The Empirical Distinctiveness of Workaholism and Work Engagement and their Relationship with Job Outcomes

Background Virtually no empirical research has been carried out on the empirical distinctiveness of workaholism and work engagement and their relationship with possible antecedents and consequences. Purpose The aim of this study was to show the empirical distinctiveness between workaholism and work engagement. Moreover the mediating role of job demands (i.e., job overload and work-life balance) between workaholism and performance (both in-role and extra-role), satisfaction (both job and life) and ill-health (both physical and psychological) was studied. The mediating role of work engagement between job resources (i.e., family support, work support, novelty and job control) and the outcome variables was also studied. Method Stepwise hierarchical regression analyses was used to test the empirical distinctiveness of workaholism and work engagement among 1325 employees from a Japanese production company. Baron and Kenny’s (1986) four steps of regression analyses was used to test whether work engagment functions as a mediator between job resources and job outcomes and whether job demands act as a mediator between workaholism and job outcomes. Results Results show that workaholism and work engagement have different relations with job demands, job resources and job outcomes, indicating that workaholism and work engagement are empirically distinctive constructs. Work engagement acts as a full or partial mediator between some job resources and outcome variables. Job demands do not act as a mediator between workaholism and the outcome variables