Master of Indigenous Business Leadership

Indigenous business and leadership are most often practiced in capitalist systems where values of private capital accumulation reign. Whilst more socially focused business strategies are gaining popularity, businesses still operate for a primary profit motive because of the dominant operating environment. This subject explores a wide spectrum of business ethics issues in the context of Indigenous culture and philosophy, and factors that should be considered in addressing the central tension for Indigenous business and leadership that being profit vs purpose. Drawing upon Native and Indigenous philosophies and values, students will investigate, discuss, and present culturally based solutions and methods that Indigenous-managed businesses and organizations can anticipate and plan for future ethical problems.

This course opens with a consideration of Indigenous philosophy and practical wisdom alongside Dewey’s pragmatist approach to ethics and Howard Bowen’s philosophy of business ethics pertaining to business’s roles in society. These foundations will support students to critically examine and discuss the meaning of “Indigenous” as it pertains to cultures and values. From this point students will transform and expand these ethical principles into Indigenous contexts, and then and apply these Indigenous-grounded ethical principles to organization management.

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Indigenous entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems are characterized by a complex set of interconnected elements: traditional territory, leadership, culture, capital markets, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members that continuously interact, collaborate, and compete in response to the specific dynamics of a particular region.

This subject aims to introduce students to the key issues, concerns, and theories of Indigenous hybrid venture creation in the context of entrepreneurial ecosystems that are unique to a region’s particular socioeconomic needs and priorities for social, cultural, spiritual, and environmental value creation. This subject aims to support students to build a framework for the practice of Indigenous entrepreneurship through generating insights into the creation, management, and development of new ventures by and for Indigenous peoples that are responsive to the community, its values, traditions, culture and socioeconomic needs.

Examining the objectives of Indigenous entrepreneurship in context of social interrelationships and interdependencies will bring students into critical discussions between community’s cultural and spiritual understandings, beliefs, practices, and socioeconomic needs. Understanding the tensions inherent in Indigenous business ecosystems and the way that organisations and individuals are embedded in a particular geographical, environmental and community context will lead to a more sophisticated understanding of what is at stake and at play in Indigenous business ecosystems. The subject will explore Indigenous entrepreneurship, hybrid venture creation and entrepreneurial ecosystems and students will be encouraged to apply them to their own practice, experience and/or context of entrepreneurship.

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This subject aims to introduce students to the key issues, concerns and theories of business leadership and Indigenous leadership studies. This subject aims to support students to build a framework for the practice of their own leadership. The subject will guide students in their study of leadership by helping to develop a critical engagement with theories of leadership. The subject will explore a diversity of theories, using them as a ‘lens’ to view and practice leadership. Students will be encouraged to engage with leadership theories, applying them to their own practice and/or experience of leadership.

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This subject examines Indigenous ways of managing human resources in an organisational context, starting from their own standpoint and cultural foundations, and building out practices that reshape conventional HR practices, governance structures, and organizational dynamics. With a profound focus on the ontological foundations of 'work’ and ‘workplaces’, the subject aims to link Indigenous people management practices with Indigenous cultural mandates, driving well-being, environmental sustainability, and inclusion. Through a critical examination of colonial foundations and assumptions inherent in HR, students will learn how to adopt decolonising approaches aimed at promoting inclusivity, belonging, and relationality. This subject emphasizes the development of students Indigenous standpoint in the incorporation of Indigenous perspectives, including Dreaming stories and ontologies, into HR and business design processes to challenge dominant narratives and foster cultural responsiveness.
Drawing inspiration from Native and Indigenous philosophies, students explore the very essence of ‘work’ and ‘workplaces’ in Indigenous contexts, examining how these foundations can foster inclusive workplaces that align with cultural values. The subject applies Indigenous standpoint and philosophical principles to HR practices, ensuring that work becomes a conduit for cultural richness, well-being, and environmental stewardship within Indigenous organisations.

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This subject provides the opportunity to explore commercialisation in the context of Indigenous business development and entrepreneurship. Starting with an exploration of ventures that resonate with First Peoples values, cultures, and communities, the subject aims to examine the tensions inherent in the commercialisation process.

