The relative centrality of life domains among secular, traditionalist and Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men in Israel

ABSTRACT

The Ultra-Orthodox population is the fastest growing population in Israel and this study is the first to examine the relative centrality of life domains among Ultra-Orthodox men in Israel and compare them with secular and traditionalist men. The participants were 206 secular, 98 traditional, and 199 Ultra-Orthodox employed Israeli men. While previous literature found that higher levels of religiosity were associated with lower work centrality, in this pioneering study no differences were found among secular, traditionalist, and Ultra-Orthodox men with regards the centrality of work in their lives. In addition, no differences were found among the groups with regard to the centrality of community and family. With that, as expected, centrality of religion increased with increasing level of religiosity. Finally, the centrality of leisure was highest among secular and the lowest among Ultra-Orthodox employees. Overall, demographic variables have a low capability of explaining life domains centrality among the three groups. The meaning and importance of these findings are discussed in the paper.

Resumen

La población ultraortodoxa es la población de más rápido crecimiento en Israel y este estudio es el primero en examinar la centralidad relativa de las áreas de vida entre los hombres ultraortodoxos en Israel y compararlos con los hombres seculares y tradicionalistas. Los participantes fueron 206 hombres israelíes seculares, 98 tradicionales y 199 ultraortodoxos activos laboralmente. Si bien la literatura anterior encontró que los niveles más altos de religiosidad se asociaron con una menor centralidad laboral, en este estudio pionero no se encontraron diferencias entre los hombres seculares, tradicionalistas y ultraortodoxos con respecto a la centralidad del trabajo en sus vidas. Además, no se encontraron diferencias entre los grupos con respecto a la centralidad de la comunidad y la familia. Así mismo, y como era de esperar, la centralidad de la religión aumentó al aumentar el nivel de religiosidad. Finalmente, la centralidad del ocio era más alta entre los laicos y la más baja entre los empleados ultraortodoxos. En general, las variables demográficas tienen una baja capacidad de explicar la centralidad de las áreas de vida entre los tres grupos. En este trabajo, se analiza el significado y la importancia de estos hallazgos.

KEYWORDS:

• Work centrality
• life domains centrality
• religiosity degree
• Ultra-Orthodox
• Israel

Palabras clave:

• centralidad del trabajo
• centralidad de las áreas de vida
• grado de religiosidad
• ultraortodoxos
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Moshe Sharabi earned his PhD at the University of Haifa; he is an associate professor at the Sociology and Anthropology Department and head of the MA studies in Organizational Developing and Consulting, Yezreel Valley Academic College. He is also a researcher at the Center for the Study of Organizations and Human Resource Management in the University of Haifa. His current research interests include human resource management, advanced management approaches and cross-cultural comparative research on work values. He is the editor of the book: Generational Differences in Work Values and Ethics: An International Perspective and his studies have been published in varied academic journals.

Avi Kay is the Chair of the Department of Technological Management and Marketing at the Jerusalem College of Technology and a Senior Research Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Business Ethics. He has researched and written about various aspects of business ethics and is the author of the first book in Hebrew concerning the development and implementation of ethical codes. His current research interests include spirituality at the workplace and the transition of Ultra-Orthodox Israelis to academia and the workplace.