Cross-national comparison of religious conviction and the meaning of work

This article examines religious conviction in relation to the meaning of work through representative samples of the labor forces in Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands. Among workers with strong religious convictions in Germany and the Netherlands, the meaning of work was positively related to the variables of work centrality, obligation norms, and intrinsic orientation. However, the same workers negatively related the meaning of work to economic orientation and entitlement norms. The picture in Israel was the opposite. Nonreligious Israelis, Germans, and Dutch people with strong religious convictions seemed to adhere to the Judeo-Protestant work ethic.