Working through a comprehensive framework for creating ventures that contribute to both economic prosperity and cultural preservation, students will validate the market potential of commercial entrepreneurial ideas. The framework includes developing and/or refining venture ideas, evaluating a market, developing a business model, and pitching for investment and support.

The identification of opportunities for entrepreneurship requires students to engage in the central paradox of Indigenous entrepreneurship – the careful leveraging of their Indigenous values in relation to a business model. Learning from successful examples of organisations where Indigenous values intersect with business development students will critique and adapt market research methodologies to suit the unique interests and values of Indigenous communities. Business model design will prioritize holistic sustainability, considering financial potential alongside additional measures, such as social, environmental, and cultural impact. Students will develop pitching and communication skills to effectively convey business ideas to diverse stakeholders, including community members, investors, and policymakers.

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Indigenous Markets and Marketing introduces mainstream theory of how these key pillars of business work, with critical learning and engagement on strengths and unique challenges for Indigenous business people and groups. Exploring the underlying beliefs that may be influencing consumer decisions will enhance student business practice towards creating marketing solutions that speak directly to Indigenous markets and marketing Indigenous goods and services. Topics covered will include urban, regional, and remote markets and marketing to domestic, international, and business to business consumers.

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This subject focuses on a strategic work placement within the Indigenous business sector to encourage the application of coursework from across students’ study in the Graduate Certificate and Masters of Indigenous Business Leadership coursework. It aims to give students structure to connect their academic learning with practical application in a workplace setting. It is a requirement to have completed and or be concurrently enrolled in Indigenous Commercialisation and entrepreneurship, Indigenising Human Resource Management and Indigenous Markets and Marketing.

The subject provides support to students to strengthen their professional voice and apply leadership methodologies to the benefit of Indigenous business. The subject offers students the opportunity to support an Indigenous business or organisation in their own communities. The subject convenor will provide support for the establishment and management of the work placement. This placement allows the opportunity for action learnings through one of:
• relevant project work
• casual and part-time employment
• voluntary work
The learnings of the subject can be applied to diversify, strengthen and lead the Indigenous business sector.

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This subject is designed to enable students to enhance their ability to prepare and use financial information in decision making – crucial skills in business. The subject begins by examining core concepts in accounting and developing students’ ability to prepare financial reports. The subject then explores how that knowledge and information may be used to inform decision making by diverse stakeholders in a variety of business contexts including via the preparation of a business case to support a major financial decision and through consideration of various current issues faced in accounting and business.

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This subject will focus on quantitative approaches to analyse business problems and based on these analyses, make effective decisions. The subject will explore descriptive analytic, predictive analytic, and prescriptive analytic techniques. Using these techniques, students will develop understanding of a wide variety of strategic and operational business decision problems being faced by managers and decision makers in the fields of financial management, human resource management, marketing management, operations management, and international business management. Students will be expected to be able to calculate and manipulate data as well as interpret the results in order to derive and evaluate alternative solutions to typical business decision problems.

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The subject provides an introduction to the fundamentals of microeconomics and strategy, and applies this knowledge to a number of business and management issues. Topics to be covered include: the working of competitive markets and the determination of market prices and quantities; the organisation of the firm and various measures of the costs of production; business strategies and market outcomes in different market environments; and public policy towards business in the presence of “external costs” in production.

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The subject introduces students without a strong mathematical background to some of the methods used to collect, present and analyse data and to provide illustrative applications to decision problems faced by business managers. Topics will be chosen from: sources of data; sampling and collection of primary data; presentation and summary measures of data; random variation of data and some implications for hypothesis testing and forecasting; an introduction to decision models with uncertainty; the use and interpretation of estimated regression equations; some forecasting methods used by business.

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This subject is designed to equip students with the tools necessary to enable them to make the core decisions faced by managers and investors. The first part of the subject deals with establishing the environment in which organizations operate, namely the objectives of the suppliers of financial and human capital. The subject then considers the basic tools commonly employed by financial managers and investors including discounted cash flow techniques and financial mathematics. Measures and definitions of alternative forms of risk are considered and the relation between risk and expected reward in capital markets is established. Finally, the subject considers the important decisions faced by firms (investment, financing, dividend policy, hedging and executive compensation) and by investors (the composition of their optimal retirement portfolio).

