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To further explore the nature of non-monetary motivation for working, this study aims to present correlates of non-financial employment commitment (NFEC) and a cross-national comparison.

Data gathered from representative national samples of the adult population (i.e. employed and unemployed individuals) in 31 countries (n=43,440), among them Nordic (e.g. Sweden and Norway), Western-European (e.g. Spain and France), Anglo-Saxon (e.g. the USA and Britain), former Communist (e.g. Russia and Hungary), Asian (e.g. Japan and South Korea), Latin-American (Mexico and the Dominican Republic), and African (South Africa). The source of the data is the 2005 International Social Survey Programme module on work orientation.

NFEC proves positively correlated with intrinsic job characteristics, education level, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Administrators, managers, and professionals have higher NFEC than blue-collar workers, clerks, service workers, and sales workers. Respondents currently working for pay have higher NFEC than those currently not working for pay. Respondents trying to improve job skills during the previous 12 months have higher NFEC than those not trying to do so. NFEC is higher in member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development than in non-member countries. NFEC is also higher in countries where self-expression values are important than in countries where survival values are important.

By assessing NFEC decision makers may be assisted in their selection and advancement decisions.

This study conducts the most comprehensive cross-national comparison of NFEC to date, and its findings have high external validity. It is unlikely that the findings are biased by social desirability.

The voluntary and not‐for‐profit sector accounts for an important and growing proportion of employment in the UK though it remains highly under‐researched. Rates of pay are often relatively low, necessitating forms of human resource management that emphasise non‐financial means of eliciting employee motivation and commitment. This paper examines HRM in a major charity that provides services to adults with learning disabilities. It finds that the intrinsic commitment to the job held by employees – which the organisation is trying to tap – can form a competing commitment towards different entities of the organisation. This competing commitment is difficult to reconcile to organizational objectives because it reflects ambivalences in existing power structures and group dynamics. The results have wider relevance to the management of employee commitment in other service sectors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social and economic changes, particularly the transition from a collectivistic to an individualistic society, on the meaning of work (MOW) in Israel.

A questionnaire probing the MOW domains (economic orientation, intrinsic orientation, interpersonal relations, entitlement and obligation norms and job satisfaction) was conducted on a representative sample of the Israeli labor force in 1981 (n=973) and 2006 (n=898).

A comparison between the results of the 1981 and 2006 surveys shows a significant increase in economic and intrinsic orientation, and a significant decrease in interpersonal relations orientation, job satisfaction and obligation and entitlement norms. Work centrality remained stable. The demographic factors, especially education, have some impact on the MOW domains.

The transformation of work values reflects the changes in employees’ expectations and needs. Therefore, organizations are compelled to find new material and non-material reward systems and methods to maintain employee commitment, motivation and satisfaction. Various implications for organizations and management are discussed.

This cross-sectional study explores how the combination of economic and social changes is reflected in employees’ job satisfaction and other work values. Furthermore, the study examines the impact of the main demographic factors on the MOW and offers suggestions to gain employees loyalty and commitment based on all the findings.

The Nonfinancial employment commitment (NFEC) of Muslims in general, and of Arab Muslims in particular, has not yet been studied. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the NFEC among Arab Muslims in Israel and comparing it to that of Jews in Israel.

The most common indicator of NFEC is the classic “Lottery Question,” which asked whether an individual would continue or stop working if they won a lottery or inherited a large sum of money. The sample included 215 Muslims and 898 Jews representing the Israeli labor force.

The findings reveal higher NFEC among Arab Muslims, particularly among women, compared to Jews. Muslims and Jews in urban areas have a lower NFEC then those who live in smaller localities. Among both Jews and Muslims, NFEC significantly increases with education level and income.

NFEC is an important measure of the work ethic. A high NFEC of Arab Muslims, especially among women, reflects a high nonactualized potential for Western societies integrating Arab Muslim immigrants and refugees into the labor market.

The authors adapted the core–periphery model and found that it could explain the authors’ findings regarding NFEC differences among ethnoreligious groups in different residential areas. As the authors indicated before, it is the first time that NFEC of Arab Muslims has been studied.

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).

