Abstract
The present study aimed to demonstrate the association of workaholism and work engagement with recovery experiences among Japanese workers. A web-based survey was conducted in October 2010 among registered monitors of a survey company (Macromill, Inc). A total of 13,564 Japanese workers, who were matched in age, gender and resident area to Japanese representative sample, were randomly invited to the survey including workaholism, work engagement, recovery experiences, job characteristics, and demographics. The first 2,520 respondents were analyzed in this study (1,257 men and 1,263 women: mean age 44.4, SD = 12.9). Structural Equation Modeling was conducted to examine the association between workaholism, work engagement, and recovery experiences. Results show that workaholism and work engagement were weakly and positively related to each other. In addition, workaholism was negatively related to all four subscales of recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control). In contrast, work engagement was positively related to three subscales of recovery experience (i.e., relaxation, mastery, and control). These findings suggest that workaholism may inhibit recovery experiences, whereas work engagement may enhance them. Although both workaholism and work engagement share the characteristic of spending much energy for one’s work, they are oppositely related to recovery experiences.
