Workaholism among employees in Japanese corporations: An examination based on the Japanese version of the Workaholism Scales

Abstract

Abstract:To examine the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Workaholism Scales developed originally by J. T. Spence and A. S. Robbins (1992), a questionnaire survey of workers in Japanese industrial organizations was conducted. The Japanese questionnaire was developed by back-translation. Added to the original questionnaire were scales for work overload -quantity, work overload -quality, role ambiguity and role conflict. A total of 1,072 workers (962 men, 110 women) returned usable data (response rate = 87.5%). The factor structure and reliability of the workaholism instrument for Japanese male subjects look almost identical to those obtained by the original study in America except that the work involvement dimension was not reproduced as an independent factor, but overlapped with the drive dimension for the Japanese sample. There was a significant impact of workaholism on job stress and health complaints among Japanese male employees.

Workaholism, work and extra‐work satisfactions and psychological well‐being among professors in Turkey

“…Consistent findings included the relationship of the workaholism components with the validating job behaviors, the role of work enjoyment in predicting various work outcomes and the role of work enjoyment in predicting extra-work satisfactions. Inconsistent findings were observed in the relationship of the workaholism components and indicators of psychological well-being; work enjoyment emerged as the only predictor of psychological wellbeing among Turkish professors whereas previously Feeling driven to work was found to be the best predictor of these (see Burke, 2000;Kanai, Wakabayashi & Fling, 1996). Thus, while the findings reported here were generally in line with previous research, the areas of difference were noteworthy.…”

“…Although the early workaholism studies were conducted in North America (e.g., Burke, 1999;Bonebright, Clay & Aikenmann, 2000;Robinson, 1998;Porter, 2001) research on workaholism has been conducted in the Netherlands (Buelens & Poelmans, 2004;Schaufeli, Taris & Bakker, 2006;Taris, Schaufeli & Verhoeven, 2004), Israel (Snir & Harpaz, 2004) New Zealand (McMillan & O'Driscoll, 2004McMillan, O'Driscoll & Brady, 2004), Japan (Kanai, Wakabayashi & Fling, 1996;Kanai & Wakabayashi, 2004), Norway (Burke, Richardsen & Martinussen, 2004;Burke & Mattheisen, 2004) and Australia (Russo & Waters, 2006;Burke, Burgess & Oberklaid, 2002). The present research carried out in Turkey, reflects an emerging and needed international interest in the topic.…”

The role of purpose in life and social support in reducing the risk of workaholism among women in Poland

“…1) work-obsession, characterized by self-imposed high standards, 2) an inability to regulate working habits, and 3) neglecting other activities (Killinger, 1991;Naughton, 1987;Oates, 1971;Poppelreuter, 1997;Robinson, 1998;Schaufeli & Salanova, 2011;Schaufeli, Shimazu, & Taris, 2009;Schwartz, 1982;van Wijhe, Peeters, Schaufeli, & Ouweneel, 2012;Wojdylo, 2007Wojdylo, , 2010aWojdylo, , 2010b. The results of several studies provide considerable support for the thesis that, essentially, workaholism is derived more from a specific compulsion-based working style rather than from the excessive number of hours an individual spends working (Burke & Koksal, 2002;Kanai, Wakabayashi, & Fling, 1996;McMillan, Brady, O'Driscoll, & Marsh, 2002;Russo & Waters, 2006). …”

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

“…In this sense, the effects of workaholism are needed to be studied more. For example, Kanai et al (1996) and Spence et al (1992) suggest that workaholism has negative effect on health; however it was not supported in this scale. Future research is needed to elicit the relationship between the two.…”

“…Burnout is found as a solid indicator of health complaints (Maslach et al, 2001). Literature also argues that workaholism has negative impact on health as well (Kanai et al 1996;Spence et al, 1992) Therefore, it is expected that burned-out and workaholic employees would report a less favorable perception of their health whereas, engaged workers would report a more favorable perception for their health.…”