Antecedents of Workaholism and Work Engagement: A Motivational Perspective in Research on Heavy Work Involvement

In this perspective article, we propose encompassing the motivational perspective to enrich future studies on two forms of heavy work involvement (HWI): workaholism and work engagement. Based on the holistic definition of motivation, we build a theoretical instrumentation that includes four motivational categories that are presented and characterized by relevant key terms: I. Activation and energy of action; II. Action orientation and action realization; III. Competencies and cognitive processes; IV. Work environment and the context of action. We use these categories in an analysis of the latest contemporary research which has investigated the motivational determinants of both workaholism and work engagement. Our analysis shows that studies in this perspective are in the initial stages; we propose examples of theories and models as well as important precise questions embedded in each I-IV motivation category that can stimulate future research directions. The concluding comments include three main recommendations for future research on HWI.