Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Relationship between Workaholism and Negative Affect: Mindfulness Matters!

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Relationships among workaholism, mindfulness, and negative affect (NA) were examined. Data were collected, through Amazon Mechanical Turk, from 400 working adults in the USA. Workaholism was positively related to weekly hours worked and NA, and mindfulness was negatively related to NA. Additionally, workaholism and weekly hours worked were negatively related to mindfulness. Moreover, mindfulness moderated the relationship between workaholism and NA such that as levels of mindfulness increased, the influence of workaholism on NA decreased. Thus, mindfulness can be developed like a skill through meditation, and it may be established as an intervention for workaholism by reducing the compulsive behavior of workaholics and weakening the relationship with NA.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aziz, S., & Zickar, M. J. (2006). A cluster analysis investigation of workaholism as a syndrome. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11, 52–62.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aziz, S., Wuensch, K., & Brandon, H. (2010). A comparison among worker types using a composites approach and median splits. The Psychological Record, 60, 627–641.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aziz, S., Uhrich, B., Wuensch, K., & Swords, B. (2013). The workaholism analysis questionnaire: emphasizing work-life imbalance and addiction in the measurement of workaholism. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 14, 71–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aziz, S., Zamary, S., & Wuensch, K. (2018). The endless pursuit for self-validation through attainment: an examination of self-esteem in relation to workaholism. Personality and Individual Differences, 121, 74–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baer, R. A. (2011). Measuring mindfulness. Contemporary Buddhism, 12, 241–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Lykins, E., Button, D., Krietemeyer, J., Sauer, S., & Walsh, E. (2009). Construct validity of the five-facet mindfulness questionnaire in meditating and nonmeditating samples. Assessment, 15, 329–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A. B. (2011). An evidence-based model of work engagement. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 265–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnhofer, T., Duggan, D. S., & Griffith, J. W. (2011). Dispositional mindfulness moderates the relation between neuroticism and depressive symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 958–962.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Berinsky, A. J., Huber, G. A., & Lenz, G. S. (2012). Evaluating online labor markets for experimental research: Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Political Analysis, 20, 351–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, S., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N., Carmody, J., & Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: a proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11, 230–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonebright, C. A., Clay, D. L., & Ankenmann, R. D. (2000). The relationship of workaholism with work-life conflict, life satisfaction, and purpose in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 469–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bovornusvakool, W., Vodanovich, S. J., Ariyabuddhiphongs, K., & Ngamake, S. T. (2012). Examining the antecedents and consequences of workaholism. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 15, 56–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Branstrom, R., Duncan, L. G., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2011). The association between dispositional mindfulness, psychological well-being, and perceived health in a Swedish population-based sample. British Journal of Health Psychology, 16, 300–316.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brief, A. P., & Weiss, H. M. (2002). Organizational behavior: affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 279–307.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K., & Ryan, R. (2003). The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2017). Labor force statistics from the current population survey. Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat22.htm. Accessed 29 Sept 2017.

  • Burke, R. J. (2000). Workaholism in organizations: psychological and physical well-being consequences. Stress Medicine, 16, 11–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, R. J. (2009). Working to live or living to work: should individuals and organizations care? Journal of Business Ethics, 84, 167–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, R. J., & Matthiesen, S. (2004). Short communication: workaholism among Norwegian journalists: antecedents and consequences. Stress and Health, 20, 301–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caruana, E. J., Roman, M., Hernadez-Sanchez, J., & Solli, P. (2015). Longitudinal studies. Journal of Thoracic Disease, 7, E537–E540.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, R., Lo, B. C. Y., & Allen, N. B. (2008). The impact of intensive mindfulness training on attentional control, cognitive style, and affect. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 303–322.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan, D. (2008). So why ask me? Are self-report data really that bad? In C. E. Lance & R. J. Vandenberg (Eds.), Statistical and methodological myths and urban legends (pp. 309–336). New York: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, M. A., Michel, J. S., Zhdanova, L., Pui, S. Y., & Baltes, B. B. (2016). All work and no play? A meta-analytic examination of the correlates and outcomes of workaholism. Journal of Management, 42, 1836–1873.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway, J. M., & Lance, C. E. (2010). What reviewers should expect from authors regarding common method bias in organizational research. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25, 325–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giluk, T. L. (2009). Mindfulness, big five personality, and affect: a meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 805–811.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Highhouse, S., & Zhang, D. (2015). The new fruit fly for applied psychological research. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8, 179–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513–524.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hobfoll, S. E., & Shirom, A. (2000). Conservation of resources theory: applications to stress and management in the workplace. In R. T. Golembiewski (Ed.), Handbook of organization behavior (pp. 57–81). New York: Dekker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulsheger, U. R., Alberts, H. J. E. M., Feinholdt, A., & Lang, J. W. B. (2013). Benefits of mindfulness at work: the role of mindfulness in emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98, 310–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jislin-Goldberg, T., Tanay, G., & Bernstein, A. (2012). Mindfulness and positive affect: cross-sectional, prospective intervention, and real-time relations. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, 349–361.

