„Workaholism“ does not always mean workaholism...? - about the controversial nomenclature in the research on work addiction

This article attempts to point out the main problem in research on workaholism, namely over-use of the term workaholism when describing symptoms or constructs which are not related to work addiction. Workaholism has one, negative pathological/dysfunctional form and can be differentiated from the healthy forms of over-engagement (e.g. work enthusiasm). Based on the analysis of one example of research results, this article explains that the nomenclature of „workaholic“ is not applicable to the case of over-engaged employees with healthy symptoms (e.g. high work involvement and work enjoyment and high or low satisfaction with life situation). The second aim of the article is to argue that the invalid conceptualisation and measurement of workaholism can result in conclusions which do not really regard work addiction.