The beauty versus the beast: On the motives of engaged and workaholic employees

Abstract

This chapter focuses on two types of heavy work investment: work engagement and workaholism. A body of research has addressed the conceptualization and consequences of these concepts. M. Peiperl and B. Jones stated that workaholic employees are hard workers who fi nd their work enjoyable and get a lot out of it. Y. Baruch argued that not only is workaholism linked to high productivity, but also that workaholic employees may function as role models to other employees in competitive environments. The most infl uential scholars sharing this view have been Janet Spence and Ann Robbins, who proposed the so-calledworkaholic triad. Basically, they argue that workaholism should be conceived as a threedimensional concept, involving work involvement, drive, and work enjoyment. Interestingly, the description of the typical work enthusiast strongly resembles that of the work engaged employee.