Cross-Cultural Research current issue

Workaholism From a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Snir, R., Harpaz, I. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Cross-Cultural Differences Concerning Heavy Work Investment

Snir, R., Harpaz, I. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

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.

Being Driven to Work Excessively Hard: The Evaluation of a Two-Factor Measure of Workaholism in The Netherlands and Japan

Schaufeli, W. B., Shimazu, A., Taris, T. W. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Based on a conceptual analysis, a two-dimensional self-report questionnaire for assessing workaholism (work addiction) is proposed, including (1) working excessively hard and (2) working compulsively. Using independent explorative and confirmative samples that include employees from The Netherlands (N = 7,594) and Japan ( N = 3,311), a questionnaire is developed and psychometrically evaluated. Results show that both scales (five items each) are internally consistent and that the hypothesized two-factor structure fits to the data of both countries. Furthermore, convergent validity was shown with measures of excess working time and discriminant validity was shown with measures of burnout and work engagement. Workaholics who work excessively hard and compulsively have a high relative risk on burnout and a low relative risk on work engagement. It is concluded that the two-dimensional measure—dubbed the Dutch Workaholism Scale (DUWAS)—is useful tool in future (cross-cultural) research on workaholism.

Work Motivations, Satisfactions, and Health Among Managers: Passion Versus Addiction

Burke, R. J., Fiksenbaum, L. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

Individuals in managerial and professional jobs are now working longer hours for a variety of reasons. Building on previous research on workaholism and on types of passion, the results of an exploratory study of correlates of work-based passion and addiction are presented. Data were collected from 530 Canadian managers and professionals, MBA graduates of a single university, using anonymously completed questionnaires. The following results were noted. First, scores on passion and addiction were significantly and positively correlated. Second, managers scoring higher on passion and on addiction were both more heavily invested in their work. Third, managers scoring higher on passion also indicated less obsessive job behaviors, greater work and extrawork satisfactions, and higher levels of psychological well-being. Fourth, managers scoring higher on addiction indicated more obsessive job behaviors, lower work and extrawork satisfactions, and lower levels of psychological well-being. Fifth, managers scoring higher on addiction saw their world in dog-eat-dog terms and their organizational cultures as less supportive of work—personal life balance; this pattern was in the opposite direction among managers scoring higher on passion.

Centrality of and Investment in Work and Family Among Israeli High-Tech Workers: A Bicultural Perspective

Snir, R., Harpaz, I., Ben-Baruch, D. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:27 PDT

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, rather than give up either of them. We also found that mothers invested more weekly hours in work in general (paid and unpaid work) than fathers.