O.D. Institute Newsletter, Current News

The general topic of workaholism has garnered much research attention over the past decade. Indeed, scholarly interest on workaholism and how it relates to work-family life has been noted in the O. D. literature (Lambert et al., 2006). However, there is an erroneous perception that much of the research base on workaholism is conducted on U. S. samples. In this paper we summarize some key studies on workaholism that utilized international samples. This research has generally corroborated U. S. findings which report that workaholism can lead to job stress, work-family conflict, and personal turmoil (Burke, 2004). The scope of this rigorous international research is rather extraordinary and should encourage future investigatory efforts on cross-cultural comparisons that examine antecedents, construct conceptualization, and organizational response. The Table below outlines the key findings of this international literature on workaholism; full references to many of these studies can be found in our ODJ article (Piotrowski & Vodonovich, 2006).

Study	Sample	Basic Finding(s)
Burke, Matthiesen, & Pallesen (2006)	496 Norwegian health care workers	Big 5 personality factors and general self-efficacy scores related to workaholism battery scores
Galperin & Burke (2006)	142 Brazilian employees	Workaholism scores significantly related to measures of deviance
Koyuncu, Burke, & Fiksenbaum (2006)	243 Professors at a Turkish university	No gender differences in workaholic behaviors, well-being, and work satisfaction
Snir & Harpaz (2006)	Samples from Belgium, Israel, Japan, United States, and Netherlands	Across all cultures, high work centrality scores were related to greater hours worked per week; greater work hours associated with being male, married, and a private sector employee; Japanese employees worked the most hours per week
Taris, Schaufeli, & Verhoven (2005)	152 employed Dutch community volunteers	Workaholism scores related to greater job stress, burnout, and physical and psychological symptoms
Burke, Oberklaid, & Burgess (2005)	453 Psychologists in Australia	Work “addicts” had lower job and career satisfaction; poorer emotional health
Snir & Harpaz (2004)	1000 Israeli male and female employees	Greater work centrality scores related to less hours worked per week
McMillan & O'Driscoll (2004)	88 New Zealand adults	No significant differences between workaholics and non-workaholics in psychological health
Burke (2004)	324 female members of the Australian Psychological Society	Work "addicts" were less satisfied with relationships than "relaxed" workers
Buelens & Poelmans (2004)	5,853 Flemish citizen volunteers	Work “addicts” had lower family satisfaction and greater work-family conflict scores
Burke, Richardson, & Mortinussen (2004)	171 members of the Norwegian Builders Union	Work enjoyment scores related to higher job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and lower intent to quit; Drive scores related to greater job involvement
Burke, Burgess, & Oberklaid (2003)	658 members of the Australian Psychological Association	No significant differences in workaholism scores between married and divorced individuals
Kanai & Wakabayashi (2001)	4,621 members of the Japan Federation of Automobile Workers	Workaholism was related to greater job stressors; older employees possessed lower work enjoyment scores; blue-collar employees have lower workaholism scores

Burke, R. J. (2004). Introduction: Workaholism in organizations. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 17, 420-423.

Lambert, et al. (2006). Impact factors on work-family balance: Initial support for border theory. Organization Development Journal, 24(3), 64-75.

Piotrowski, C., & Vodanovich, S. J. (2006). The interface between workaholism and work-family conflict: A

review and conceptual framework. Organization Development Journal, 24 (4), 84-97.

Note: Authors are at the University of West Florida; contact piotrowskichris@hotmail.com