This article examines religious conviction in relation to the meaning
of work through representative samples of the labor forces in Ger
many, 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 orien
tation 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.
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