Job involvement, obsessive‐compulsive personality traits, and workaholic behavioral tendencies

Abstract

Naughton proposed that workaholism may result from a combination of high job involvement with an obsessive‐compulsive personality. This study was designed specifically to elaborate upon and to explore this proposal. Both obsessive‐compulsive personality and workaholism, however, seem to be multidimensional rather than unidimensional variables, and their multidimensional nature needed clarification before the study could proceed. Obsessive‐compulsive personality consisted of six distinct traits: obstinacy, orderliness, parsimony, perseverance, rigidity, and superego. Workaholism was operationalized as having two behavioral components: tendencies both to engage in non‐required work activities, and to intrude actively on the work of others. This study predicted specifically that high job involvement coupled with high scores on the obstinacy, orderliness, rigidity, and superego traits would lead to high scores on tendencies to engage in non‐required work. These four predictions received some support in data emerging from a sample of 278 employed persons, although support was strongest for the obstinacy and superego traits. These results add to understanding of the work attitude of job involvement given its associations with some obsessive‐compulsive traits, suggest the relevance of obsessive‐compulsive personality in non‐clinical settings, and add to understanding of the phenomenon of workaholism as behavioral tendencies.

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