High Work Involvement Research Articles

Validity and Reliability of the Spence and Robbins Workaholism Battery: A Study in Malaysian Employees

This psychometric study aims to contribute to the evolving cross-cultural definition of workaholism by exploring the reliability and validity of using the Workaholism Battery (WorkBAT; Spence & Robbins, 1992) in a sample of 183 full-time white-collar workers in Malaysia. Using data from online surveys, collected from full-time white-collar workers in the private and public sectors, factor analysis was used to indicate factor solutions contributing to the definition of workaholism based on the Spence and Robbins (1992) model of high work involvement, high work drive, and low work enjoyment. The study identified three factors and reassigned the items between them into work enjoyment, work drive, and work withdrawal. A 2-step cluster analysis identified four profiles of work adaptability as workaholics, enthusiastic workaholics, anxious workers, and moderate workers. Criterion validity with working hours was not established indicating workaholism as a distinct construct as suggested by previous studies. Our analysis produced a 3-factor solution suggesting a further syndromic view of the addiction to work. The addition of the third factor of work withdrawal indicates a further shift into looking at workaholism with a clinical lens.

Influence of Resilience on Work Engagement in Machinists in Charge of Yogyakarta Tugu Station

Travel safety is realized from the minimum number of train accidents that occur. This study is to determine the effect of resilience to work involvement in machinists on duty at Tugu Station in Yogyakarta. The study was conducted by conducting interviews to obtain preliminary data and ask to fill out the questionnaire provided. The results showed that 43% of respondents had low resilience, while the other 57% had high resilience. As many as 52% of machinists have high work involvement, while 48% have low work involvement. The correlation between them is at a moderate level of 0.627.

Pengaruh Keterlibatan Kerja Dan Pengalaman Kerja Terhadap Komitmen Organisasi Pegawai Di Dinas Pendidikan Kabupaten Bekasi

Organizational commitment is a person's attachment to the organization. Employees who are committed to the organization will have a strong desire to become members of the organization, the desire to strive according to the wishes of the organization, and have the trust and acceptance of the values and goals of the organization. Organizations will be more effective if their employees have a high commitment. This study aims to determine the effect of (1) job involvement, (2) work experience, (3) organizational commitment in the Bekasi District Education Office. In data analysis, this study uses causal survey method using Path Analysis Technique. This study used a sample of 97 employees in the Bekasi District Education Office who were selected using the Slovin formula. The results reveal that: first, work involvement has a direct positive effect on organizational commitment. This means that the increase in work involvement has resulted in an increase in the commitment of employee organizations at the Secretariat of the Human Resources Development Agency of the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia. Second, work experience has a direct positive effect on organizational commitment. This means that an increase in work experience has resulted in an increase in the commitment of employee organizations at the Secretariat of the Human Resources Development Agency of the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia. Third, work involvement has a direct positive effect on work experience. This means that the increase in work involvement has resulted in an increase in work experience for employees at the Ministry of Transportation's Human Resources Development Agency Secretariat. From the results of the study also found that the most influential variables are work involvement on organizational commitment, this can be proven from the results of statistical calculations with a value of r13 = 0.426, p32 = 0.328 the highest compared to the influence of other variables. Follow-up of this study, employees are expected to have high work involvement and attitude of love for their work so that employees will be more sincere and sincere in doing their work. In addition, employees will also have a great sense of responsibility and a sense of ownership of the organization and the whole that will bring the desire of employees to do work beyond what is expected, to do work optimally and maximize themselves to be more useful for the organization.

Workaholism and Marital Satisfaction Among Female Professionals

Workaholism is a modern construct pertaining to how one relates to work pursuits. It has been commonly operationalized as excessive work involvement, driven by internal compulsions, and accompanied by low professional enjoyment. This study evaluated the effect of Spence and Robbins’ workaholism triad on marital satisfaction among professional women. Self-report measures were collected online from 266 married alumnae from top graduate schools of business currently in the U.S. labor force. Workaholism components were found to explain a significant amount of variance in marital satisfaction with lack of work enjoyment and high work involvement related to low marital satisfaction. Drive did not exert a significant effect. Results demonstrate that workaholic behaviors and attitudes are associated with poorer marital functioning in this population.

Proactive coping with job insecurity: Is it always beneficial to well-being?

ABSTRACTWith reference to conservation of resources theory, the authors explored the role of proactive coping in relation to both positive and negative aspects of employee well-being (happiness and depression) when confronted with job insecurity. The authors investigated if coping efficiency improves when employees are highly committed to work, that is, when they have a high level of work involvement. Results of tests with samples of 162 Austrian and 444 Taiwanese employees revealed that, overall, proactive coping was positively related to employee well-being if the perception of job insecurity was low. However, in the case of high job insecurity, the beneficial effect of proactive coping was present only among employees with high work involvement. The interaction was significant for feelings of depression in the Austrian sample and for feelings of happiness in the Taiwanese sample. The findings suggest that if a person experiences job insecurity, the efficiency of proactive coping might depend on the person's work-related attitudes and beliefs, such as work involvement, that serve as coping resources.

