Effects of workaholism on satisfaction among US managerial and professional women

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate relationships between workaholism and satisfaction outcomes with job, career and life overall among managerial and professional women and explore the moderating role of social support in these associations. Design/methodology/approach – Self-report measures collected online from 350 alumnae from top-ranked business schools currently in the US labor force were analyzed through hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Findings – Workaholism components explained significant amounts of variance in job, career and life satisfaction. Specifically, lower levels of work enjoyment were consistently associated with detrimental outcomes and high drive impacted both job and life satisfaction negatively. Social support moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and workaholism through work enjoyment, with women with greater social support demonstrating higher job satisfaction at equivalent work enjoyment levels versus those with low social support. Research limitations/implications – This paper shares methodological weaknesses involving the nature of the sample and self-report methods of measurement common to workaholism research. Practical implications – In the context of today’s competitive workplaces, results provide a cautionary message of the harmful effects of workaholic dispositions for a certain segment of professional women. It emphasizes the importance of work enjoyment and positive intrinsic motivation, while suggesting that job designs that reflect the work involvement predispositions of each woman can be beneficial. Originality/value – This paper extends the understanding of workaholism correlates to female MBA graduates from top management schools in the USA and investigates, for the first time, the role of social support in those relationships.