Political economy and work values: The case of Jews and Arabs in Israel

Work values among Jews in Israel have been studied for several decades, while there has been no attempt to study work values among Arabs. This article examines and compares the centrality of work and the preferred work goals among Israeli Jews and Arabs and the effect of demographic factors on work values. In 2006 the Meaning-of-Working (MOW) questionnaire was conducted on a representative sample of the Israeli labour force that included Jews and Arabs. The findings reveal significant differences regarding the importance of work and most of the preferred work goals among Jews and Arabs. Overall, the demographic variables hardly explain the value differences among members of the two ethnic groups. The findings can be explained by cultural, social and economic factors and primarily by the Israeli–Arab/Palestinian conflict.