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This subject exposes students to an integrated perspective of the firm, how it interfaces with its environment, and how it creates and sustains value. Critical to the creation of value is the way a firm interacts with its various stakeholders. The subject builds a conceptual framework to examine the choices managers face in determining how best to create value, and how these choices may be shaped by key stakeholders including: government, society, trading partners, customers, employees and competitors. A key focus of this subject is on value creation as a cross disciplinary and cross firm activity. As such, the focus is on value creation from multiple disciplinary perspectives including strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing, HRM, supply chain management and organisational design.

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This subject introduces students to the breadth of Indigenous enterprise structures operating across the First Peoples economic landscape contributing to economic self-determination. Enterprise structure and its associated business model is at the core of understanding Indigenous business leadership, as it denotes the commercial considerations and practical interactions between Indigenous entrepreneurs and the economy. Commencing with the debunking of the notion that being in business is entirely Western and un-Aboriginal, the subject introduces interface theory, extended to commercial market exchanges, captured as the ‘The Collide-oscope’, providing a lens to make sense of how First Peoples Founders straddle the tensions of ‘working in two worlds’. The subject examines a range of commercial structures starting with the emergence of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and collective sovereign membership entities to sole traders, partnerships, small to medium and large enterprises. Further structures such as joint ventures, trusts, and the role of intellectual property in the ownership, control and management of Indigenous enterprises are discussed. Collaboration with Indigenous Economic Development Agencies as enablers of the Indigenous estate linked to preferential procurement policies is further deliberated linked to enterprise structures including the surfacing of ‘black cladding’.

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The formation of organisations has been part of Indigenous peoples’ collective efforts toward recognition and self-determination. A key imperative is to ensure that the strategies, principles, and practices of these organisations are based on Indigenous knowledges and ways of doing things.

This subject aims to introduce students to key issues, concerns and theories of Indigenous organisation and management. The subject will support students to question mainstream management concepts and tools and build the capacity to develop hybrid models that incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of being.

Students will explore how the decolonisation of management might create innovative ways of organising and managing. Students will also investigate alternative ways of organizing and alternatives to traditional business models.

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This subject involves a supervised independent study project. The project's topic will relate to career development, industry engagement and/or a study area relevant to the EMA. Findings will be presented in a formal written format, appropriate to the scope and focus of the project.

Students are required to contact the Subject Co-ordinator in the semester prior to enrolment in this subject so that appropriate supervision and subject expectations and requirements can be discussed.

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Indigenous business leadership is a growing research concentration in the management, entrepreneurial, organisational and leadership disciplines. This research essay asks the student to select a topic to critically engage (with approval from the course convenor), design research question/s, conduct original research and present a 10,000 word research essay. Students will be required to attend subject research studios and required to present their research essay to Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership and students of the graduate Certificate/Masters of Indigenous Business Leadership.

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‘Indigenous Research’ is the core subject in the Professional Certificate in Indigenous Research (GC-IRPRO), and is offered as a semester long blended course, comprising online and face-to-face components.
The subject explores research and develops research skills from an Indigenous perspective, covering: selecting and refining a thesis topic; research design, methods and methodology; reviewing the literature; ethical issues in Indigenous research; intellectual property and copyright; establishing effective relationships with supervisors; managing scholarly information; qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis and presentation; and planning and writing a thesis.

The subject is taught in a mixed mode of seminars, case studies, and group activities, with an emphasis on collaborative learning. The format is interactive, with each session facilitated by an academic leader and/or panel of academics. Students engage in a range of activities, including structured reflection, academic writing, and formal verbal presentations. Students’ assessment tasks relate directly to their own research.

Upon satisfactory completion of the core subject, students are awarded a Professional Certificate in Indigenous Research, which will give them 25 credit points towards the Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Research and Leadership. The subject is also offered to students enrolled in the Indigenous Enterprise Research Stream of the Master of Indigenous Business Leadership (MC-IBL). Satisfactory completion of the subject will give students undertaking this course 25 credit points towards the MC-IBL.

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