The Costs of Work-Addicted Managers in Organizations: Towards Integrating Clinical and Organizational Frameworks

Abstract

Recently some general agreements have been achieved regarding the current status of work addiction. One of the key criteria for conceptualizing a behavioral addiction is the harm caused by the behavior. It has been argued that in the case of work addiction, special attention should be devoted to the potential harm that the behavior causes for the recipients of the work or coworkers. This paper constitutes a narrative literature review of the literature suggesting an association between work addiction of a manager and harm caused to other employees and recipients of their work. Based on this review, it can be concluded that the existing data provide strong premises suggesting that work-addicted managers may cause significant harm to themselves, other employees, organizations, and recipients of their work. It includes potential indirect effects through creating an environment conducive to work addiction and its consequences among employees. However, there are very few studies directly investigating the harm and costs caused by work-addicted managers. This paper constitutes an attempt to integrate certain aspects of clinical and organizational research into work addiction and stimulate further integrations in this area.