Are workaholics born or made?
Toward a deeper understanding of the addictive nature of workaholism.
Greta Mazzetti, Università di Bologna (Italy), email: greta.mazzetti3@unibo.it
The current research project aims to provide further empirical support to the conceptualization of
workaholism as a true kind of addiction. To this purpose, the following objectives are envisioned: 1) to
investigate the role played by dispositional factors (a key antecedent of addiction theory) in the
development of workaholism; 2) to investigate the occurrence of denial (a key tenet of addiction theory)
among workaholic employees; 3) to investigate the impairment of interpersonal relationships (a key
outcome of addiction theory) as a consequence of workaholism. More particularly, three different studies
are planned: the first study is aimed to validate a self-report measure of overwork culture; the second
study is aimed to investigate the moderating role of overwork culture in the relationship between
dispositional factors (personality traits) and workaholism; and the third research is meant to triangulate
workers’, partners’ and colleagues’ perceptions concerning the level of workaholism exhibited by the focal
person and its consequences on interpersonal relationships.