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Book Announcement - The Long Work Hours Culture: Causes, Consequences and Choices
The Long Work Hours Culture: Causes, Consequences and Choices
Ronald J. Burke and Cary L. Cooper
ISBN13: 978-1-84855-038-4
Published: September 2008
Price: £45
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Table of contents
Reviews
The authors
Work hours has become a "hot topic". This book examines the effects of work hours on individual, family and organizational health. It considers why some people work long hours and the potential costs and benefits of this investment. Some work long hours out of necessity, others willingly. Interestingly, most people, however, want to work fewer hours than they now do. One's motives for working long hours (the why) and one's attitudes and behaviors while working (the how) emerge as critical factors in the link between work hours and well-being. Contributions from experts from six countries address workaholism, the distinction between passion and addiction to work, "loving one's job", the role of technology as an enabler of long work hours, consequences of fatigue from over-work, strategies for short-term recovery from long hours, and initiatives for enriching one's quality of life. Coming to grips with work hours requires difficult choices by individuals, families, organizations and society at large. This collection will be of value to managers and professionals concerned about people, and academics, students, researchers and policy makers interested in ways work can be meaningful and decent rather than debilitating.
Table of Contents
Preface: The Long Work Hours Culture: Should Individuals, Families and Organizations Care?
Ronald J. Burke
PART I CAUSES
- Work Hours, Work Intensity and Work Addiction: Costs and Benefits
Ronald J. Burke and Lisa Fiksenbaum - What Does it Mean to Love a Job? Ideas and Implications
Constance Noonan Hadley - Why Do People Overwork? Oversupply of Hours of Labor, Labor Market Forces and Adaptive Preferences
Lonnie Golden and Morris Altman - The Well-Springs of Workaholism: A Comparative Analysis of the Explanatory Theories
Lynley H. W. McMillan and Michael P. O’Driscoll
PART II CONSEQUENCES
- Work Effort and Worker Well-Being in the Age of Affluence
Francis Green - Working Time for Married Couples in 28 Countries
Carla Medalia and Jerry A. Jacobs - “I Have No Life Other Than Work” - Long Working Hours, Blurred Boundaries and Family Life: The Case of Irish Entrepreneurs
Anne Laure Humbert and Suzan Lewis - Police Long Work Hours: Causes, Consequences and Alternatives
Bryan Vila and Jason Moore - It Takes Two to Tango: Workaholism is Working Excessively and Working Compulsively
Wilmar B. Schaufeli, Toon W. Taris and Arnold B. Bakker - Work Motivations, Satisfactions and Health: Passion versus Addiction
Ronald J. Burke
PART III CHOICES
- Animal Farm, Baby Boom and Crackberry Addicts
Gayle Porter and Jamie L.Perry - Recovery After Work: Unwinding from Daily Job Stress
Carmen Binneweis and Sabine Sonnentag - Positive Psychology for Work-Life Balance: A New Approach in Treating Workaholism
Rebecca Burwell and Charles P. Chen
Reviews
"This is an outstanding book which includes all the most up-to date international research, theory and practice regarding the "hot topic" of the long work hours culture. The effects of long work hours and work addiction have been shown to be associated with lower levels of family functioning, lower levels of employee physical and psychological health and less effective job performance; as well as higher health care costs that are borne out by society at large. The chapters represent diverse, theoretical approaches and cover the causes, consequences and individual and organizational actions to reduce the negative effects of long working hours and work addiction. This excellent book will undoubtedly stimulate further research in this important area."
Professor Marilyn J. Davidson (Manchester School of Management)
“Ronald Burke and Cary Cooper have set the best minds to work on one of the major sources of mental and physical health problems in the modern world. We are working longer hours at an accelerated pace and making work an addiction. It used to be we could go to France and become immersed in a culture that took longer vacations and preferred a shorter work week. Now France is declaring the 35 hour work week more of a guideline than a necessity. As the 'long work hours culture' becomes more the norm of all nations, the need to understand our crazed addiction to work needs to be closely examined.”
David Boje (New Mexico State University)
“A growing body of evidence underlines the adverse effects of regular long working hours on human health, workplace safety, work and family reconciliation, and work-life balance. Such long working hours now affect not only low wage workers, but due to increasing workloads, they have become a fact of life for many managers and professional staff as well. This volume brings together a number of alternative perspectives from a diverse array of disciplines to shed light on the different factors which are driving excessive working hours, their effects, and what can be done to promote a healthier and more balanced approach to work in the 21st Century.”
Jon Messenger (Senior Research Officer, Conditions of Work and Employment Programme International Labour Office, Geneva)
The Authors
Ronald J. Burke is Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behaviour/Industrial Relations at Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada
Cary L. Cooper CBE is Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, and Pro Vice Chancellor for External Relations in Lancaster University, UK