Op zoek naar verschillen tussen werkverslaving en bevlogenheid

Employees may have different motives to work hard. Both in research and practice, the interest in work engagement, a particular form of intrinsic motivation to work hard, is increasing. However, at first glance work engagement does not seem very different from workaholism. In this research the authors want to confirm insights from the literature on workaholism and engagement as well as formulate new questions for future research. More specifically, in this research the authors investigate how workaholism and work engagement relate to each other. Are they different or mutually exclusive categories? And – when different categories – on what basis can they be distinguished from each other? On the basis of 23 interviews with engaged and workaholic employees, it is concluded that despite of the similarity of working hard – workaholism and work engagement also differ substantially from each other, for example with respect to work motivation, and identification with work and the ability to disengage from work. Another conclusion is that workaholism and work engagement may convert into one another and may even co-exist. In other words, although both constructs are conceptually different, they do not necessarily exclude each other.