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Article Excerpt
Workaholism has received considerable attention in the popular literature over the past 2 decades, yet there is a dearth of empirical investigation on the topic. The lack of empirical research may be due to the lack of agreement on whether or not overwork is a problem. It has been suggested by some scholars that workaholism is heavily encouraged by organizations in today's society and is a socially accepted addiction (Fassel, 1990; Fassel & Schaef, 1991; McMillan & Northern, 1995).
The term workaholism was first coined in 1971 by dates, who defined it as an addiction involving an uncontrollable need or compulsion to work continuously. Since then, workaholism has been defined and measured in several ways, with most researchers defining it as an addictive compulsion to work (Fassel, 1990; Haymon, 1992; Porter, 1996; B. E. Robinson & Kelley, 1998). Haymon described workaholics as individuals who are "powerless over their work" (p. 11) and who suffer from personal losses because of their "uncontrollable need to work" (p. 11). Workaholics have been compared with alcoholics in that these two groups share some of the same symptoms, such as reality distortion, need to control, denial, anxiety, depression, withdrawal, irritability, and relationship problems with friends and family members (Pietropinto, 1986; B. E. Robinson, 1989; Spruell, 1987). Spence and Robbins (1992) developed a battery of questionnaires to assess workaholism. They defined workaholism as high work involvement and drivenness (due to inner pressures) and low enjoyment of work. They also identified a second type of workaholic (i.e., the enthusiastic workaholic) who, like the regular workaholic, has high work involvement and drivenness; however, level of work enjoyment is high instead of low. In the current study, workaholism (work addiction) was defined based on B. E. Robinson's (1998a) definition: "an obsessive-compulsive disorder that manifests itself through self-imposed demands, and inability to regulate work habits, and an overindulgence in work to the exclusion of most other life activities" (p. 7).
Researchers and theorists disagree on the potential harmful effects of workaholism and have discussed numerous potential consequences of workaholism in the literature. Ishiyama and Kitayama (1994) asserted that workaholics focus primarily on their "career self" (p. 170) for self-validation, while ignoring other important aspects of self (i.e., transpersonal self, transcultural-existential self, familial self, and physical self). They postulated that this limited focus of self-validation might result in physical symptoms, alienation from friends and family, lack of development of the authentic self, and an existential crisis. Difficulties may arise, particularly when the career self is threatened in some way (e.g., loss of job, retirement). Fassell (1990) suggested that workaholism may contribute to the "progressive numbing of America" (p. 123), whereby individuals become estranged from their essential self when they are consumed with the addictive busyness associated with work addiction.
Overwork and workaholism may cause physical symptoms (e.g., ulcers, chest pain) and even death (Fassel, 1990; Ishiyama & Kitayama, 1994). The term Karoshi, coined in Tokyo by Tetsunojo Uehata in the 1980s, refers to death or permanent disability (e.g., heart disease, deadly asthmatic attacks, suicide) from overwork (Ishiyama & Kitayama, 1994). Research based on two qualitative studies indicated that workaholics may feel too busy to take care of their health needs (Machlowitz, 1978; Trueman, 1995). Machlowitz's (1978) results suggested that workaholics did not have major health problems, whereas Trueman found the opposite. Spence and Robbins (1992) found a higher number of health complaints among workaholics (i.e., individuals with high work involvement, with low work enjoyment, and who are highly driven from internal pressures) than in some other groups of workers (e.g., those with high work enjoyment and involvement and low internal drivenness). With such limited empirical research on the effects of workaholism on health, the relationship between workaholism and physical health remains unclear.
B. E. Robinson (1998a), who has written extensively on the topic of workaholism, claimed that workaholism affects individuals not only physically but also emotionally, cutting "them off from the rest of the world ... [causing] them to be in their own cold, dark, lonely world--all alone with room only for other tasks to be completed" (p. 6). Ishiyama and Kitayama (1994) suggested that work addiction keeps people from facing the existential task of defining who they are.
Workaholism has been correlated with depression (Haymon, 1992), anxiety (Haymon, 1992), perfectionism (Machlowitz, 1978; Spence & Robbins, 1992), and anger (Haymon, 1992), as well as stress (Jackson, 1992; Spence & Robbins, 1992) and burnout (Nagy & Davis, 1985).
Spence and Robbins (1992) measured job stress among a random sample of 291 social workers with academic positions and found that workaholics (i.e., those high in work involvement and drivenness from inner pressures and with low enjoyment of work) scored much higher on job stress, perfectionism, and nondelegation of responsibility than work enthusiasts (i.e., those with low drivenness and high enjoyment of work and work involvement). Cluster analyses revealed the emergence of several other types of worker profiles. Disenchanted workers (above average on drivenness and below average on work involvement and enjoyment), enthusiastic workaholics (above average on work involvement, enjoyment, and drivenness), and male workaholics displayed considerably more job stress than the male relaxed workers (above average on enjoyment and below average on work involvement and drivenness), unengaged workers (below average on work involvement, enjoyment, and drivenness), and work enthusiasts.
The findings relating workaholism and burnout have been mixed. Burke and Matthiesen (2004) studied workaholism among 211 Norwegian journalists. The authors considered three workaholism types (work enthusiasts, work addicts, enthusiastic addicts) and also included numerous personal demographic and work situation characteristics, measures of positive and negative affect, burnout components, and absenteeism. The three burnout components (exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy) were measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory--General Survey (MBI-GS) developed by Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, and Jackson (1996). The results of the study indicated that the three workaholism types showed similarities on personal and work situation characteristics, but work enthusiasts expressed substantially more positive affect and considerably less negative affect, exhaustion, and cynicism than one or both of the other workaholism types. However, there was no difference among the workaholism types in terms of professional efficacy or absenteeism. Cox (1982) also studied burnout in relation to workaholism, using an earlier version of the MBI (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Workaholism was found to be only minimally related to burnout (i.e., feeling of emotional exhaustion, frequent depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment) in the 40 psychology graduate students who were surveyed. More hours worked per week were found to be predictive of perceived emotional exhaustion, and female students tended to demonstrate more workaholic patterns than male students. Results of this study must be interpreted cautiously, given the small sample size. Nagy and Davis (1985) found a statistically significant correlation between workaholism and burnout in their study of 240 teachers. Workaholism was related to the depersonalization and emotional exhaustion aspects of burnout but not to the personal accomplishment component.
Although researchers have examined many possible emotional consequences of workaholism, few have investigated overall psychological well-being. Two studies examined the well-being of workaholics, both with very narrow operational definitions of well-being. Jackson (1992) defined emotional well-being as being present-oriented in approach to life, just one component of self-actualization as measured by the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI; Shostrom, 1974, as cited in Jackson, 1992). She found that workaholics had lower levels of well-being (i.e., present orientation) than nonworkaholics. It is questionable whether the measure Jackson chose to assess well-being, the POI, actually measures well-being because this measure is narrowly focused on time orientation. Emotional well-being has also been operationally defined as feeling fulfillment as opposed to frustration (Machlowitz, 1978). This seems to be a broader definition of emotional well-being, yet it is still limited. Machlowitz interviewed 34 workaholics and found the majority of them (27) to be fulfilled. Although a sense of fulfillment may be one aspect of well-being, it is doubtful that it encompasses it fully. Research is needed to examine the relationship between workaholism and a more comprehensive measure of psychological well-being.
Workaholism not only affects the individual work addict but also penetrates the lives of the workaholic's coworkers, friends, and family members. Workaholics can...
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