Changes in Norms Regarding Work in Israel over the Course of Time

This article presents a longitudinal study of changes in norms regarding work among the same individuals over a 12-year period. A control group made it possible to examine whether the normative changes that occurred were due to period effect, or life-course effect, or cohort effect. In Israel there were fewer acceptances of norms of ‘obligation’ and ‘entitlement’ in the 1990s than in the 1980s, principally due to cohort effect. In the 1990s young generation expressed fewer acceptances of obligation norms (expressing collectivistic and altruistic values) and of entitlement (expressing social welfare values) than did the young people of the 1980s. Life-course effect had to be taken into consideration too, since with maturity obligation norms are increasingly accepted. Gender proved to have no effect on agreement with expressions of either norm, while higher education contributed to a decrease in acceptance of statements of obligation norms. The changes in norms were compared with trends in the US and Germany. It seems that Israel of the 1990s resembled the US of the 1980s, and this change in norms arose principally from cohort effect.