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General over view on workaholism and its consequences. Not original.
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The paper investigates and describes the problem of Workaholism in the organizational strata. The study also examines various approaches adopted by economists and management practitioners as well theoreticians to reinforce several contentions. The topic was chosen as
the relevance of Workaholism in the modern day society is highly prevalent. Also, the lack of substantial research in this field contributed to the execution of work on this research topic. The objective of this paper is to identify workaholism along with the several negative consequences which follows and how it affects the organizational well- being. Researchers are of the view that workaholism is maladaptive to an organization while some are of the view that workaholism is a healthy professional practice. Therefore, the paper aims at removing all such ambiguities pertaining to the topic.
With the advent of global competition, people have often been asked to do more with less. Companies believe that employee layoffs and retaining few others are part and parcel to its functioning. This leaves several undesirable effects amongst which is that the existing work has to done by fewer employees. Everyone is formally expected to chip in whatever they could. Few individuals might be seen working for long hours. These individuals might be addicted to their work, be workaholics, and this work pattern can have negative consequences for business operations.
Work addiction/workaholism in total is a manifestation of excessive work that carries with it a number of consequences to both the individual and that person’s network of relationships both personal and professional. Again, both personal and professional relationships are considered, but the emphasis here is on the business consequences and, therefore, professional interaction. Social as well as technological changes seem to encourage excessive work either through a conscious belief that more work is always better or the seemingly unconscious behaviours that allow work to increasingly intrude into other life activities.
The term ‘workaholic’ was coined in 1971 by an American professor of religion, Wayne E. Oates. According to Oates, workaholism is ‘the compulsion or the uncontrollable need to work incessantly’. For workaholics, the need to work is so exaggerated that it endangers their health, reduces their happiness, and deteriorates their interpersonal relations and social functioning. In contrast, others view workaholism as ‘good’. For instance, in a qualitative interview study, Machlowitz in the year 1980, found workaholics to be both satisfied and productive.
addiction?
Family therapists and counsellors have often seen work in direct context to addiction. In 1989, Bryan Robinson , a psychotherapist, came up with Work Addiction Risk Test (WART) from which scores indicate whether a person is NOT work addicted, MILDLY work addicted, or HIGHLY work addicted. Items include “I get impatient when I have to wait for someone else or when something takes too long, such as long, slow-moving lines”; “I spend a lot of time mentally planning and thinking about future events while tuning out the here and now”; and 22 other items of that type. As a psychotherapist, Robinson is concerned about the individual who works in excess. He describes physical symptoms ranging from headaches and indigestion to chest pains, ulcers, and allergies. Behavioural symptoms include temper outbursts and mood swings, along with insomnia, difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity, and others.
Further, in 1999, Michael Porter, an American academic known for his works on economics, business strategy and social causes translated the addiction perspective into workplace concerns by drawing direct parallels between workaholism and alcoholism. The chosen addictive behaviour (work) will be given priority to the neglect of other life interests, just as an alcoholic will neglect family and other responsibilities to drink. This is unhealthy for the individual and typically causes turmoil at home with stress that can carry back into the workplace. Further, workaholics may place demands on other employees around them to adopt similar habits causing a ripple effect of further stress and unproductive interpersonal relationships. Therefore, in the light of the above contentions it is correct to establish that workaholism is an addiction after all.
4.1. Is Workaholism a healthy
Professional Practice or is it
Maladaptive?
The spread of the view that workaholism can be considered as a healthy style of professional functioning was most probably prompted by the results of research conducted by Marilyn Machlowitz and published at the beginning of the 1980’s. Basing on these results, a conclusion was drawn that workaholics are very productive and satisfied with their work. Before the subsequent critical analysis of that research proved it to be inadequate and lacking in reliability, workaholism started to be identified with a phenomenon beneficial to a company and socially desirable.
In order to answer the question whether some forms of workaholism may be indeed beneficial to a company, it is crucial to verify two key issues – the definition of workaholism and the fact that not every hard working person should be considered as a workaholic. The etymology itself brings to attention the extreme concentration of individual’s activity on their work, suggests the sense of pressure and lack of control over their behaviour. Vicar Wayne Oates clearly emphasized these two elements in his definition of a workaholic: “…... a workaholic is a person whose need for constant work becomes so excessive that it causes visible disorders and violation to their physical condition, personal happiness, interpersonal relationships and social functioning”. Similar aspects of the definition of work addiction were indicated by Robinson: “workaholism is a compulsive need to work, occurring despite of lack of external pressure, manifesting itself in setting requirements to oneself, being unable to regulate own work-related habits and by excessive commitment to work resulting in other forms of life activities being neglected”. The relatively recent history of research conducted on workaholism places this field on its discovery stage. Therefore, it is not surprising that so many different theoretical ways of approaching this topic can be found.
