Workaholism and work–family conflict among university academics

Abstract

Because of governance and management changes in universities in recent decades, the working environment of university academics has changed. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to investigate whether university academics are more workaholic and report more work–family conflicts than other university personnel and to provide empirical knowledge about the antecedents and outcomes of workaholism and work–family conflict among university academics. A questionnaire was used to collect data on job demands, job resources, workaholism and work–family conflict from 2186 university academics and 2551 technical and administrative personnel at 3 universities in Norway. The results show that academic personnel experienced more workaholism and work–family conflict than non-academic personnel. High job demands, especially high role overload, affected both workaholism and work–family conflict. Job resources had a marginal effect on both workaholism and work–family conflict. Workaholism was positively associated with work–family conflict and partly mediated the relationship between role overload and work–family conflict. It is not clear how job demands and workaholism interact with work–family conflict. Nevertheless, paying attention to the risks of workaholism and preventing it at all levels are important, since workaholism is associated with work–family conflict, which may adversely affect the health of the individual, the family and the workplace.