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EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS AMONG TRIBAL ABORIGINALS
Author(s) -
Jones Ivor H.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1977.tb76810.x
Subject(s) - conformity , excellence , work (physics) , style (visual arts) , white (mutation) , social psychology , sociology , desert (philosophy) , psychology , public relations , political science , geography , law , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , gene , mechanical engineering
Dspite financial encouragement to desert Aboriginal communities, only a small proportion of persons have been persuaded to adopt a Western work style. Some of the Aboriginal attitudes to work and the differing implications of work for black and white people are described. These differences are particularly marked in the areas of motivation, social implications of work, such as status, acquisition of money, and uses to which money can be put. Higher levels of skill are also affected by differing ideas of group conformity, individual excellence, and, to some extent, traditional philosophical concepts. Some of the defects in higher levels of performance may be developmental rather than attitudinal, arising from a radically different childhood environment. It is maintained that understanding work problems from the Aboriginal's point of view may help to circumvent some of them, but radical change, if it comes at all, must come from within their community by their own modification of traditional attitudes.