Primarily mentioned by Oates (1971), workaholism can be defined as an uncontrollable
desire or a deeply felt pressure for working. In that respect, workaholism can be seen
as an addiction for work. As said, workaholism is typically the case of “becoming
addicted to work”. Thus, an individual who ranks high on the workaholism scale is said
to feel a pressure or have the desire to work hard and does not want to quit working
(Oates, 1971, p. 11). As research on personality indicates, individuals with type A
personality characteristics are seen to be achievement-oriented, not yielding to work
hard and to take responsibility at work (Batýgün and Þahin, 2011). Based on that, type
A personality can lead to workaholism, especially under high demanding conditions of
a job; which would increase the felt pressure to work hard. In line with the presented
ideas, the purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of the link between type
A personality and workaholism. Job demand is also taken into account to see if it
contributes to the link between type A personality and workaholism. The research gives
information about the interaction effects of personality and job demands on an individual
and an organizational outcome if conceptualized as a collective phenomena for workers, namely, ‘workaholism’. The aim of this study was to investigate the link between type
A personality and workaholism through the mediation of perceived job demands. The
outcome of the current study is believed to provide ideas for the managers working in
high demanding jobs, who would need to hire dedicated employees to reach
organizational goals. Future research could also extend individual level variables to an
organizational level to replicate the validity of our findings in a broader perspective as
well.
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