Management approaches of First Nations businesses in Saskatchewan

Abstract

This study is a comparative analysis of the level of high-involvement management (HIM) in a group of First Nations businesses in Saskatchewan and a matched sample group of non-Aboriginal businesses in Saskatchewan. The level of high-involvement management in the businesses was measured using an existing survey questionnaire based on one developed by Long (2001). This questionnaire is targeted to both managers and employees in each company. The researcher hypothesized that the level of high-involvement management in the First Nations businesses would be higher than that in the non-Aboriginal businesses. The rationale for this hypothesis was that the First Nations businesses would exhibit a cultural effect that would make the management of the businesses congruent with the traditional high-involvement organizational approach of the Plains Cree and Assiniboine First Nations in Saskatchewan prior to their confinement to reserves. This research has demonstrated that the management approach of First Nations companies is not more high-involvement oriented than a matched sample of non-Aboriginal businesses using a high-involvement management scale. Several techniques were utilized to try to identify a cultural effect. Means testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were all utilized to try to identify a cultural effect, all to no avail. Only when the data was analyzed based on various other dimensions were significant differences identified between First Nations and non-Aboriginal firms in terms of high-involvement management. Even in these cases, the differences are the opposite of that which was hypothesized for this study. In each of these cases, First Nations firms were significantly lower in high-involvement management than non-Aboriginal firms. Management and employee responses to the research instrument were shown not to be significantly different. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.