Fassel described the three successive phases of developing an addiction to work. The initial one is characterized by the need for permanent commitment to professional activities. Since work is a source of positive reinforcement, an individual is trying to stay occupied at all times; interpersonal relations start to deteriorate while non-professional responsibilities are neglected. The second phase, called the critical one, begins as soon as the individual loses their control over their behaviour. Their work becomes a compulsion and all that matters is self-esteem. At
GROWTH
WORKAHOLISM
Workaholism can be subject to reinforcement by a various subjective and environmental factors. The latter includes the work environment. This organizational cultures comprises of a set of values of the company which often poses as an unwritten code of conduct for the employees.
A general overview of the organizational cultures helps us distinguish between the two basic models which are: The Western one originating in the United States and The Eastern one originating in Japan. The basis for distinguishing between these two models lies in several assumptions, beliefs and axioms. Pertaining to the study of workaholism in the work environment, the study of the Western model is more appropriate.
In the American model, profit making plays the most dominative role while realization of new undertakings was perceived as the art of making money. The companies are open to innovations and the employees are expected to prove themselves as enthusiastic to learn more at the same time chipping in the best of their efforts. Human resources management is conducted in an autocratic way, the power is centralized and decisions of the executives are not a subject to discussion. The lines of communication between the superior and the subordinate is clearly defined and the more is expected from the employees by way of encouragement. Hence keeping own position in such a company is similar to fighting an endless battle for financial and professional success because only the best ones deserve appraisal. The kind of behaviour represented by workers of organizations characterized by this type of culture is colloquially described as a “rat race”; is a pejorative term referring to pointless efforts of laboratory rodents shuffling down labyrinth paths is used as a metaphor to the atmosphere of stress and an authoritatively imposed compulsion which leaves an individual with no choice of alternative action. The eastern management model stands as an opposition to the organizational culture described above. Although profitability is still very important, in this model the core values are excellence of the work process, quality management and individual as well as social relations. Such an organizational culture is paternalistic and strongly collective.
Gaining profit is obviously the key objective for each business, but still, when all the management processes concentrate exclusively on accumulating capital, the human factor tends to sink into oblivion. In such conditions employees with predispositions to excessive burdening themselves with work may develop addiction to work. They demonstrate a great need to confirm their own self-worth which they achieve by the means of hard and persistent work, even more so because they want to meet other people’s expectations. Therefore, the values and norms determining the way of behaving accepted in the company have a key importance here.
Another factor is inequality in treatment in correspondence to gender. Those women who aim at making a career are more likely to develop addiction to work as they have to not only struggle with the stereotype of the female role present in our culture, but also to overcome the lack of harmony resulting from the fact that they begin their professional careers from a lower position than men. Especially in organizations which promote competition achieving a certain position and professional status requires more effort and work from women than from men.
Therefore, it can be established that the organizational culture fosters the escalation of workaholism in the work place. It is not something which is man-made but it arises out of various internal and external factors affecting the business environment.
WORKAHOLISM
It is estimated that workaholics constitute nearly 5% of the workforce from the point of view of statistics, every 20 th^ person is addicted to work. Therefore, the probability of finding at least one workaholic is a medium- sized organization nears to around one hundred percent. Organisations always prefer recruiting individuals who are eager to work and can devote themselves completely to the company’s businesses leaving aside all restraints bound by family and social engagements.
The way in which a work-addict behaves might be a source of concern for the organisation. Need for extreme perfection and failure to share responsibilities with other employees may lead to a delay or even
developed by the means of gratification which is present during the initial stage. Similarly, during its first stages workaholism can be a source of positive reinforcements and therefore a work addict may seem very pleased with their intensive work before they start making mistakes and before the exhaustion and psycho-physical problems occur. Workaholic behaviour can also be quite beneficial for the organization for a certain period of time. Nevertheless, with time it becomes clear that the way of functioning of a person addicted to work is starting to exert a negative influence not only on themselves and on their own work results, but also on professional relations and efficiency of their co-workers.
In the companies where the basic and superior principle is gaining profit; such companies demonstrates a number of characteristics which fosters development of workaholism; competitiveness is generally accepted and excessive burdening oneself with work is common. As long as the employee does not encounter a crisis which would be caused by the state of being overworked and which would imply financial loss to the company, it is doubtful that the behaviour of a work addict would become a subject to evaluation for their superiors. Finally, when the inevitable crisis arises, it will be more practical to replace that ineffective employee rather than to investigate the reason for their breakdown or to offer them support.
Workaholism does not result in over-average performance over a long- term perpective. The analyses of various organizations from the economic point of view showed that companies characterized by the eastern culture of management achieve better financial results and tend to be more successful in different areas of activity. Obviously there may be a number of different factors influencing such a state of affairs, but still, more and more management practitioners come to an agreement that the work environment in which co-operation, maintaining harmonious relationships and keeping balance between work and other areas of life are emphasized, contributes to both physical well-being and effectiveness of the employees.
Machlowitz, M. (1980), Workaholics: Living with Them, Working with Them , New York: Simon and Schuster.
Oates, W. (1971), Confessions of a Workaholic: The Facts about Work Addiction , New York: World Publishing Co.
Porter, G. (1996), ‘Organizational impact of workaholism: suggestions for researching the negative outcomes of excessive work’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 1, 70–84.