It is difficult, both from a layman's point of view and from the perspective of work psychology and sociology, to provide a definition of the concept of work. Various factors contribute to this difficulty. The first problem lies in the use of employment and work as synonyms. Even though some authors have established distinct differences between these terms in the sense that employment implies remunerative work, thus excluding other types of work in which a contractual relationship of the definition of employment does not exist, the truth is that indiscriminate use is still a characteristic feature of the bibliography of work psychology and sociology (see Jahoda, 1987). In addition to this confusion, we have to confront the problems originating from the conceptual distinction between work in an abstract sense of the word and work considered as a category of subjective experience.

In a supposedly “globalising” world, we offer a “localisation” counterbalance from Tanzania and Malawi. Our perspective is purposely anchored in the socio‐cultural perceptions of indigenous employees working within organisations in these two African nations. From these Afrocentric perspectives, as reflected in adages and complementary data, need for achievement, need hierarchies, and expatriate acceptability are heavily influenced by local, social norms. The latter may accord priority to social achievement, social identity, and social need. The article ends with a new technique for gauging the influence of these social factors, with applications to improving the degree of fit between organisational change and community context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine heavy time investment in work from both dispositional and situational perspectives.

Data were collected twice, at the beginning and at the end of a 12-year period, from the same respondents of the Meaning of Work project in Israel.

The classification of respondents as heavy work investors (work more than 50 weekly hours) or as ordinary workers is stable over the years, which indirectly supports the dispositional perspective. The situational perspective is generally not supported. Remaining at the same workplace or changing workplaces and a stable or changing classification of a person as a heavy work investor or as an ordinary worker over the years are dependent on each other. However, no relation was found between change in financial needs and a person’s level of time investment in work. Only two out of 14 relevant life events relate positively and significantly to the level of time investment in work over the years: appointment to manage other workers and receiving greater work autonomy.

The effectiveness of policies designed to encourage working long hours on the one hand, or a work-life balance on the other, is questionable. However, a specific intervention which, based on the findings of this study, may encourage time investment in work is expanding the job vertically.

This is an exceptional longitudinal study examining stability (over time) and situational predictors of work hours among the same individuals.

To examine the effects of specific personal and job characteristics on year‐to‐year (2000‐2001) changes in teachers' frequency of absences.

With few exceptions, the population of elementary‐ and middle‐school teachers in the Israeli public education system (N=51,916) was studied. Hierarchical regression analysis was used.

Prior absenteeism, age, education, and supervisory position were found to be significant predictors of absenteeism frequency, accounting for about 50 percent of the variance in absence frequency.

This study focuses on relatively stable individual‐difference predictors, including sociodemographic variables and work‐related characteristics, which have been downplayed in the literature. These predictors can be measured more reliably and validly, compared to complex psychological constructs, and are relatively easy to interpret and implement by decision makers.

This article argues that some of the most profound costs of unemployment are social in nature, rather than solely economic. Consequently, the aim of the paper is to argue that the design and evaluation of active labour market policies (ALMPs) should incorporate a better and more sophisticated understanding of how such interventions affect the health, well‐being and social exclusion of the unemployed, as opposed to more typically economic outcomes like re‐employment and wage levels.

To achieve this, a range of theoretical and empirical evidence is reviewed that shows how unemployment is consistently associated with a range of health and social problems. Evidence is also presented that demonstrates the capacity that ALMPs have to intervene and mediate such problems.

The evidence presented demonstrates that not only is unemployment associated with a range of health and social problems but it appears to have a causal function. Further, the evidence also demonstrates how the causal pathway that leads from unemployment to poor health, low well‐being and social exclusion is often psychosocial in nature. It is argued that such findings reinforce the potential that activation policies have to improve the qualitative, psychosocial environment of unemployment for the better.

This article argues that politicians, policy‐makers and academics should take a more holistic approach vis‐à‐vis ALMPs, beyond the more typical economic‐centric way in which such programmes are often conceptualised. Further, it offers a framework for future research; suggesting that further work should focus on analysing the impacts of qualitatively different types of active interventions. To achieve this, a framework – based upon Bonoli's typology – is outlined.