during performance of a novel shuffleboard task, using behavioural measures, including self-report and assessment of technique changes. Additionally, verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning was gauged, using electroencephalography (EEG) to assess alpha power over the left temporal verbal-analytical (T7) site plus connectivity between the T7 and Fz (motor planning mid-frontal) sites. The results revealed that the motor-specific cognitive fatigue manipulation caused increased, rather than decreased, verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance, compared to a no fatigue control condition.
Chapter 4 examined whether hand contraction protocols influenced cognitive processes during motor performance, by using EEG to gauge verbal-analytical engagement during motor planning (i.e., T7-Fz connectivity) following a left-hand, right-hand or no hand-contraction protocol. The findings revealed that left-hand contractions, which are thought to activate the less verbal right hemisphere and deactivate the more verbal left hemisphere, caused reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning, compared to the other protocols. Furthermore, right-hand contractions caused higher levels of verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning. Consequently, Chapter 5 investigated whether left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning. Participants practiced a motor task following regular bouts of left-hand contractions, right-hand contractions or no hand-contractions. Behavioral measures were used to gauge the extent to which verbal-analytical engagement was curtailed or encouraged. The results revealed no evidence that left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning, and both left-hand and right-hand contractions caused worse performance than no hand-contractions during a post-practice test phase.
Working memory performance was disrupted by both the cognitive fatigue and hand contraction protocols; however, predicted decrements in verbal-analytical engagement did not occur, and implicit motor learning was not promoted. The findings of this thesis reveal the complexity of the interrelationships between working memory, verbal-analytical processes and brain activity during motor learning. Future directions for research are considered.

year: 2020