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The term ‘workaholism’ is widely used, but there is little consensus about its meaning, beyond that of its core element: a substantial investment in work. Following Snir and Zohar, workaholism was first defined in the present study as the individual’s steady and considerable allocation of time to work-related activities and thoughts, which does not derive from external necessities. Subsequently, it was measured as time invested in work, while controlling the financial needs for this investment. The relation between workaholism and possible attitudinal (meaning of work indices), demographic (gender, marital status), and situational (occupation type, employment sector) variables was examined through two representative samples of the Israeli labor force. The following predictor variables were significantly related to workaholism: work centrality, economic orientation, occupation type, employment sector and gender. From those variables, gender was found to be the strongest predictor - that is, men, in comparison with women, have a higher likelihood of being workaholics. Moreover, married women worked fewer hours per week than unmarried women, while married men worked more hours per week than unmarried men. The theoretical contribution of the above findings, and of the other study’s findings, to the understanding of workaholism is discussed.

Adopting an operational definition of workaholism as discretionary investment of considerable time at work, the purpose of the present study was to test hypotheses regarding the cognitive aspect of workaholism, as well as the positive and negative/addictive views of this construct. The study employed an experience-sampling method (ESM), using a sample of 65 full-time employees who completed the ESM forms at four random times during the day for one week. Results indicated that workaholism was associated with continued cognitive engagement with work, accompanied by a preference for work over leisure activity and higher positive affect during work activity than during leisure activity. No significant differences were found between workaholics and non-workaholics with regard to the likelihood of performing work-related activities during leisure activity, or in the levels of physical discomfort and negative affect during the weekend. These results highlight the utility of an operational framework for studying the variety of workaholism correlates. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.A partir d'une définition opérationnelle de l'addiction au travail comme étant un investissement sans contrôle d'un temps considérable consacré au travail, cette recherche s'est donné comme objectif de mettre à l'épreuve des hypothèses relatives à la dimension cognitive de l'addiction au travail, ainsi que les aspects positifs et négatifs (addictifs) de ce concept. Cette recherche a exploité la méthode de l'échantillonnage des expériences (ESM) à partir d'un échantillon composé de 65 salariés à plein-temps qui ont rempli la feuille de recueil des données quatre fois par jour au hasard pendant une semaine. Les résultats ont montré que l'addiction au travail était liée à un engagement cognitif permanent vis-à-vis du travail, associé à une plus forte attirance pour le travail que pour les loisirs et à un état affectif plus fortement positif lors du travail qu'à l'occasion des activités de loisirs. On n'a pas trouvé de différences significatives entre les drogués du travail et les autres en ce qui concerne la probabilité de

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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 ¼ 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).

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the workaholism phenomenon.Design/methodology/approachWorkaholism 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 USAFindingsThe 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.Research limitations/implicationsThe 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.Practical implicationsDeveloping awareness of cultural variations concerning workaholism.Originality/valueThis is perhaps the only empirical study so far making a cross‐national comparison of workaholism, which also has high external validity.

Workers' attitudes concerning the competition for individual's resources between work and family are expressed by the relative centrality they attribute to each of these domains. This competition is also manifested in the tradeoff between work and family time. The study deals with 319 Israeli high-tech workers. We examined the effect of parenthood on men and on women regarding the centrality of and investment in work and family in the bicultural context of the Israeli high-tech industry (i.e., the family-centered Israeli society on the one hand, and the masculine work-centered high-tech industry on the other hand). a contrasting parenthood effect on men and women was found. Fathers showed higher relative work centrality than childless men, whereas mothers showed lower relative work centrality than women without children. Fathers invested more weekly hours in paid work than childless men, whereas mothers invested fewer weekly hours in paid work than women without children. In the parents' sub-sample, mothers evinced higher relative family centrality than fathers. Mothers also invested more weekly hours in childcare and core housework tasks than fathers. The uniqueness of the findings is that the contrasting parenthood effect prevails even in the demanding high-tech sector, in which women are expected to work long hours and play down their care-giving activities. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that mothers struggled to juggle active family caring with a career, at UNIV OF SOUTH DAKOTA on March 15, 2015 ccr.sagepub.com Downloaded from

The study makes a cross-cultural comparison of heavy work investment, as well as its dispositional and situational types, based on data gathered through representative national samples of the adult population in twenty countries ( N = 25,962). We have found that work investment is heavier in societies where survival values are important, as compared to societies where self-expression values are important. Situational heavy work investors are more common in societies where survival values are important, as compared to societies where self-expression values are important. However, work-devoted persons are more common in societies where self-expression values are important, as compared to societies where survival values are important. It was also found that work investment is heavier in societies where mastery value is high, as compared to societies where mastery value is low. Dispositional heavy work investors are more common in societies where mastery value is high, as compared to societies where mastery value is low. Finally, it was found that men work more hours per week as compared to women in both masculine and feminine societies. However, the gender difference concerning time investment at work is greater in masculine societies, as compared to feminine societies. Dispositional heavy work investors are more common among men in masculine societies, than among men in feminine societies. The fact that the magnitude of work investment and the prevalence of its types vary in different cultural contexts demonstrate the importance of differentiating between types of heavy work investment; namely, realizing that not every heavy work investor is a workaholic.