Indigenous employees’ experiences of work: An interdisciplinary review

Abstract

Although scholarly interest in minority employees has grown in recent years, Indigenous Peoples’ experiences of work still largely appear on the margins of management and organizational scholarship. For Indigenous employees, the interplay of colonialism and features of Indigenous cultures and communities can lead to distinct work experiences. We thus explore the question of how being Indigenous shapes life at work by reviewing findings from 127 empirical studies, spanning multiple Indigenous groups and scholarly disciplines. We canvas four factors that existing literature suggests are especially relevant for understanding Indigenous work experiences: colonialism and Indigenous employment; the work-culture interface; relationships; and perceptions. We highlight how different constellations of these factors can lead Indigenous workers to experience the relationship between their Indigenous identity and their work as broadly synergistic, strained, or ambivalent. To conclude, we present a constructive critique of the literature on Indigenous employees, and in doing so, propose three key priorities for future research: engaging with the complexities of Indigenous identities, exploring the varied contexts in which Indigenous employees experience work, and developing solutions to common challenges Indigenous employees face at work.