To Mālama is to take care of, to serve and to honor, to protect and watch over. Thus Mālama is thought of as the benevolent value of stewardship with compassion. In business it refers to the utmost care of all business assets, with particular caring for the most important ones, our human assets. Think about it: Human energy creates all our other resources, physical, financial and otherwise. Acts of caring drive us to high performance levels in our work with others: In giving we become unselfish. We forge stronger partnerships because we elevate others.
From Managing with Aloha (Chapter 15 preamble):
Mālama
To take care of
To serve and to honor
To protect and care for
To Mālama, is to take care of.
A manager is a steward of assets and caretaker of people.
Mālama calls upon us to serve, to honor and to protect.
Acts of caring drive us to high performance levels in our work with others. We give and become unselfish. We accept responsibility unconditionally.
Mālama is warm, and Mālama is personal. It comes from heart, and it comes from soul.
When we Mālama, we are better.
Continue your learning!
For a brief, single-page listing of all 19 Hawaiian Values of ALOHA within the Managing with Aloha philosophy, see The 19 Values of Aloha.
For more about values and why we choose them, see Let’s Define Values.
This is the Site Index of articles which include MĀLAMA, with comment boxes for questions, stories, and our continued learning from each other: When people speak, they give voice to values, and their personal expression of them. In Hawai‘i, we call this expression their mana‘o.
Buy the book!
Managing with Aloha is a book designed to be written in, and used as both learning resource and personal workbook. Managing with Aloha is our philosophy bible, and this site can be thought of as the sequel to the book, where you are now the featured star.