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The purpose of this paper is to explore well-being and health-related outcomes among all the four basic subtypes of heavy work investment (HWI), as well as a fifth distinct category of full-time workers (i.e. those who work from 35 to 43 weekly hours).

The 510 respondents chosen to be included in the Internet survey were mostly heavy work investors. Based on two dimensions of causal attributions (causal locus and controllability), an elimination mode was used to classify heavy work investors into four main subtypes. Those who reported high financial needs were classified as needy. From the remaining heavy work investors, those who reported high organizational demands were classified as organization-directed. Afterward, those who reported high drive to work were classified as workaholics. Finally, those who reported high passion for work were classified as work-devoted.

Among the five categories of classified respondents, the work-devoted and the needy emerged as the most distinct categories. The work-devoted had the best outcomes (stronger positive feelings, better current health condition, better body mass index (BMI) and adequate hours of sleep a night), whereas the needy had the worst outcomes (a higher level of stress, bodily pain, aches that interfere with regular activities and weariness throughout the day).

This study addressed both long hours and high effort invested in work, and both dispositional and situational heavy work investors. A possible implication of this study is that when job applicants have similar human capital profiles, organizations should consider recruitment of work-devoted individuals for demanding jobs.

The phenomenon of telecommuting has implications for individuals and organizations, and society generally. Examines the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting to the parties involved and affected by it. Key advantages to individuals are increased autonomy and flexibility; to organizations, increased human resource capacity and savings in direct expenses; and to society, a reduction in environmental damage, solutions for special‐needs populations, and savings in infrastructure and energy. Advantages are weighed against disadvantages: to individuals, possible sense of isolation, lack of separation between work and home; to organizations, costs involved in transition to new work methods, training, and damage to commitment and identification with the organization; finally, society is faced with a danger of creating detached individuals. Discusses implications of the suitability of individuals to telecommuting.

To produce a collection of papers about workaholism which demonstrate real rigour both methodologically and conceptually – something which the guest editors feel has been somewhat lacking in the subject's history.

Introduces the topic, providing some background and discussion of the main concepts. Briefly introduces the papers and their main findings

The contributions illustrate the development of workaholism research

Contextualizes the issue and extends the overall knowledge in the topic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes of life domains centrality (work, family, leisure, community and religion) and of work goals preferences (interest, good pay, interpersonal relations, job security, etc.) in Israel, according to gender, between 1981 and 2006.

This is a follow‐up research regarding “meaning of work” studies, held in 1981 and 1993. The participants constitute representative samples of the Israeli labor force in 1981, 1993 and 2006.

While in the past, men showed a higher work centrality than women, in 2006 no traditional gender differences were found in work centrality; however, family centrality, as in the past, was higher among women than among men. The most meaningful change among men and women was regarding “job security”, and this goal has become more and more important throughout the 25 years of the study.

The transformation of men's and women's work values reflect the economic and social changes and those changes are influenced mainly by governmental decisions, for better or for worse. The findings disclose an increased potential for work‐family conflict among Israeli women in the last decade and this conflict can be reduced by economic and social policy.

This unique cross‐sectional study explores the changes in the importance of life domains and work goals among men and women over the course of time. Moreover, the study explains the causes for the major trends by social, economical and political factors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the workaholism phenomenon.

Workaholism was defined as the individual's steady and considerable allocation of time to work, which is not derived from external necessities. Subsequently, it was measured as time invested in paid work, controlling for the financial needs for such an investment. Workaholism is examined from a cross‐national perspective through representative samples of the labor force in Belgium, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, and the USA

The Japanese worked more hours per week than all other nationalities. The following findings have remained stable across nations: respondents with a high level of work centrality worked more hours per week than did those with a low level of work centrality. Men worked more hours per week than women. Married women worked fewer hours per week than unmarried women, while married men worked more hours per week than unmarried men. Private‐sector employees worked more hours per week than public‐sector employees.

The cross‐national comparisons are based on aggregated self‐reported data obtained from individuals. However, the present study makes three major contributions: applying a non‐biased definition of workaholism, indicating that the existing conceptualizations of workaholism as an attitude have underestimated the importance of sex‐roles in shaping work patterns and behaviors, and findings of similarities as well as of differences across nations on the phenomenon of workaholism.

Developing awareness of cultural variations concerning workaholism.

This is perhaps the only empirical study so far making a cross‐national comparison of workaholism, which also has high external validity.

This study examined differences in the Meaning of Work among three levels in Israeli organizations: employees, supervisors, and managers. The Meaning of Work has been conceptually defined in terms of five major domains: work centrality, societal norms about working, valued work outcomes, work goals, and work role identification. Autonomy emerged as the single most important variable to distinguish among organizational levels. Additional variables found to be related to people's position in the organization were job satisfaction, educational level, gender, and economic orientation. These findings were discussed and suggestions were made regarding implications for organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a biopsychosocial model to develop an integrated typology of heavy work investment (HWI) behaviors.

The paper follows an inductive approach to theory building in which we review relevant constructs, categorize those constructs, and outline the relationships among them.

The paper provides a theoretically grounded typology of HWI that distinguishes three general types of HWI (workaholic HWI, situational HWI, and pseudo HWI) and nine corresponding HWI manifestations. It is suggested that various forms of HWI differ in nature according to the joint interplay of varying strengths of biological, psychological, and social influences. The paper also demonstrates how the typology can be applied to predict unique individual and organizational outcomes associated with each HWI sub-type.

The paper offers a unified strong foundation for developing HWI measures. It offers a direction for future research that will examine antecedents and outcomes of the nine sub-types. It provokes the examination of the “stability” of each HWI manifestation over time by including a temporal component into the biopsychosocial framework.

This research will help practitioners differentiate among HWI manifestations to effectively sustain positive outcomes and proactively evade negative outcomes associated with HWI.

To date, various manifestations of HWI and workaholism have been discussed in the literature with little unification across studies. In this paper, the authors respond to the call for a theoretically grounded approach that will provide unifying explanations to why and how HWI manifests.

Following Snir and Zohar workaholism was defined as the individual's steady and considerable allocation of time to work‐related activities and thoughts, which does not derive from external necessities. It was measured as time invested in work, with consideration of the financial needs for this investment. The effects of attitudinal and demographic variables on workaholism were examined through a representative sample of the Israeli labor force (n=942). Using independent‐samples t tests, the following findings were revealed: respondents with a high level of occupational satisfaction worked more hours per week than those with a low level of occupational satisfaction. The same can be stated of self‐employed versus salaried workers. On the other hand, people with a high level of family centrality worked few hours per week than those with a low level of family centrality. The same was revealed with people who defined an activity as work if “you do it at a certain time,” compared with those who did not define it thus. No significant difference in weekly work hours was found between respondents with a high level of leisure centrality and those with a low level of leisure centrality. A one‐way ANOVA revealed a significant effect for religiosity: secular people worked more hours per week than non‐secular people (religious and those with a loose contact with religion).

As an epilogue to this special issue, this paper aims to provide a summary and set of conclusions to the papers contained in the issue.

Reviews the papers and comments about the findings and research implications.

The study of workaholism has a long way to go yet and there is much to do. There are still problems with shared understandings so much so that even after 25 years convergence has still to be achieved.

Provides a more objective commentary on the papers and stresses the areas that still need research and work.