Participation of Indigenous employees in the Quebec's forestry sector: opportunities and barriers

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2021-0021
• Published date: 24 December 2021
• Date: 24 December 2021
• Pages: 693-708
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Jean-Michel Beaudoin,Marie-Eve Dufour,Eve Desroches-Maheux,Luc Lebel

Participation of Indigenous

employees in the Quebec’s forestry

sector: opportunities and barriers

Jean-Michel Beaudoin

Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, Universit

e Laval, Quebec City, Canada

Marie-Eve Dufour

Department of Management, Universit

e Laval, Quebec City, Canada, and

Eve Desroches-Maheux and Luc Lebel

Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, Universit

e Laval, Quebec City, Canada

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this study is to better understand the factors influencing the attraction of

Indigenous workers to the Quebec forestry sector.

Design/methodology/approach –Using a collaborative approach, 64 semi-structured interviews were

conducted between 2016 and 2018 with workers and stakeholders from three Indigenous communities in

Quebec, Canada.

Findings –The results highlight the motivations for choosing a job in the forestry sector, including family and

friends, attachment to the territory, financial necessity, the search for a challenge and a sense of pride. They

also show some of the obstacles to holding a job in forestry, namely work–life conflict, transportation, job

insecurity, education and personal problems.

Social implications –Indigenous people have a lower employment rate than non-Indigenous people, which

can be explained by a number of factors that hinder their integration into the labour market. They nevertheless

represent an interesting labour pool for companies working in the natural resources sector. This study sheds

light on the opportunities and barriers to attract this workforce.

Originality/value –The study is one of the few to use theoretical frameworks focused on motivation and a

qualitative approach to data collection in order to examine to examine the attraction of Indigenous workers to

the forestry sector in Quebec (Canada) from a worker’s perspective.

Keywords Forestry, Indigenous population, Attraction, Collaborative study, Psychological contract,

Person-organization fit

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The labour market is facing a labour shortage that affects all economic sectors in many

industrialized countries (Levanon et al., 2018). In Canada, the natural resources sector is

particularly affected (Caron et al., 2019;MacLaine et al., 2019). Far from being resolved, the

shortage is likely to increase in the coming years under the pressure of an aging population

(CBC, 2019). In the province of Quebec, the forestry industry is one of the main regional

economic drivers, generating nearly 60,000 jobs (MFFP, 2018). Within this industry, it is

estimated that 15,000 positions will need to be filled by 2022 in the province.

At the same time, several Indigenous communities [1] located in these regions wish to be

more involved in the regional economy (Beaudoin et al., 2015;Owen and Kemp, 2017). For

Quebec’s forestry sector, Indigenous workers are part of the solution to the labour shortage

(Proulx et al., 2020). Yet, this labour pool remains difficult for the industry to both attract and

retain.

Participation of

Indigenous

employees

693

The authors are grateful to all participants, as well as contributors who helped with data collection and

analysis. The project was funded by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Mitacs.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 25 January 2021

Revised 9 August 2021

17 October 2021

Accepted 25 November 2021

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 41 No. 5, 2022

pp. 693-708

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-01-2021-0021

This study falls within the scope of research in Indigenous forestry. More specifically,

using the theories of psychological contract and person–organization fit, this study aims to

gain a better understanding of the individual, organizational and social factors that

encourage Indigenous workers to choose a job in the Quebec forestry industry, as well as

factors that constitute barriers. To this end, this study is one of the first, to our knowledge, to

adopt the workers’perspective.

Theoretical background

Indigenous forest-related expectations and values

Economists, such as Newhouse (2004), have long explained that Indigenous Economic

development (IED) differs from other categories of development theory by attempting to

explain the political and cultural changes that occur during the development process.

According to Anderson (1997, p. 1485), Indigenous communities “believe that they can

achieve their development objectives through participation in the global capitalist economy.

They expect profitable businesses competing successfully in this economy to: (1) provide

them greater control over economic activities on their lands, (2) create employment, and (3)

generate the wealth necessary to support self-government and improve socioeconomic

conditions”. Many scholars have also demonstrated that IED projects require a complex set of

goals to fully meet the expectations and values of Indigenous communities (Smith and

Bulkan, 2021;Beaudoin et al., 2016;Trosper, 1995).

Forests are at the heart of Indigenous cultures, lifestyles and well-being (Smith and

Bulkan, 2021;Saint-Arnaud and Papatie, 2012). The forest allows the practice of cultural and

subsistence activities, such as hunting, fishing and trapping. The forest supports the

development of “family/community”values by allowing the transmission of knowledge, as

well as a sense of stewardship. While much forest science research has focused on the

inclusion of Indigenous values in forestry, the links between these values and barriers to

employability have been little explored (Proulx et al., 2020;Mills, 2006).

Research in forestry and the social sciences has focused on intercultural differences, such

as the relationship to time (e.g. Redpath and Nielsen, 1997;Verbos et al., 2011), the role of the

family (e.g. Juntunnen and Cline, 2010) or the work–family conflict looked at through

conciliation (e.g. Brougham et al., 2015;Haar et al., 2012;Julien et al., 2017). Although several

disciplines refer to these differences in values, few specify their implication for human

resource management practices. For example, cultural values of Indigenous people could

explain some of their preferences, e.g. wage labour.

The psychological contract

Several researchers have used the psychological contract as an explanatory framework for

understanding individual attitudes and behaviours at work (e.g. Andersson, 1996;Pate et al.,

2000;Rousseau, 1995). In human resources management, studies have highlighted its

contributionin various fields, particularly with respectto attracting and retaining employees,

as well as diversity management (e.g. Braun et al.,2019;Ruchika and Prasad, 2017;Zhao et

al., 2007).

From an individual perspective, the psychological contract is defined as the employee’s

beliefs about the terms of the employer–employee agreement (Rousseau, 1995). Unlike the

written contract, the psychological contract develops through an ongoing process that begins

at the time of recruitment and selection and continues as long as the relationship with the

organization lasts (Dufour, 2008). It is based on employee expectations, the employer’s

promises as well as elements that convey the organization’s image, such as human resources

or organizational management practices (e.g. De Vos et al. , 2003;Rousseau, 1990).

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