Workaholism in organizations: psychological and physical well-being consequences - Research Paper Example

” The study intends to further the understanding whether workaholism is a laudable trait or not because current studies are ambiguous about workaholism. There are studies who find overworking a positive development in an organization while there are those who criticize it as unhealthy. The available study on this question however was limited and many avoids the question. The study proposed the hypothesis based on a triad notion composed of three concepts: work involvement, driveness and work enjoyment.

It was hypothesized that workaholics will score high on work involvement and driveness but low on work enjoyment while work enthusiasts will score high on work involvement and work enjoyment and low on driveness and that enthusiastic workaholics will score high on all three components. Methods The sample populations were 530 male and female managers and professionals using anonymous questionnaires. They are between 35 to over 50 years old who has MBA degrees obtained over a number of years before 1985.

Almost 80 percent were married and almost one third worked 46±50 hours per week. A response rate was excluded from the 591 responses that were returned and the sample was reduced further to 530 when respondents indicated that they were no longer working full time. The three scales that were used were Work Involvement, Driveness and Work Enjoyment. The result of the scales were combined to produce six workaholism types: Work Enthusiasts (WEs), Workaholics (Ws), Enthusiastic Workaholics (EWs), Unengaged Workers (UWs), Relaxed Workers (RWs) and Disenchanted Workers (DWs) depending on how low or high they scored on the three scales.

Of these, the three psychological and physical well-being were included. They were basically the parameters whether working too much would good or bad for our well-being. Respondents then were asked they experience each physical condition in the past year such as headches, etch. The study revealed that the largest number of the respondents fell into the UW (Unengaged Worker) at 23 percent, followed by EW (Enthusiastic Workaholic) at 19 percent, EW (Work Enthusiast) at 14 percent and RWs (Relaxed Worker) at 12 per cent.

It was also found that the hypothesis of the triad notion composed of the concepts work involvement, driven, work enjoyment were directly interrelated along with the significant correlation of the three indicators of psychological and physical well-being. But the most conclusive finding is that the two factors of the triad, driven and work enjoyment were inversely interrelated. Meaning, as one is driven or pressured to work, the less one enjoys it. It was also found that WEs, EWs and RWs had fewer psychosomatic symptoms than did both Ws and DWs.

It meant that an enthusiastic worker suffers fewer stress compared to unengaged worker and relaxed worker and have a better life than the workaholic types such as W, UWs and DWs. In conclusion, enthusiastic workers such as those who fell into the category of WE and EW suffers lesser stress than the workaholic and those who likes their work has a better emotional well-being than the workaholics. Discussion Having answered the question that indeed overworking could not be good for our over-all well being, the study now compels managers and employees alike to be less obsessive with work and to relax a bit.

It also implies that managers experiencing poor emotional and physical well-being may not enjoy their work and become more stressful. While the research was able to determine the correlation between overworking and stress, it was not however able to determine the methods of reducing or altering workaholism. The authors also expressed the need for the study to be validated in other investigations to ensure their generalizability. Critique The research was ab