Live to Work or Love to Work: Work Craving and Work Engagement

Abstract

ObjectiveAccording to the theory of work craving, a workaholic has a craving for self-worth compensatory incentives and an expectation of relief from negative affect experienced through neurotic perfectionism and an obsessive-compulsive style of working. Research has shown that workaholism and work engagement should be considered as two distinct work styles with different health consequences. However, the mechanisms underlying the adoption of these work styles have been neglected. The present study proposes that work craving and work engagement are differentially associated with self-regulatory competencies and health. In particular, we expected that the working styles mediate the relationships between emotional self-regulation and health. Methods: In the cross-sectional study, 469 teachers from German schools completed online administered questionnaires. By means of structural equation modeling, we tested two indirect paths: a) from self-relaxation deficits via work craving to poor health and b) from self-motivation competencies via work engagement to good health.ResultsAs expected, we found evidence that a) the negative relationship of self-relaxation deficits on health was partially mediated by work craving and b) the positive relationship of self-motivation competencies on health was partially mediated by work engagement.ConclusionsThe present study emphasizes the importance of self-regulation competencies for healthy or unhealthy work styles. Whereas work craving was associated with a low ability to down-regulate negative emotions and poor health, work engagement was associated with a high ability to up-regulate positive emotions and good health.

Guiding others for their own good: Action orientation is associated with prosocial enactment of the implicit power motive

“…Demand-related action orientation (AOD) is the ability to self-generate positive affect, to overcome hesitation and procrastination, and to initiate the implementation of self-congruent goals-especially in the face of high demands and difficulties Koole and Jostmann 2004;Koole et al 2012;Kuhl 2000Kuhl , 2001Kuhl and Beckmann 1994). It has been found to be prevalent among managers (Gröpel 2008) and to be associated with positive work engagement (Diefendorff et al 2000;Wojdylo et al 2014) as well as a flexible adaptation to situational demands (Koole and Jostmann 2004;Koole et al 2012). Thus, demand-related action orientation is presumed to be associated with an intrinsic, prosocial enactment of implicit power motives among students of social professions and was in the focus of the present studies.…”

The Firepower of Work Craving: When Self-Control Is Burning under the Rubble of Self-Regulation

“…It should be noted that for convenience, we use the terms “work-cravers” and “work-addicted individuals” interchangeably for those individuals scoring relatively high on the Work Craving Scale (WCS), taking into account that the WCS has been analyzed as a continuous and not as a categorical variable (see: [11], [15], [16]). In contrast, we use the term “obsessive-compulsive workers” for individuals scoring relatively high on scales that narrowly measure “workaholism” as an obsessive-compulsive phenomenon.…”

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

“…Burke, Matthiesen, & Pallesen, 2006;Ng et al, 2007;Schaufeli, Taris, & Van Rhenen, 2008). A number of studies have addressed the issue of workaholism from different perspectives and focused on various factors implicated in its origins (Douglas & Morris, 2006;McGonagle et al, 2013;Wojdylo, 2013;Wojdylo, Baumann, Buczny, Owens, & Kuhl, 2013;Wojdylo, Baumann, Fischbach, & Engeser, 2014). Some authors have shed light on the issue by using cultural perspective, deriving workaholism from gender stereotypes.…”