Saldo y transacciones con entidades relacionadas

(3.7) Research Credibility Talanoa methods  Groups  One-to-one Research tools  Researcher  Audio-recorder  Question schedules Research analysis  Thematic analysis using Tauhi Vā Māfana (3.8) Research design

(3.5) Talanoa Māfana Methodology (3.4) The researcher

In relation to the current study, talanoa in the spirit of māfana allows us to get into the invisible worlds that Tongans hold about their Tongan identity and Tongan leadership practices through their perceptions and experiences. Manu`atu (2009, p. 178) also says, talanoa mālie or productive talanoa can be achieved when the talanoa interaction is “perfectly clear to the mind and soul [of a Tongan]”. This means that unless Tongans’ minds are spiritually connected to the māfana they have within their hearts they may not be happy to freely share their invisible worlds such as deep knowledge, beliefs, and skills that reflect their TVM practices. The inseparable relationship between Tongans’ minds and souls must be taken into account in understanding, exploring, and describing their leadership capabilities in a given context. Hence, TVM and TMM must work inter-dependently of each other because their successes are driven by māfana of fāmili, fua fatongia, and faka`apa`apa.

3.2 Developing Talanoa Māfana

In this section, I explain how the idea of TMM has been developed during the course of this study. First, it was shaped by the existing talanoa literature mainly Halapua`s works (2003, 2007, 2013). Dr Sitiveni Halapua is the Tongan talanoa philosopher who has greatly influenced my thinking and belief in talanoa, stimulating talanoa in a way that upholds full emotional honesty of my māfana. My māfana signifies my life, giving me the opportunity to discover a sense of integrity, closeness, and fulfilment of who I am as a Tongan. Regardless of the non- academic nature of Halapua`s publications, I found his article Talanoa – talking from the heart (2007) particularly enlightening because it highlights the important linkage between talanoa and spiritual reality, central for conceptualising leadership in this study as TVM. This linkage is supported by a number of talanoa researchers who have considered the importance of māfana (Manu`atu, 2003, 2009) or spiritual connections (Crocombe, 1976; Farrelly & Nabobo-Baba, 2012; Lātū, 2009; Otsuka, 2006; Vaioleti, 2006) in shaping fruitful talanoa. These works encouraged me to think beyond what is known about talanoa and search for the deep theoretical assumptions that could enrich talanoa, as I invented in TMM.

Second, the notion of TMM is shaped by my personal experiences of Talanoa Māfana as a Tongan. A specific talanoa interaction with my mother while doing fieldwork had a profound impact on my understanding of Talanoa Māfana. We always experience māfana when we

as Tongans, we will never understand the world where we are now”. Here, talanoa acts as spiritual connector of our knowledge, māfana, beliefs, and experiences of the past and the present. In my observation of talanoa at familial levels, I always notice that when talanoa expresses māfana to listeners we find it difficult to leave because the warmness of the talanoa interaction gives us a sense of belonging to the talanoa context.

Finally, the idea of Talanoa Māfana was also shaped by my experience with participants during our talanoa interactions. For instance, I witnessed a number of participants, both female and male but mostly female, to experiencing a lot of emotional moments particularly when they started talking about home and their familial relationships in the past. I usually felt that, when participants talanoa while expressing tears in their eyes and voices, this is when their stories became real and authentic to their minds and hearts. Manu`atu (2009) refers to this authenticity as mālie or when talanoa reflects the speaker`s warm emotion and thoughts. When such an experience occurs, it means that participants are actually talking about the truth in warm relationships because it signifies their life as Tongans in relation to their past and current relationships. Other emotional moments were also expressed through participants’ laughing, joking, supporting, and challenging one another in a respectful manner.

Therefore, the meaning of Talanoa Māfana is relevant for theorising and utilising talanoa in a way that is closely related to my participants’ lives within their own socio-cultural contexts. The spiritual aspect of talanoa does not refer solely here to biblical meanings but also to the spirit of freely offering your inner worlds to share with others in a given Talanoa Māfana relationship. The actual implementation of talanoa is discussed more in Section 3.6.3.

3.3 Research questions

This research has much to contribute to our understanding of leadership as cultural practice from a Tongan perspective. There are three core research questions developed to guide the whole thesis process. First, is the theoretical question: How does knowledge of cultural practices help us think differently about how leadership is understood and practiced in a particular context? Second, is the empirical question: How do the cultural identity practices of Tongans shape their leadership practices in the NZPS? Last, is the methodology question: What is the most appropriate methodology to use in exploring and understanding leadership as cultural practice? These core research questions and the empirical subsidiary questions are presented in Table 3.1 below.

Table 3.1: The core research questions

CORE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Empirical Question:

How do the cultural identity practices of Tongans shape their leadership practices in the New Zealand Public Service, NZPS?

Subsidiary questions:

 How do Tongans perceive and experience Tongan identity practices or ‘being Tongan’ within their own contexts?

 How do Tongans perceive and experience leadership within their own contexts?

 How does knowledge and belief held by Tongans about their Tongan identity shape the way they work in the NZPS?

 How do Tongans want their leadership practices to be supported in the NZPS? Theoretical Question:

How does knowledge of cultural practices help us think differently about how leadership is understood and practiced in a particular context?

Methodological Question:

What is the most appropriate methodology to use in exploring and understanding leadership as cultural practice?

The core research questions were developed to provide rich insights into understanding of TVM from my Tongan participants’ perspectives. Four aspects of TVM were explored. One is fāmili or how TVM is formed and nurtured in familial relationships. Two is māfana or how TVM is driven spiritually. Third is fua fatongia or how TVM is practiced according to fulfilling obligations in the Tongan context. Last is faka`apa`apa or how TVM is evaluated by sacred wisdom of faka`apa`apa. This structure aims to ensure the reflection of findings on the core research questions as it is described that question-driven research provides tremendous and rich findings for the benefit of participants and the researcher (O`Leary, 2010).