Workaholism among Japanese blue-collar employees

A survey study was conducted in order to examine the hypothesis that workaholism may be a mode of adapting to a stressful work environment. A questionnaire was distributed to members of the Japan Federation of Automobile Workers' Unions in Japan. A total of 4,621 workers (4,083 men, 509 women, 29 unidentified) returned usable data (response rate = 71.9%). The results of a correlation analysis indicated that work overload-quantity and work overload-quality had significantly positive relations with Driven and little or no significant relations with Enjoyment of work. Blue-collar employees who work in highly structured and controlled environments were less likely to be workaholic than white-collar employees (in particular those in sales divisions). The results of ANOVA indicated that work overload had different effects on workaholism by age groups among blue-collar employees. It was found that work overload increased the degree of Driven and Enjoyment of work for those under 34 years old and it increased Driven and decreased Enjoyment of work for those over 35 years old.