Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae is a Māori community settlement located in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Its hapu (sub-tribe) community was one of 33 hapu that formed the Tainui confederation claiming compensation from the Crown for land confiscated in the nineteenth century. The claim was settled in 1995 and it was within this context that research for this study was conducted at the marae from August 1997 to December 1999. This ethnographic study examines the way that the community at Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae managed its affairs through its two management bodies, the Marae Committee and the Trustees. It is argued in this thesis that the marae's mode of management is in transition from an informal to formal mode, and from an inward to outward looking focus. Bureaucratic administration, it is argued, has been the major catalyst for the transition and has been introduced into marae operations through an accumulation of state legislation affecting Māori land and communities. Furthermore, some aspects of bureaucratic administration have been legitimated and appropriated by the iwi authority, which has passed this on to the Marae Committee. The community have been complicit in the adoption of bureaucratic administration by accommodating the requirements of both the state and the iwi authority. However, a persistent question was whether the marae could maintain its own rangatiratanga (authority, self-determination, control) and separate identity in the face of increasing pressure to conform to a bureaucratic management style. The community managed the marae communally by way of hui (gatherings) and meetings, which were observed using a combined methodological approach of Kaupapa Māori research and ethnography, as described in Chapter 2. The philosophy of kotahitanga (solidarity) underpinned the social organisation of the Tainui tribal confederation, so understanding the place of the marae in its wider socio-political environment has helped in comprehending the nature of the pressure on the community to increase its scale of operations and is explained in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 introduces the accumulation of influences that have brought about a change of managerial style from informal to formal organising. The practical effect of these influences are demonstrated in the management structure and administrative systems that the community used. These are described phenomenologically in Chapters 5 and 6 respectively. The management plan, compiled since 1995, had a strong emphasis on management structural review and participation in tribal development initiatives and is discussed in Chapter 7. The implementation of a collaborative development project between the iwi authority and Marae Committee is described in Chapter 8. The final chapter reflects on the impact of bureaucratic administration on marae management as well as the dynamism of the community and how the rangatiratanga of the marae has thus far been maintained.