„Workaholism“ does not always mean workaholism...? - about the controversial nomenclature in the research on work addiction

Abstract This article attempts to point out the main problem in research on workaholism, namely over-use of the term workaholism when describing symptoms or constructs which are not related to work addiction. Workaholism has one, negative pathological/dysfunctional form and can be differentiated from the healthy forms of over-engagement (e.g. work enthusiasm). Based on the analysis of one example of research results, this article explains that the nomenclature of „workaholic“ is not applicable to the case of over-engaged employees with healthy symptoms (e.g. high work involvement and work enjoyment and high or low satisfaction with life situation). The second aim of the article is to argue that the invalid conceptualisation and measurement of workaholism can result in conclusions which do not really regard work addiction.

Pracoholizm – istota konstruktu i trafność nomenklatury jako aktualny problem w badaniach nad zjawiskiem. Komentarz do Staszczyk i Tokarz (2015)

The analysis of research findings, presented in previews as concerning “workaholism,” including the results of selected Polish studies, reveals at least three worrisome issues: (a) frequent misapplication of the term “workaholism” to phenomenona that are not related to work addiction, (b) expanding the conceptualization of workaholism to include dimensions defining the healthy form of high work involvement (e.g., work engagement), which do not differentiate workaholism as a disorder from the phenomenon of healthy hard work, (c) using inaccurate interpretation of research results that concern healthy high work involvement as referring to work addiction. The commentary on the article contains a discussion of the above-mentioned issues.

Three-way interaction effects of workaholism on employee well-being: Evidence from blue-collar workers in New Zealand

AbstractWorkaholism is an important workplace phenomenon that has received less empirical testing than might be expected. This study of 100 New Zealand blue-collar workers tested whether three dimensions of the workaholism triad: work involvement, drive to work and work enjoyment were related to anxiety, depression and insomnia, and in the majority this was supported. Work involvement was positively related to all outcomes, while work enjoyment was negatively related. Drive to work was positively related to anxiety and insomnia only. Overall, consistently, large amounts of variance were explained by the workaholism triad. While previously untested in the literature, a three-way interaction of the workaholism triad was found towards anxiety and insomnia. Overall, higher work involvement was useful in buffering detrimental outcomes for those with either high work involvement or high drive to work, but not both. The present study provides a new way of understanding the effects of workaholism in the workplace.

Contingent self-esteem, stressors and burnout in working women and men

A high work involvement is considered central in the burnout process. Yet, research investigating how high work involvement and psychosocial stressors relate to burnout is scarce. High involvement in terms of performance-based self-esteem (PBSE) refers to individuals' strivings to validate self-worth by achievements, a disposition linked to poor health. The aim of the present study was to examine longitudinally PBSE in relation to burnout while also taking into account work- and private life stressors. The sample consisted of 2121 working women and men. Main- and mediation effects were investigated using hierarchical regression analysis. The results showed performance-based self-esteem mediated partially between the stressors and burnout. Performance-based self-esteem was the strongest predictor of burnout over time, followed by private life stressors. Women experienced more work stress than did men. Men had stronger associations between work stressors and burnout, while women had stronger associations between performance-based self-esteem and burnout. Individual characteristics along with both private life and work stressors are important predictors of burnout. Factors associated with burnout differ somewhat between women and men.

Social Workers’ Preparation for Child Protection: Revisiting the Question of Specialisation

Child welfare work is a key field of practice for social work graduates and for graduates of a growing range of disciplines. In the present paper, the authors drew on a survey of 208 child welfare workers and interviews with 28 senior personnel in child and family welfare agencies to analyse perceptions of the educational preparation of social workers and other human science graduates for this field of practice. The findings indicated that child welfare workers and employers are ambivalent about the value of social work and other generic social science and human services programmes as preparation for tertiary or statutory child protection practice, which involves investigation, assessment, and intervention in child abuse and neglect. The authors argue that the social work profession must better balance generic and specialist aspects to prepare graduates for practice in specialist fields of high social work involvement, particularly in tertiary child protection work.

Canonical correlation analysis of the career attitudes and strategies inventory and the adult career concerns inventory

This study investigated the relationships between the scales of the Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI) and those of the Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (CASI). The scores of 202 South African adults for the two inventories were subjected to a canonical correlation analysis. Two canonical variates made statistically significant contributions to the explanation of the relationships between the two sets of variables. Inspection of the correlations of the original variables with the first canonical variate suggested that a high level of career concerns in general, as measured by the ACCI, is associated with high levels of career worries, more geographical barriers, a low risk-taking style and a non-dominant interpersonal style, as measured by the CASI. The second canonical variate suggested that concerns with career exploration and advancement of one’s career is associated with low job satisfaction, low family commitment, high work involvement, and a dominant style at work.

A cluster analysis investigation of workaholism as a syndrome.

