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THE KIBBUTZ THAT WAS – Empirical Study WHAT IS LEFT from the ORIGINAL CONCEPT

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THE KIBBUTZ THAT WAS – Empirical Study WHAT IS LEFT from the ORIGINAL CONCEPT Cross-Cultural Management Journal Volume XVI, Issue 2 / 2014 Efrat KEDEM-TAHAR Israeli Ministry of Education – Department of Special Education, Jerusalem, Israel University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel THE KIBBUTZ THAT WAS – Empirical study WHAT IS LEFT FROM THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT Keywords “Automatic” rotation Conservatism Cooperative Ideology Socialism The Kibbutz crisis Abstract The aim of this article is to analyze the meaning of the ideological, social and financial crises undergone by the Kibbutz Movement in Israel, which has existed for the past one hundred years. The paper will discuss in detail the values of cooperation, democracy and equality that were the guiding principles of the Kibbutz Movement for dozens of years. The difficult economic reality forced upon the entire State of Israel during the 1980s did not pass over the Kibbutz Movement, which consists approximately 1.7% of the population of the State of Israel and approximately 2.2% of the Jewish population in Israel. This crisis compelled the Kibbutz Movement to make internal administrative and organizational changes in order to survive it. The paper will describe the measures taken in the mechanism that was sealed and preserved for dozens of years on many levels – administrative, social and economic; a mechanism that required a drastic transition from being based on agriculture to industry and production, all while preserving the Kibbutz way of life and core values. 315 Cross-Cultural Management Journal Volume XVI, Issue 2 / 2014 Introduction Kibbutz Movement were founded and determined In Hebrew, the word “Kibbutz” means its lifestyle and organization in many ways. The gathering or clustering. It is a collective extreme changes that took place in it, the move community. Presently there are 256 kibbutzim in from agriculture to industry, created a difference in Israel, including 16 religious kibbutzim. Most of the economic and social perception, mainly among the kibbutzim are located in peripheral areas, from the founding generation. During the 1960s the rate the most northern tip of the state all the way to the of industrialization was increased. If we examine southernmost part (Arava). The total registered the 320 Kibbutz industrial plants active in 1981 we population of kibbutzim in Israel is approximately see that only 34% of them were founded prior to 106,000, with 20,000 of them being children under 1960. The changing economic and demographic the age of 18. (Figure 1) conditions that impeded further agriculture After nearly two decades of an economic development and promoted industrial development and social crisis in most sections of the kibbutzim were: movement resulting, among other things, in a sharp a. A decline in the population in kibbutzim, the past few gricultural product starvation in the years have indicated a fresh new trend of a growing market number of youngsters, unmarried people and b. A families seeking to join a kibbutz either as lack of resources such as land and permanent members or as non-member residents. water One of the reasons for this trend is the rising cost of c. G living and real estate in the central cities, making it overnment policy, which supported impossible for young people to build a life there. industrialization, providing benefits Over the past forty years approximately such as long term loans, grants, etc. 400,000 youngsters from all five continents have d. T spent some of the most memorable days of their he older members of the kibbutz lives in a kibbutz in Israel. Hundreds of them have could not handle the physical work stayed on at the kibbutz and are now members. demanded by agriculture and searched The kibbutzim were traditionally based on for alternative employment (Palgi, agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, 1993) was Degania. Today, farming has been partially e. T supplanted by other economic branches, including he youngsters and other kibbutz industrial plants and hi-tech enterprises. members with technological The kibbutzim began as utopian tendencies looked for workplaces communities, a combination of socialism and where they could realize those Zionism. tendencies. Kantor (2007) claims that one of the more The kibbutzim’s success in developing an interesting paradoxes in the history of the kibbutz is industry quickly is attributed to two contributing that for dozens of years the Kibbutzim Movement, factors: which espoused the centrality of man, avoided any a. Social-moral characteristics: the reference to the realization of personal desires or Kibbutzim Movement emphasizes the utilization to the fullest of an individual’s future orientations on change in abilities in the workplace. Quite the contrary, in lifestyles and employment and the order to survive the kibbutz demanded the enduring attempt to deal with the members to adopt the demands of the society changing reality in light of its values. completely and to submit to it. During the past two The founding generation came to the decades the kibbutzim have undergone a deep kibbutz from these trends. This moral economic and social crisis. This caused the weight characteristic, according to Rosner and responsibility to gradually shift to the member, (1971), has by far a greater at the expense of weakening the central system; the importance regarding the ability to management of the work schedule was transferred absorb industry, which includes from the “work committee”, which was a changing the entire work system in centralized entity that dictated where each member the kibbutz. Another characteristic is would work and with whom, to a relatively new the ideological emphasis put on office – human resources. The role of this entity is productive labor. This was a source of to navigate and arbitrate between the needs and social remuneration, such as respect interests of the general system and the individual’s and status, which are considered desires. The kibbutz society was founded on the central in a society with no personal principles of cooperation, democracy and equality. or financial recompense. Despite the These values and the conditions in Israel when the fact that productive labor was 316 Cross-Cultural Management Journal Volume XVI, Issue 2 / 2014 perceived as agricultural labor, there adaptation to industry (Talmon-Gerber, 1972). was no great difficulty in expanding Kibbutz members educated in the kibbutz also this conception to the field of received advanced agricultural training and a industrial labor (Rosner, 1971). relatively high proficiency in technology because b. Structural characteristics: The farm of its use in the kibbutz. Their ability to adapt to structure of the kibbutz was based on industrial technology and rational calculations of small agriculture branches. During economic viability grew in light of their previous busy seasons there was worker experience (Palgi, 1993). mobility from branch to branch in Managerial Skills order to provide assistance. During The democratic management patterns in their lifetimes, members of the the kibbutz develop managerial skills in many of its kibbutz adapted to changes in their members. Each year a large number of members workplace. The introduction of are appointed to managerial positions at the industry into the kibbutz was just workplace and in committees. They attend courses another branch with no special to acquire skills for the various managerial difficulty involved in mobility. The positions. According to Palgi (1993), it seems that establishment of a factory involves the education, the option for further education, the large investments, and during the test- acquisition of experience in various workplaces and run period not only are there no the managerial skills of the kibbutz members aided profits, but it often includes losses., them in their attempt to build factories. However, the very fact of the industrial branch there were also impeding factors in the kibbutz being one of many allowed the lifestyle that offset these contributing factors. kibbutz to invest in it and absorb Moral, cultural and human impeding losses during the trial-run period factors delaying the development of industry in without any real damage to the the kibbutz There are several factors which members’ quality of life. counteracted the factors contributed to the ease in The kibbutz runs an extensive education which the kibbutzim adapted to the production and enrichment network which allows anyone industry: interested to acquire knowledge and advance. This a. O enabled quick development and direction change ne of the limitations of the kibbutz for all the industry workers. Rosner (1971, p. 5) industrialization has to do with the notes: “The main condition for success in the test size of the industrial factories. The of modernization in general, not only relatively small number of members industrialization, exists in the kibbutz: the in each kibbutz (ranging from 50 to foundation of mobility, the solvency of human 1,000 members, where the mode is resources which enables directing them to varying between 300 and 400) prevented the goals, when the demand for a change in the place development of large industries. This of employment is not met with resistance on the limitation was exacerbated in light of part of the individual because it is considered part the socialist ideology of self- of the normal course of life.” employment (a policy of not hiring In light of the many analyses of the workers from outside the kibbutz). kibbutz society which underwent an acute However, there are kibbutz industries economic
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