The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
Elsewhere in Breaking Views I have written extensively on workplace bullying generally, especially in New Zealand’s public service (Lillis, 2024a), and bullying at our universities specifically (Lillis, 2024b and 2024c). It appears that bullying has been exposed many times in the New Zealand media, but the message does not seem to get home to employers - or are they choosing to turn a blind eye?
Hearing of continual problems in New Zealand’s workplaces has prompted this article as a comment on management and leadership. Perhaps the environments where I have worked were not typical of New Zealand’s workplaces, but unfortunately my own observations of management in the Public Service and at one Non-Government Organisation have been extremely disappointing, and I hear numerous accounts of poor decision-making, dysfunctional workplaces and bullying across the country. My belief, or rather my hope, is that most workplaces in New Zealand function reasonably well and that, in general, leadership and management in both the public and private sectors are tolerably good. On that basis, accepting that in most workplaces leadership and management are of a reasonable standard, in this article I focus on those situations where I feel that matters are in need of improvement.
Recently (21 April, 2021), the Royal Society of New Zealand
Wellington Branch hosted a public lecture and discussion of current research on
workplace bullying by Dr. Geoff Plimmer, senior lecturer at the School of
Management, Victoria University of Wellington.
I invited Dr. Plimmer to give this lecture because I have met many people who have indicated dissatisfaction with their working environments here in New Zealand. Many appear to have been managed out or otherwise encouraged to leave, but I do not know the precise details of every case. I have requested and received information under the Official Information Act (OIA) on non-disclosure agreements (Settlement Agreements) from various organisations within the Public Service, but was independently aware of certain agreements with former staff of various organizations.
Over the last few years we have exposed bullying in many workplaces across New Zealand, especially in our public service (see Lillis, 2021 - 2024). Unfortunately, we hear reports of continuing bullying at our universities, sometimes linked with re-direction of mission statements and strategic plans and the indigenization of the universities. Those who speak out against such measures are at risk of loss of career advancement or even their employment.
In the light of recent allegations of wrongdoing at the Manurewa Marae (retention and photocopying of Census forms from the 2023 Census, and possible misuse of confidential information), surely we must refrain from judgement until a thorough investigation determines whether or not the photocopied Census information was in fact misused. Until then, apart from a recent admission that Census forms were indeed photocopied and not otherwise afforded the necessary protections, misuse of Census information is hearsay as far as the general public is concerned.
The 2023 election returned a new Government to New Zealand. After several years that have usually, but not always, provided constructive criticism of the previous Government’s delivery, the time has arrived for positive reinforcement of our new Government’s agendas in all domains of public and national interest with which we agree, including education and science. Knowing little of economics, social policy and other domains, we confine our comments and expectations mainly to those areas in which we have professional experience - indeed, including education and science.
About
a year ago, I first wrote with co-authors on this platform about the cultural
shift and de facto politicisation of our universities [1]. By now I thought we
might have seen a steadying of the ship and a true course set once again. The
current reality is very worrying.
Throughout the Western world the infusion into universities of critical social justice (CSJ) theory and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) politics - now, ironically, exclusionary, racist and intolerant - is producing a generation of graduates steeped in postmodern relativist (frequently anti-science) thinking, embracing identity politics and the victim-oppressor mindset. It has caused division in our country rather than encouraging much-needed unity.
New Zealand is on a difficult path - one of
advantaging a small minority on the basis of genetics or self-reported
ethnicity. As we proceed along this path our media present co-governance as the
desirable pathway to our future almost exclusively, and present dissenting
opinions very rarely.
An article from a former mayor of Kapiti Coast is characteristic of what gets published in online and print media (Gurunathan, K, 2022). The author is undoubtedly a very decent human being who has contributed much to his community and who has the courage of his beliefs and, as a person of color, may well have experienced bias and racism and observed these things imposed on others. He favours re-defining New Zealand as a bicultural nation and evidently is comfortable with the reality that Māori constitute less than 17% of the total population and that very few are full Māori. However, like others, he appears to cast disagreement with co-governance as racism and appears to discount the possibility that dissenters articulate genuinely-held views.
...the
historical telos of universities as depositories of our collective cultural
wisdom and knowledge is thus changed from forms of debate and free speech to
those of multiple truths and power plays to impose dominance. In this way, the universities
and those academics within them are transformed from fallible but authoritative
judges and teachers of the sum of human knowledge to being part of a broader
political struggle between a binary of oppressed versus the oppressors.
- Doug Stokes in "Against decolonisation"
(p. 81-82)
Universities losing their Best People
As we write, several universities in New Zealand are facing severe financial problems and cuts to expenditure.
