The Relationship Between ‘Workaholism’, Basic Needs Satisfaction at Work and Personality CECILIE SCHOU ANDREASSEN 1,2 * , JØRN HETLAND 1 and STA ˚ LE PALLESEN 1 1 The Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway 2 The Bergen Clinics Foundation, Norway Abstract The aim of this study was to examine correlates of ‘workaholism’ components (Work Involvement, Drive, Enjoyment of Work). A cross-occupational sample of 661 Norwegian employees in six different organizations completed a web-based survey measuring ‘workaholism’, basic needs satisfaction at work and personality. Needs satisfaction at work was positively related to Enjoyment of Work, and negatively to Drive. Conscientious- ness was positively related to all ‘workaholism’ components; Extraversion and Openness to Work Involvement and Enjoyment of Work; and Neuroticism to Drive. Negative relations were found between Neuroticism and Enjoyment of Work, and Agreeableness and Drive. Although the associations were rather weak, the findings give reason to differentiate between enthusiastic and non-enthusiastic ‘workaholic’ characteristics, which were consistent with predictions taken from central theories on ‘workaholism’. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: ‘workaholism’; Big Five; basic needs satisfaction at work; self-determina- tion theory INTRODUCTION As a concept, ‘workaholism’ stems from ‘alcoholism’, and was first introduced into the psychological literature as ‘addiction to work, the compulsion or uncontrollable need to work incessantly’ (Oates, 1971, p. 1). Since then, the term has become widely known and used (Andreassen, Ursin, & Eriksen, 2007). However, four decades later, there is still debate about the concept of ‘workaholism’ and little empirical knowledge has been amassed (Andreassen et al., 2007; Ng, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2007). Although various definitions of ‘workaholism’ have been proposed, it seems that the definition of Scott et al. is the most promising, defining a ‘workaholic’ as a person who (1) spends a considerable amount of time on work-related activities, producing negative consequences for social, European Journal of Personality Eur. J. Pers. 24: 3–17 (2010) Published online 28 August 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/per.737 *Correspondence to: Cecilie Schou Andreassen, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Christies gt 12, NO-5015 Bergen, Norway. E-mail: cecilie.andreassen@psych.uib.no Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 3 November 2008 Revised 27 June 2009 Accepted 27 June 2009