Int. J. Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 17, Nos. 3/4, 2017 185 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A journey into the heart of workaholism from cross-cultural perspective Jyoti Sharma* School of Business, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu & Kashmir, India Email: 2jyotisharma@gmail.com *Corresponding author Abhilasha Singh American University in the Emirates, Dubai, UAE Email: abhilasha.singh@aue.ae Parul Sharma School of Management, Model Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jammu, India Email: parulkotwal2826@gmail.com Abstract: The rapid change in today’s work practices has made the life of an individual organised around the work. When work takes a disproportionate space in one’s life, it may be considered as threat to their well-being. Following the line of research that very limited studies have been conducted to find out the possible culture differences regarding what encourages/discourages the workaholism, the present study has been planned collecting data from 855 employees working in two countries including UAE and India. Applying the discriminant analysis, composition has indicated that in case of India and UAE, employees high on workaholic tendencies experience type-A personality traits. Further, in case of India, employees scoring high on workaholic dimension are females, work in private sector and fall in salary bracket of more than INR 35,000 per month; whereas in case UAE, employees scoring high on workaholic tendencies experience lesser job characteristics. Keywords: cross-culture; workaholism; UAE; India; job characteristics; personality; discriminant analysis. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Sharma, J., Singh, A. and Sharma, P. (2017) ‘A journey into the heart of workaholism from cross-cultural perspective’, Int. J. Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 17, Nos. 3/4, pp.185–204. Biographical notes: Jyoti Sharma is currently working as an Associate Professor in School of Business, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu & Kashmir (India). She has been awarded fellowship by UGC, New Delhi to work as a full time Research Fellow for the award of her doctoral