Collectivism, cultural identity and employee wellbeing: A study of New Zealand Maori

Maori are a collectivistic culture, and we test whether those Maori more aligned to workplace collectivism feel greater alignment with their overall cultural beliefs, and thus report greater wellbeing through lower anxiety and depression. Using a sample of 336 Maori employees, regression analysis showed significant direct effects with collectivism accounting for a sizable 20 percent of the variance towards both anxiety and depression. Furthermore, two moderators were tested relating to cultural knowledge and cultural language. Significant two-way interactions were found with high collectivism and high cultural knowledge leading to low depression, and low depression and anxiety amongst respondents with high cultural knowledge and cultural language. A three-way interaction was found towards anxiety, with low anxiety found amongst respondents with high collectivism and either high cultural knowledge and cultural language. Overall, the study highlights the importance of collectivism and cultural identity for Maori employees towards achieving greater wellbeing