Abstract
Morkevičiūtė and Endriulaitienė (Int J Ment Health Addict 21(5):13–23) provided an interesting and important overview of research on work addiction/workaholism since 2007. In their conclusions, they suggest that “workaholism” is a separate phenomenon from “work addiction.” However, this conclusion is (i) inconsistent with the data on which they base their analyses and (ii) other conclusions that they draw from these analyses. The current paper examines these inconsistencies and explains the sources of confusion. Work addiction and workaholism are investigated both by clinical researchers and organizational scholars. The limited exchange of expertise between these two major frameworks may cause misunderstandings. Addictions are complex biological, psychological, social, and cultural phenomena. Behavioral addictions are defined as behavioral patterns and, similarly to other mental disorders, as syndromes. They manifest as different symptoms, including behavioral, emotional, and cognitive. Components of excessive and compulsive working are defined as indicators or symptoms of addiction and not as different conceptualizations of workaholism. Treating different facets of work addiction by Morkevičiūtė and Endriulaitienė as different conceptualizations of it leads to theoretical and terminological confusion. The current paper analyzes these problems as they emerge on the boundaries of clinical and organizational frameworks in the work of different authors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.
Andersen, F. B., Djugum, M. E. T., Sjåstad, V., & Pallesen, S. (2023). The prevalence of workaholism: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1252373. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1252373.
Andreassen, C. S., & Pallesen, S. (2016). Workaholism: An addiction to work. In Neuropathology of drug addictions and substance misuse (pp. 972–983). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800634-4.00096-2.
Andreassen, C. S., Griffiths, M. D., Hetland, J., & Pallesen, S. (2012). Development of a work addiction scale. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 53(3), 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2012.00947.x.
Andreassen, C. S., Schaufeli, W. B., & Pallesen, S. (2018). Myths about the myths about work addiction: Commentary on: Ten myths about work addiction (Griffiths et al., 2018). Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(4), 858–862. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.126.
Atroszko, P. A. (2019). Response to: Loscalzo and Giannini (2018). A boon of incoherence: Insights on the relationship between study/work addiction and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, 19(2), 237–243. https://doi.org/10.15557/PiPK.2019.0025.
Atroszko, P. A. (2022a). Non-drug addiction: Addiction to work. In V.B. Patel & V.R. Preedy (Eds.), Handbook of substance misuse and addictions (pp. 2981–3012). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67928-6_3-1.
Atroszko, P. A. (2022b). Work addiction. In H. M. Pontes (Ed.), Behavioral addictions. Conceptual, clinical, assessment, and treatment approaches (pp. 213–240). Springer.
Atroszko, P. A., Demetrovics, Z., & Griffiths, M. D. (2019). Beyond the myths about work addiction: Toward a consensus on definition and trajectories for future studies on problematic overworking. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 8(1), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.8.2019.11.
Atroszko, P. A., Demetrovics, Z., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Work addiction, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, burn-out, and global burden of disease: Implications from the ICD-11. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2), 660. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020660.
Aziz, S., & Moyer, F. (2018). Workaholism and occupational health: A translational review. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 23(4), e12144. https://doi.org/10.1111/jabr.12144.
Balducci, C., Spagnoli, P., & Clark, M. (2020). Advancing workaholism research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 9435. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249435.
Bereznowski, P., Bereznowska, A., Atroszko, P. A., & Konarski, R. (2021). Work addiction and work engagement: A network approach to cross-cultural data. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00707-8. Advance online publiation.
Bereznowski, P., Atroszko, P. A., & Konarski, R. (2023). Work addiction, work engagement, job burnout, and perceived stress: A network analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1130069. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1130069.
Brady, K. T., Haynes, L. F., Hartwell, K. J., & Killeen, T. K. (2013). Substance use disorders and anxiety: A treatment challenge for social workers. Social Work in Public Health, 28(3–4), 407–423. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2013.774675.
Clark, M. A., Smith, R. W., & Haynes, N. J. (2020). The multidimensional workaholism scale: Linking the conceptualization and measurement of workaholism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(11), 1281–1307. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000484.
Di Stefano, G., & Gaudiino, M. (2019). Workaholism and work engagement: How are they similar? How are they different? A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(3), 329–347. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1590337.
Gonçalves, L., Meneses, J., Sil, S., Silva, T., & Moreira, A. C. (2023). Workaholism scales: Some challenges ahead. Behavioral Sciences, 13(7), 529. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13070529.
Griffiths, M. D., Demetrovics, Z., & Atroszko, P. A. (2018). Ten myths about work addiction. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(4), 845–857. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.05.
Heim, D., Agrawal, R., Allaman, A., Beccaria, F., Berridge, V., Blomqvist, J., Boniface, S., Bruno, R., Buchanan, J., Bühringer, G., Cameron, D., Chikritzhs, T., Coomber, R., Covington, S., Dalgarno, P., Davies, J. B., Decorte, T., Santos, V. D., Duff, C., & Wilsnack, S. C. (2014). Addiction: Not just brain malfunction. Nature, 507(7490), 40. https://doi.org/10.1038/507040e.
Jouhki, H., & Oksanen, A. (2022). To get high or to get out? Examining the link between addictive behaviors and escapism. Substance Use & Misuse, 57(2), 202–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2021.2002897.
Kun, B., Takacs, Z. K., Richman, M. J., Griffiths, M. D., & Demetrovics, Z. (2021). Work addiction and personality: A meta-analytic study. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 9(4), 945–966. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2020.00097.
Lüthi, A., & Lüscher, C. (2014). Pathological circuit function underlying addiction and anxiety disorders. Nature Neuroscience, 17(12), 1635–1643. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3849.
Machlowitz, M. (1980). Workaholics. Living with them, working with them. Addison-Wesley.
McMillan, L. H., O’Driscoll, M. P., & Burke, R. J. (2003). Workaholism: A review of theory, research, and future directions. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2003, 18, 167–189. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013346.
Morkevičiūtė, M., & Endriulaitienė, A. (2023). Defining the border between workaholism and work addiction: A systematic review. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 21(5), 2813–2823. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00757-6.
Ng, T. W., Sorensen, K. L., & Feldman, D. C. (2007). Dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of workaholism: A conceptual integration and extension. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 28(1), 111–136. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.424.
Quinones, C., & Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Addiction to work: A critical review of the workaholism construct and recommendations for assessment. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 53(10), 48–59. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20150923-04.
Robinson, B. E. (1999). The work addiction risk test: Development of a tentative measure of workaholism. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 88(1), 199–210. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1999.88.1.19.
Robinson, B. E. (2014). Chained to the desk: A guidebook for workaholics, their partners and children, and the clinicians who treat them. NYU Press.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., Van der Heijden, F. M., & Prins, J. T. (2009). Workaholism among medical residents: It is the combination of working excessively and compulsively that counts. International Journal of Stress Management, 16(4), 249–272. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017537.
Sussman, S. (2012). Workaholism: A review. Journal of Addiction Research and Theory, S6. https://doi.org/10.4172/2155-6105.S6–001.
Volkow, N. D., Michaelides, M., & Baler, R. (2019). The neuroscience of drug reward and addiction. Physiological Reviews, 99(4), 2115–2140. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00014.2018.
World Health Organisation (2019). International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 11th Revision. https://doi.org/icd.who.int./browse11/l-m/en.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland [grant no. 2020/39/D/HS6/00198].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Ethics
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Atroszko, P.A. Work Addiction and Workaholism are Synonymous: An Analysis of the Sources of Confusion (a Commentary on Morkevičiūtė and Endriulaitienė). Int J Ment Health Addiction (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01243-x
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01243-x