The relationship between workaholism level and work-family conflict in occupational health and safety professionals

The main purpose of this thesis study is to examine the possible relationships between workaholism and work-family conflict in occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals. The sub-objective of the study is to determine the effects of some socio-demographic and business-related characteristics of OHS professionals on the main variables of the study. The sample of the study consists of 219 OHS professionals who are actively involved in different working environments affiliated with private or public institutions in Turkey. "Socio-demographic Information Form and Work Life Survey" developed by the researcher, "DUWAS Workaholism Scale" and "Work-Family Life Conflict Scale" were used in the data collection process of the study carried out through the "Survey Monkey Online Data Collection Platform". Relationships between the main variables of the study were examined with Spearman Correlation Analysis, and group comparisons were analyzed with t-test and one-way ANOVA or Mann-Whitney-U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. After the analysis, the family type of OHS professionals has a significant impact on family-work conflict; age has an impact on compulsive work behaviors; the presence of overtime/ overwork on overwork behaviors and work-family conflict; weekly working hours, excessive working hours and time allocated for social activities have an impact on work-family conflict; it was concluded that the existence of a current hobby has significant effects on both work-family conflict and family-work conflict. The study also found that as participants' overwork scores increased, work-family conflict (r = .50) and family-work conflict (r = .39); similarly, it was found that as compulsive work scores increased, work-family conflict (r = .42) and family-work conflict (r = .37) scores increased significantly. It is thought that the current results, which draw attention to the psycho-social aspect of workaholism in OHS professionals, may shed light on future research on this subject.