An Indigenous Model of Career Satisfaction: Exploring the Role of Workplace Cultural Wellbeing

Despite career satisfaction models being well established, little is understood about the career satisfaction of indigenous
employees. Using a sample of 172 Maori employees, the indigenous people of New Zealand, we tested a career satisfaction model
with a cultural wellbeing factor over and above established factors of human capital, sociodemographic, individual differences
and organizational sponsorship. This new measure workplace cultural wellbeing was found to significantly relate to career
satisfaction, accounting for twenty-three percent of the variance over and above the established factors which highlights
its importance for indigenous workers. Furthermore, due to collectivistic orientations amongst Maori, collectivism was tested
as a potential moderator and found to significantly interact with workplace cultural wellbeing, showing that Maori respondents
reported the greatest career satisfaction when workplace cultural wellbeing was high, irrespective of collectivism orientation.
This paper offers an extended model for exploring career satisfaction of indigenous workers.