All Work and No Play? A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Correlates and Outcomes of Workaholism
verifiedmedium profile · Journal of Management · 2016
Clark, Malissa A.; Michel, Jesse S.; Zhdanova, Ludmila; Pui, Shuang Y.; Baltes, Boris B.
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
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Models this article informs
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In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Empirical research on workaholism has been hampered by a lack of consensus regarding the definition and appropriate measurement of the construct. In the present study, we first review prior conceptualizations of workaholism in an effort to identify a definition of workaholism. Then, we conduct a meta-analysis of the correlates and outcomes of workaholism to clarify its nomological network. Results indicate that workaholism is related to achievement-oriented personality traits (i.e., perfectionism, Type A personality), but is generally unrelated to many other dispositional (e.g., conscientiousness, self-esteem, positive affect) and demographic (e.g., gender, parental status, marital status) variables. Findings are mixed regarding the relationship between workaholism and affectively laden variables, which speaks to the complex nature of workaholism. Results also show that workaholism is related to many negative outcomes, such as burnout, job stress, work–life conflict, and decreased physical and mental health. Overall, results provide solid evidence that workaholism is best conceptualized as an addiction to work that leads to many negative individual, interpersonal, and organizational outcomes.
What the literature says about it
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supports “…addictive behaviour and burnout has been revealed in different contexts, for example, in alcoholism [10], social media addiction [86], or workaholism [87], however, in some cases, the strength of the association varies more strongly across studies, for example, in the case of substance use [88].”
supports “Clark et al. (2016) discovered a positive correlation between workaholic tendencies and entrepreneurial activity, highlighting the adverse effects of workaholism, such as burnout and decreased work-life balance.”
supports “Workaholism is also known to be a burnout risk factor (Clark et al., 2016).”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1186/s12889-024-19797-9
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1503580
- 10.1080/02678373.2026.2618069
- 10.1080/00223891.2023.2276268
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.