The Unbearable Lightness of the Academic Work: The Positive and Negative Sides of Heavy Work Investment in a Sample of Italian University Professors and Researchers

Daniela Converso, Ilaria Sottimano, Giorgia Molinengo and Barbara Loera
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Daniela Converso: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, 10124 Turin, Italy
Ilaria Sottimano: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, 10124 Turin, Italy
Giorgia Molinengo: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, 10124 Turin, Italy
Barbara Loera: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Via Verdi 10, 10124 Turin, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Universities perform very demanding tasks within a workplace characterized by a critical psychosocial environment. Against this backdrop, the aim of this study is to extend the current literature on the job sustainability of faculty professors, examine the associations of certain job resources (meaningfulness of work, reward) and job demands (work overload, conflict among colleagues) with workaholism, burnout, engagement. A self-report questionnaire was administered within a public higher education institution in Italy to a sample constituted by 291 professors. The results of path analysis show that meaningfulness of work and reward positively correlate with work engagement, work satisfaction, and psychological wellbeing and ward off emotional exhaustion and intention to leave. Work overload correlates positively with workaholism, work-family conflict and intention to leave and negatively with job satisfaction. Finally, workaholism correlates with work engagement and mediates the relationship between work overload and work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and psychological discomfort. The study highlights that to support the work of academic workers and build healthy and sustainable universities, it is necessary to promote job resources and control job demands. Moreover, the study highlights that work engagement and workaholism can be respectively considered as the positive and negative sides of heavy work investment.

Keywords: academic work; psychology of sustainability; job engagement; workaholism; JD-R; path analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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