    Google Scholar 

  • Key, B. L., Rowa, K., Bieling, P., McCabe, R., & Pawluk, E. J. (2017). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy as an augmentation treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 24, 1109–1120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiken, L. G., Garland, E. L., Bluth, K., Palsson, O. S., & Gaylord, S. A. (2015). From a state to a trait: trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness. Personality and Individual Differences, 81, 41–46.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Landers, R. N., & Behrend, T. S. (2015). An inconvenient truth: arbitrary distinctions between organizations, Mechanical Turk, and other convenience samples. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8, 142–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mesmer-Magnus, J., Manapragada, A., Viswesvaran, C., & Allen, J. W. (2017). Trait mindfulness at work: a meta-analysis of the personal and professional correlates of trait mindfulness. Human Performance, 30, 79–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michel, J. S., O’Neill, S. K., Hartman, P., & Lorys, A. (2018). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk as a viable source for organizational and occupational health research. Occupational Health Science, 2, 83–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ng, T. W. H., Sorensen, K. L., & Feldman, D. C. (2007). Dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of workaholism: a conceptual integration and extension. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28, 111–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paolacci, G., Chandler, J., & Ipeirotis, P. G. (2010). Running experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Judgement and Decision Making, 5, 411–419.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rand, D. G. (2011). The promise of Mechanical Turk: how online labor markets can help theorists run behavioral experiments. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 299, 172–179.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rau, H. K., & Williams, P. G. (2016). Dispositional mindfulness: a critical review of construct validation research. Personality and Individual Differences, 93, 32–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaufeli, W. B. (2016). Heavy work investment, personality, and organizational climate. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31, 1057–1073.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaufeli, W., Bakker, A., van der Heijden, F., & Prins, J. (2009). Workaholism among medical residents: it is the combination of working excessively and compulsively that counts. International Journal of Stress Management, 16, 249–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, K. S., Moore, K. S., & Miceli, M. P. (1997). An exploration of the meaning and consequences of workaholism. Human Relations, 50, 287–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimazu, A., Schaufeli, W. B., Kamiyama, K., & Kawakami, N. (2015). Workaholism vs. work engagement: the two different predictors of future well-being and performance. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 22, 18–23.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shonin, E., Van Gordon, W., Dunn, T. J., Singh, N. N., & Griffiths, M. D. (2014). Meditation awareness training (MAT) for work-related wellbeing and job performance: a randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 12, 806–823.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoeber, J., Schneider, N., Hussain, R., & Matthews, K. (2014). Perfectionism and negative affect after repeated failure: anxiety, depression, and anger. Journal of Individual Differences, 35, 87–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taris, T. W., Schaufeli, W. B., & Verhoeven, L. C. (2005). Workaholism in the Netherlands: measurement and implications for job strain and work-nonwork conflict. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 54, 37–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomlinson, E., Yousaf, O., Vitterso, A., & Jones, L. (2017). Dispositional mindfulness and psychological health: a systematic review. Mindfulness, 9, 23–43.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Van Gordon, W., Shonin, E., Dunn, T. J., Garcia-Campayo, J., Demarzo, M. M. P., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Meditation awareness training for the treatment of workaholism: a controlled trial. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6, 212–220.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, G., Liu, L., Tan, X., & Zheng, W. (2017). The moderating effect of dispositional mindfulness on the relationship between materialism and mental health. Personality and Individual Differences, 107, 131–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1989). Health complaints, stress, and distress: exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review, 96, 234–254.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wolever, R. Q., Bobinet, K. J., McCabe, K., Mackenzie, E. R., Fekete, E., Kusnick, C. A., & Baime, M. (2012). Effective and viable mind-body stress reduction in the workplace: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17, 246–258.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, East Carolina University, Mail Stop 565, Greenville, NC, 27858-4353, USA

    Shahnaz Aziz, Gerald Bellows & Karl Wuensch

Authors
  1. Shahnaz Aziz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gerald Bellows
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Karl Wuensch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shahnaz Aziz.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Aziz, S., Bellows, G. & Wuensch, K. The Relationship between Workaholism and Negative Affect: Mindfulness Matters!. Int J Ment Health Addiction 19, 1605–1614 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00249-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00249-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation