Psychometric properties of the Bergen Work Addiction Scale in a Greek sample of health professionals

Abstract

BackgroundWork addiction it is an emerging topic in organizational research because it has a great impact on human resources, especial-ly in the health sector, and has led to the development of a number of valid assessment tools. Among work addiction scales, the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS) has good psychometric properties and a small number of items, and comes with a recommended cut-off for categorization of work addiction. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the BWAS in a Greek sample of health professionals (HPs) and to measure their work addiction.Participants and procedureA cross sectional study using an online questionnaire related to work addiction was completed by 542 HPs through the offi-cial websites of 8 secondary hospitals in Greece.ResultsThe level of HPs’ work addiction was moderate. The internal structure of the scale was satisfactory (α = .78). All seven items of the BWAS were significant and had standardized values above 0.48. Work addiction was significantly associated with older age and the profession of physician.ConclusionsBased on the findings of the present study, the Greek BWAS has good psychometric properties, such as good reliability, internal consistency and construct validity and is recommended as a suitable tool to assess work addiction in clinical settings and future research.