Since the late 1980s, there has been strong popular interest in the subject of working hours and in the so-called workaholic. There has been less interest in the academic literature on the subject of long working hours and the motivations of those who work beyond the limits of what is necessary. This study proposes a typology of those who put in excessive time and effort by introducing a second dimension: equity of perceived rewards. The new dimension points to another group alongside workaholics: overworkers. One hundred seventy-four managers and professionals with master of business administration degrees rated themselves on work and reward dimensions and provided data about work behaviors, rewards, attitudes, and job progression as part of a longitudinal study. Overworkers and workaholics were found to differ on a number of dimensions. Implications for these groups, including their potential roles in the context of boundaryless careers, and for the organizations that employ them are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, J. S.
(1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 267-299). New York: Academic Press.
2.
Arthur, M. B.
, Inkson, K., & Pringle, J. (1999). The new careers. London: Sage.
3.
Arthur, M. B.
, & Rousseau, D. M. (1996). The boundaryless career. New York: Oxford University Press.
4.
Bailyn, L.
(1977). Involvement and accommodation in technical careers: An inquiry into the relation to work at mid-career. In J. van Maanen (Ed.), Organizational careers: Some new perspectives. London: Wiley.
5.
Boyatzis, R. E.
, & Kolb, D. A. (2000). Performance, learning, and development as modes of growth and adaptation throughout our lives and careers. In M. Peiperl, M. Arthur, R. Goffee, & T. Morris (Eds.), Career frontiers: New conceptions of working lives (pp. 76-98). New York: Oxford University Press.
6.
Burke, R.
(1999a). Workaholism in organizations: The role of beliefs and fears. Anxiety, Stress and Coping.
7.
Burke, R.
(1999b). Workaholism in organizations: The role of organizational values. Journal of Managerial Psychology.
8.
Coleman, M. T.
, & Pencavel, J. (1993a). Changes in the work hours of male employees since 1940. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 46(2), 653-676.
9.
Coleman, M. T.
, & Pencavel, J. (1993b). Trends in the market work behavior of women since 1940. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 46(4), 653-677.
10.
DeFillippi, R. J.
, & Arthur, M. B. (1994). The boundaryless career: A competency-based perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 307-324.
11.
Erikson, E. H.
(1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
12.
Eby, L. T.
(2001). The boundaryless career experiences of mobile spouses in dual-earner marriages. Group & Organization Management, 26, 343-368.
13.
Fassel, D.
(1990). Working ourselves to death: The high costs of workaholism, the rewards of recovery. San Francisco: HarperCollins.
14.
Hackman, J. R.
(1976). Group influences on individuals in organizations. In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally.
15.
Hall, D. T.
(1976). Careers in organizations. Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear.
16.
Hall, D. T., & Associates
. (1996). The career is dead: Long live the career. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
17.
Hatfield, E.
, Walsters, W., & Berscheid, E. (1978). Equity: theory and research. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
18.
Higgins, M. C.
(2001). Follow the leader?: The effects of social influence on employer choice. Group & Organization Management, 26, 255-282.
19.
Hirsch, P. M.
, & Shanley, M. (1996). The rhetoric of boundaryless—Or how the newly empowered managerial class bought into its own marginalization. In M. B. Arthur & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.), The boundaryless career (pp. 218-236). New York: Oxford University Press.
20.
Hochschild, A. R.
(1997). The time bind: When work becomes home and home becomes work. New York: Henry Holt.
21.
Homans, G. C.
(1974). Social behavior: Its elementary forms (Rev. ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace.
22.
Japanese business models: Couldn’t we all do a lot worse? (1992, April 4). The Economist.
23.
Kiechel, W.
(1989, April 10). The workaholic generation. Fortune, 50-62.
24.
Killinger, B.
(1991). Workaholics: The respectable addicts. New York: Simon & Schuster.
25.
Klaft, R. P.
, & Kleiner, B. H. (1988, July-September). Understanding workaholics. Business, 38(3), 37-40.
26.
Landers, R. M.
, Rebitzer, J. B., & Taylor, L. J. (1996). Human resources practices and the demographic transformation of professional labor markets. In P. Osterman (Ed.), Broken ladders: Managerial careers in the new economy (pp. 215-245). New York: Oxford University Press.
27.
Levinson, D. J.
(1978). The seasons of a man’s life. New York: Ballantine.
28.
Lee, C.
, Jamieson, L. F., & Earley, P. C. (1996). Beliefs and fears and type A behavior: Implications for academic performance and psychiatric health disorder symptoms. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 17, 151-178.
29.
Machlowitz, M. (1978). Determining the effects of workaholism. Doctoral dissertation, Yale University.
30.
Machlowitz, M.
(1980). Workaholics: Living with them, working with them. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
31.
Maister, D.
(1993). Managing the professional service firm. New York: Free Press.
32.
Morris, T.
(2000). Promotion policies and knowledge bases in the professional service firm. In M. Peiperl, M. Arthur, R. Goffee, & T. Morris (Eds.), Career frontiers: New conceptions of working lives (pp. 138-152). New York: Oxford University Press.
33.
Oates, W. E.
(1971). Confessions of a workaholic. New York: Abingdon.
34.
Peiperl. M. A.
, & Arthur, M. B. (2000). Topics for conversation: Career themes old and new. In M. Peiperl, M. Arthur, R. Goffee, & T. Morris (Eds.), Career frontiers: New conceptions of working lives (pp. 1-19). New York: Oxford University Press.
35.
Peiperl, M. A.
, & Baruch, Y. (1997, Spring). Back to square zero: The post-corporate career. Organizational Dynamics, 25(4), 7-22.
36.
Porter, G.
(1996). Organizational impact of workaholism: Suggestions for researching the negative outcomes of excessive work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 70-84.
37.
Robinson, B. E.
(1998). Chained to the desk: A guidebook for workaholics, their partners and children and the clinicians who treat them. New York: New York University Press.
38.
Roznowski, M.
, & Hulin, C. (1992). The scientific merit of valid measures of general constructs with special reference to job satisfaction and job withdrawal. In C. J. Cranny, P. C. Smith, & E. F. Stone (Eds.), Job satisfaction: How people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance. New York: Macmillan.
39.
Schaef, A. W.
, & Fassel, D. (1988). The addictive organization. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
40.
Schor, J. B.
(1991). The overworked American. New York: Basic Books.
41.
Scott, E.
, O’Shaughnessy, K. C., & Cappelli, P. (1996). Management jobs in the insurance industry: Organizational deskilling and rising pay inequity. In P. Osterman (Ed.), Broken ladders: Managerial careers in the new economy (pp. 215-245). New York: Oxford University Press.
42.
Scott, K. S.
, Moore, K. S., & Miceli, M. P. (1997). An exploration of the meaning and consequences of workaholism. Human Relations, 50(3), 287-314.
43.
Smith, P. C.
(1992). In pursuit of happiness: Why study general job satisfaction? In C. J. Cranny, P. C. Smith, & E. F. Stone (Eds.), Job satisfaction: How people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance. New York: Macmillan.
44.
Spence, J. T.
, & Robbins, A. S. (1992). Workaholism: Definition, measurement, and preliminary results. Journal of Personality Assessment, 58, 160-178.
45.
Staw, B. M.
(1981). The escalation of commitment to a course of action. Academy of Management Review, 6(4), 577-587.
46.
Sullivan, S.
(1999). The changing nature of work: A review and research agenda. Journal of Management, 25, 457-484.
