This study investigates the influence of ethnic cultural background and multicultural interaction on the structure of individual work cognitions. Subjects drawn equally from the Aboriginal, Anglo-Saxon, Chinese, and Lebanese Australian cultural communities responded to the Work Cognitions Questionnaire, an instrument designed to measure cultural and personal achievement goals and work values. The rank-ordering pattern of Cultural Goals, Personal Goals, and Work Values were positively correlated (all p <. 0001) within each cultural group. Multidimensional unfolding revealed that not only did the structure of achievement goals and work values vary between the four cultural groups, but that in environments where cultural groups interact, cognitive transition was found among individuals of minority ethnic groups who moved away from ethnic work norms, and moved toward work norms of the dominant cultural group. The variations in work cognition structures are explained in the basis of the culture-specific achievement structure, which effectively accounts for the dynamic of culture and cultural interaction at both the group and individual levels of cognitive functioning.
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