Workaholism has been conceptualized as a syndrome although there have been few tests that explicitly consider its syndrome status. The authors analyzed a three-dimensional scale of workaholism developed by Spence and Robbins (1992) using cluster analysis. The authors identified three clusters of individuals, one of which corresponded to Spence and Robbins's profile of the workaholic (high work involvement, high drive to work, low work enjoyment). Consistent with previously conjectured relations with workaholism, individuals in the workaholic cluster were more likely to label themselves as workaholics, more likely to have acquaintances label them as workaholics, and more likely to have lower life satisfaction and higher work-life imbalance. The importance of considering workaholism as a syndrome and the implications for effective interventions are discussed.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER? AN EXPLORATION OF RETIREMENT EXPECTATIONS

The dimensions of expectations for retirement, and their relationship with gender, current work attitudes, and current leisure experiences were investigated in a British and an Australian sample. Eighty-three Britains and 100 Australians, in paid employment, aged 40 and above, completed a questionnaire that included measures of current work and leisure experience, preferences for preretirement education, and a newly developed ''Retirement Expectation Inventory'' ( REI ) based on the four modes of retirement experience reported by Hornstein and Wapner (1985). A factor analysis of the REI confirmed the four dimensions of Transition to Rest, New Beginning, Continuity, and Imposed Disruption. The predominant expectation was that retirement would be a New Beginning , with no significant gender differences. As predicted, high personal job involvement, but not high general work involvement, was significantly associated with the expectation of Imposed Disruption, as was an unsatisfactory current leisure experience. The most popular content areas for preretirement education were financial management, hobbies, and physical health. These results are discussed, and a number of implications for preretirement education arising from the results are noted.

Workaholism: Definition, Measurement, and Preliminary Results

Questionnaires were developed to assess the concept of workaholism, defined in terms of high scores on measures of work involvement and driveness and low scores on a measure of enjoyment of work, and to contrast this profile with work enthusiasm, defined as high work involvement and enjoyment and low driveness. Additional scales were devised to test several predictions about the correlates of workaholism. A test battery including these scales was given in a mail survey to a national sample of male (n = 134) and female (n = 157) social workers with academic positions. The psychometric properties of the scales are described. Cluster analyses for each sex revealed groups who corresponded to the workaholic and work enthusiast profiles as well as several other profiles. As predicted, workaholics were higher than work enthusiasts (among other groups) on measures of perfectionism, nondelegation of responsibility, and job stress. They were also higher on a measure of health complaints. Investigations are being initiated to determine the association of workaholism and other score profiles with objectively diagnosed cardiac disorders and with measures of occupational performance.

Nurse burnout: Work related and demographic factors as culprits

This study was an examination of the combined ability of perceived work environment, demographic, and work-related variables to predict burnout among 314 nurses at a large metropolitan hospital. The three dimensions of burnout measured were emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. High work pressure and low work involvement and supervisor support predicted emotional exhaustion. Task orientation, work pressure, work involvement, and age predicted both depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Burnout among nurses on each of the three work shifts also was examined. Results are discussed from the perspective of how to decrease or to prevent burnout among nurses.

Protestant work ethic, work involvement and the psychological impact of unemployment

AbstractThis study is an attempt to replicate and extend recent findings concerning the moderating effect of employment commitment on the psychological impact of unemployment. It was carried out in a highly educated population and employed Protestant work ethic endorsement (PWE) and work involvement (WINV) as indicators of commitment to work. Evidence was collected by questionnaires from 432 individuals who had been unemployed and again, six months later, from most of the same individuals. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis shows that individuals with high WINV were likely to suffer more from unemployment and to gain more from finding employment than low work‐involved individuals. PWE, on the other hand, did not moderate the relationship between employment status and psychological state.

Women's Work Involvement and Experience of New Motherhood

This study examines whether career-oriented women have more trouble adjusting to new motherhood than more traditional women and whether new mothers who return to work shortly after childbirth have more stress than nonworking mothers. 105 women who had given birth to a first child within the last 5 to 9 months who had also worked before pregnancy were interviewed on work involvement psychological loss of work sex role attitudes changes in self perception life changes experiences as a mother motherhood satisfaction depression and self-esteem. For nonworking mothers high work involvement is correlated with irritability depression lower self-esteem higher costs of motherhood and more negative marital changes as predicted. Psychological loss of work and work involvement are correlated. High work involved mothers experience stopping work as a loss; their work had provided intellectual stimulation a feeling of independence recognition and respect and a sense of accomplishment. Conversely low work involved mothers were now content to stay at home. The low work involved mothers had been working out of financial necessity and therefore had not regarded work as a source of gratification. For all working mothers no significant relationship existed between work involvement (part-time in all cases) and other factors. The study suggests that the relationship between work involvement and the experience of being a new mother is a complex one. Differences in how working and nonworking women experience new motherhood do not surface in the first few months. Paid employment has psychological value for many mothers of infants and future research should consider this as well as individual differences in womens work involvement.

Work Experience and Work Involvement

This panel study examines the interrelations of work experience and psychological involvement in work among male college graduates over a 10-year period. The data analysis provides substantial support for the "occupational socialization hypothesis"—that work experience and, particularly, work autonomy, stimulate work involvement over time. There was also evidence for the "occupational selection hypothesis"— that high work involvement, prior to labor force entry, induces work values which promote stability m the early career and facilitates the attainment of income and work autonomy.