Although prior studies have consistently shown that organizational identification can reduce employees' stress and burnout, little is known about the mediating processes that underlie this relationship. Against this backdrop and building on recent theoretical work on the social identity model of stress, the present research tests a two-step mediation model for the organizational identification–burnout link. Specifically, it is hypothesized that employees who strongly identify with their organization are particularly likely to receive social support from their colleagues. This, in turn, should promote a sense of collective efficacy and, as a consequence, negatively relate to burnout. Data from a study with 192 Italian high schoolteachers supported the hypotheses.

By drawing on effort-recovery theory, we conducted two studies to explore the short-term process through which workaholism may affect health and to assess the implications of such a process for job performance. In Study 1 we hypothesised that workaholic tendencies would affect daily workload and that daily workload would mediate the relationship between workaholic tendencies and daily emotional exhaustion. Data were provided by 102 workers consisting mostly of entrepreneurs, managers and self-employed individuals, who were followed for ten consecutive working days. Multilevel structural equation modelling, controlling for the general level of workload, neuroticism and conscientiousness, supported the hypotheses. Building on the results of Study 1, in Study 2 we hypothesised that workaholism would lead in the long run to a decline in job performance. Study 2 considered 519 employees of a large organisation and focused on their supervisors’ performance ratings in two successive years. Workaholism was used to predict change in work performance. Work engagement was included in the model as a concurrent predictor of work performance. Contrary to what was hypothesised, workaholism did not affect performance; only work engagement did so, and in a positive way. The implications of the obtained results for further research on workaholism are discussed.

Starting from the insights of social identity theory and social exchange theory, the present study aimed to understand how social support and organizational identification relate to work engagement. Moreover, it sought to verify if social support and organizational identification interact with each other to explain work engagement three months later. A longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of 150 employees, in which organizational identification, social support, and work engagement were measured through a questionnaire. The results show that when employees can count on their supervisors’ and colleagues’ support, they will be more engaged in their work. In addition, when an employee strongly identifies with their organization, the employee’s evaluation of the social support received from colleagues and supervisors becomes less critical in determining their work engagement. These results confirm our hypotheses and extend the findings of previous research on withdrawal behaviors. From a practical point of view, it seems important for organizations to invest in increasing identification, as well as in building a high-quality social exchange relationship, especially when levels of organizational identification are low or decreasing.

Workaholism and overcommitment are often used as interchangeable constructs describing an individual’s over-involvement toward their own job. Employees with high levels in both constructs are characterized by an excessive effort and attachment to their job, with the incapability to detach from it and negative consequences in terms of poor health and job burnout. However, few studies have simultaneously measured both constructs, and their relationships are still not clear. In this study, we try to disentangle workaholism and overcommitment by comparing them with theoretically related contextual and personal antecedents, as well as their health consequences. We conducted a nonprobability mixed mode research design on 133 employees from different organizations in Italy using both self- and other-reported measures. To test our hypothesis that workaholism and overcommitment are related yet different constructs, we used partial correlations and regression analyses. The results confirm that these two constructs are related to each other, but also outline that overcommitment (and not workaholism) is uniquely related to job burnout, so that overcommitment rather than workaholism could represent the true negative aspect of work drive. Additionally, workaholism is more related to conscientiousness than overcommitment, while overcommitment shows a stronger relationship with neuroticism than workaholism. The theoretical implications are discussed.

Recent research postulated that organizational identification plays an important role in employees’ health and well-being. Building on the Social Identity Approach as a framework, we test the so-ca...