Moderating role of perceived work addiction of managers in the relationship between employees' perfectionism and work addiction : a trait activation theory perspective

Purpose Earlier authors suggested that a combination of different factors leads to the development of work addiction, hereby indicating that no single perspective is enough to fully understand this phenomenon. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the moderating role of perceived work addiction of managers in the relationship between employees' perfectionism and work addiction. Design/methodology/approach The present cross-sectional study was conducted on a convenience sample of 964 workers from different organizations in Lithuania. Data were collected by means of online self-administered questionnaires. To test the moderating effect, a covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) path analysis was performed. Findings At the level of bivariate correlations, both self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism showed positive links with employees' work addiction. However, in structural equation models only self-oriented perfectionism was related to higher levels of work addiction. Further, although the results of the study did not confirm the assumption about the moderating effect of perceived work addiction of managers on the relationship between employees' self-oriented perfectionism and work addiction, the results showed that a positive relationship between employees' socially prescribed perfectionism and work addiction was strongest when a manager was perceived to be highly addicted to work. Originality/value The study enriched understanding of the roots of work addiction by employing trait activation theory (Tett and Burnett, 2003) and explaining how both dispositional and contextual factors interacted in predicting this phenomenon.